Fresh off its apparent victory to put the “Christmas” back into Dick’s, the not at all crazy people at the American Family Association have re-focused their laser beams on JPMorgan Chase. Not because it’s a big bank who was recently sued for its alleged part in the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, but because they don’t want Christmas trees in the lobby.

The AFA claims that all Chase branches have been given company-approved holiday decorations and ordered to remove any other holiday decor.

According to an AFA press release, internal Chase documents state that “We don’t want to lose somebody’s business because of seasonal decorations,” and that they want to “ensure that everyone who visits our branches is made to feel completely welcome and comfortable.”

Perfectly sane AFA president Tim Wildmon says:

This is an absurd policy… The most welcoming, inclusive thing you can do this time of year is wish people a merry Christmas.

In fact, Chase’s policy will actually be offensive to many people who bank there. When customers find out that Chase is deliberating disregarding Christmas, they may just be inclined to take their banking business to a Christmas-friendly institution. Christmas is a holiday we’ve set aside as a nation to honor the birth of Christ because of his impact on American and world history. It’s just bad business for any company to show this kind of disregard for our Judeo-Christian heritage.

Yes, because the first thing Christians should be concerned about when celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ (who was a huge fan of bankers, if I remember my catechism correctly) is interest-earning checking accounts and 3-month CDs.

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