Mike Huckabee told a crowd of Baptists that Christians need to be firm when dealing with atheists, fags, and baby killing presidents-elect:

Christians need to be "very firm" but not angry in addressing issues like the recent flap in Washington state, where atheists have placed a sign in the rotunda of the state capitol denigrating religion, former presidential Mike Huckabee told the Florida Baptist Witness in an interview Dec. 7.

"It's not a matter of turning the other cheek," Huckabee said. "Atheists resent that there's a holiday that Christians can celebrate." ... Huckabee suggested that atheists who criticize the celebration of Christmas work on Dec. 25 and then choose another day for their holiday—perhaps April 1, he joked.

That's funny—because this atheist is blogging from his living room, with a Christmas tree in front of him and a creche behind him. Do atheists really criticize the celebration of Christmas? None that I know. Some have a problem with the state promoting religious belief or practices, or favoring one religion over another, or showing favoritism to one religion, or displaying religious imagery on public property. But a problem with Christmas? P'shaw. In 2006 the New York Times interviewed superstar atheists Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins about their holiday plans—and guess what? Both men celebrate Christmas.

“It seems to me to be obvious that everything we value in Christmas—giving gifts, celebrating the holiday with our families, enjoying all of the kitsch that comes along with it—all of that has been entirely appropriated by the secular world,” [Harris] said, “in the same way that Thanksgiving and Halloween have been.”

...

“[Christmas," said Dawkins,] has long since ceased to be a religious festival. I participate for family reasons, with a reluctance that owes more to aesthetics than atheistics. I detest Jingle Bells, White Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and the obscene spending bonanza that nowadays seems to occupy not just December, but November and much of October, too.”

Dawkins added: “So divorced has Christmas become from religion that I find no necessity to bother with euphemisms such as happy holiday season. In the same way as many of my friends call themselves Jewish atheists, I acknowledge that I come from Christian cultural roots. I am a post-Christian atheist. So, understanding full well that the phrase retains zero religious significance, I unhesitatingly wish everyone a Merry Christmas.”

Atheists celebrating Christmas—it should warm Huckabee's heart. As should the ability of post-Christian atheists to take enjoyment—in a secular and hedonistic sense—from the Christmas holiday. I mean, it's evidence of Christianity's cultural triumph, right? But Huckabee won't take the compliment, of course, not so long as there's a political benefit to stoking the paranoia and delusions of oppression that characterize the GOP's evangelical base. Back to Mike:

"We shouldn't be angry, but we should be also very firm in saying that we are a nation that not only allows, but actually encourages people of faith to express themselves," Huckabee said. Citing foot baths provided for Muslims at the University of Michigan, he said accommodation are made for people of "every faith except Christians."

"It's perfectly legitimate in our culture today to engage in outright persecution against Christians with seemingly no social penalty for doing it."

Yeah—remember how the gays organized to strip Christians of their right to marry? That was crazy, man. Why couldn't we just live and let live? Why do we feel a need to engage in outright persecution like that? And is it any wonder that Christians are upset right now, what with Barack Obama asking a militant atheist to give an entirely secular invocation at his inauguration. That had to sting.

Huckabee tells the Baptists that he hasn't decided if he's going to run again in 2012, but he says he'll make up his mind by 2010. He also says that civil unions are "prelude" to same-sex marriage, that Obama is pro-infanticide (to a crowd that thinks it's okey-dokey to shoot abortion doctors, btw), and that Sarah Palin is a "wonderful person." You can almost hear his teeth grinding when he's talking about Palin...