Washington state is ground zero for this year’s war after the government allowed a nativity scene on the Capitol grounds. The overtly Christian display led some atheists to request that their own sign be permitted, and the government relented. Then a Festivus fan wanted the traditional pole placed at the Capitol. But when Fred Phelps wanted to install a sign saying that Santa is a child molester who sends people to hell, Gov. Chris Gregoire said enough is enough and declared a moratorium on new religious (and areligious) displays until the matter could be reviewed.

When Chuck Norris heard of the flap, the actor planted his roundhouse kick firmly on the atheists he blames for starting the mess in the first place.

“Atheists from England to the West Coast of America are stepping up their efforts this year to make a bigger antagonistic splash on the Christmas scene,” said Chuck. “I am a patriot, and I believe that atheists are free to believe, speak and post whatever they want. This is America, and that’s their First Amendment right. But to do so with harassment and hatred under the guise of free speech is despicable. An anti-religious poster filled with spite is in no way equal to a religious symbol, such as a Nativity scene. Where are the political correctness police when religious followers are the victims?”

And while Chuck might believe in free speech, Gretchen Carlson, former Minnesota beauty queen and current Fox News “War on Christmas” correspondent, says not so much: “I’m all for free speech and free rights, just not on December 25th.”

Perpetually outraged William Donahue of the Catholic League weighed in: It’s the gay marriage supporters who are to blame.

“The root cause of the war on Christmas, which is conducted almost exclusively by well-educated white people in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia — the very same people who like gay marriage — has almost nothing to do with fidelity to law (the First Amendment in the U.S.): it has to do with ideology. The ideology is plainly an expression of left-wing secularism, and it is nothing if not anti-Western and anti-Christian. At its worst, it is driven by hatred; at its best, it is driven by a defensive posture, a deep sense of embarrassment over the legacy of Western civilization. There is no historical or moral justification for either. Moreover, those who are pushing this agenda generally lie about their work.”

Despite fingering white, educated seculars, Donahue in his next breath plays the Muslim card. “[T]his hatred of Christmas is not exclusive to the U.S. In England, Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary called Christmas ‘evil’ in a recent sermon.”

Choudary did warn Muslims not to celebrate Christmas. “Every Muslim has a responsibility to protect his family from the misguidance of Christmas, because its observance will lead to hellfire. Protect your Paradise from being taken away – protect yourself and your family from Christmas,” he said.

While Donahue and Norris impart the wisdom of the founding fathers on Christmas, they missed an important part of history. The religious folk who began the American dream said roughly the same thing as the Muslim professor: Celebrating Christmas is the road to hell.

“The generality of Christmas-keepers observe that festival after such a manner as is highly dishonourable to the name of Christ,” said the Rev. Increase Mather in 1687. “How few are there comparatively that spend those holidays (as they are called) after an holy manner. But they are consumed in Compotations, in Interludes, in playing at Cards, in Revellings, in excess of Wine, in mad Mirth…”

In fact, conservative Christians banned Christmas in Massachusetts — the state that gave us gay marriage — until 1855.

Who will win the “War on Christmas”? If playing the Nazi card is an indication of having lost the debate, then the Minnesota Family Council may have put it out of play for the religious right.

“Some insist that singing a Christmas carol in a public school is a state endorsement of religion,” writes Family Council Communications Director Chuck Darrell. “Would the same people insist that reading Mien Kampf in social studies is a state endorsement of National Socialism (Nazis) as well? So tell me, what’s the difference?”

The signers of the ad, a cadre of religious-right figures calling themselves No Mob Veto, said, “beginning today, we commit ourselves to opposing and publicly shaming anyone who resorts to the rhetoric of anti-religious bigotry.”

Sporadic skirmishes have arisen since the passage of Proposition 8, a California initiative that rescinded the right for same-sex couples to marry in that state. Someone sent an envelope containing white powder to Mormon temples in California and Utah recently — owing to the church’s investment in supporting the measure — and a school board member punched and kicked a gay man in Bakersfield, Calif., during a Prop 8 protest in October.

And the ad has touched off another round of heated rhetoric by both sides.

“Several signatories to the ad are generals in the culture wars,” said Rev. Susan Russell of All Saints [Epsicopal] Church in Pasadena, Calif. Russell works on religious issues with the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), an LGBT group that opposed Prop 8.

“They lied about gay people in the campaign, and now they are lying again when they say we are in favor of mob intimidation and violence,” she said.

The No Mob Veto ad vows to shame anyone who resorts to anti-religious bigotry — and the ad’s signers know something about anti-religious bigotry: Many have engaged in it themselves.

Click to view the ad in a new window.

“Mormonism either affirms historic Christianity, or it doesn’t. Since it doesn’t, it can’t call itself Christianity — a fact that all the good will and public relations in Utah can’t change,” wrote Chuck Colson, a central Watergate figure who, after being “born again” as a Christian, started the Prison Fellowship Ministries.

Colson is a signer of the No Mob Vote ad. He also told The Washington Monthly in 2005, “While Mormons share some beliefs with Christians, they are not Christians.”

On Muslims, Colson told ABCNews in 2007, “Islam is a vicious evil.”

Meanwhile, National Association of Evangelicals lobbyist Rich Cizik, another signer of the ad, spoke for the majority of evangelicals on Mitt Romney’s chances as a Mormon presidential candidate. “Most evangelicals still regard Mormonism as a cult,” he told Washington Monthly in 2005. “That will shape, I’d imagine, their reactions to Romney as a candidate for the White House.”

Signer William Donahue of the Catholic League also has a laundry list of controversial statements to his credit.

“Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular. It’s not a secret, OK? And I’m not afraid to say it,” he told MSNBC when asked about opposition to Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. “That’s why they hate this movie. It’s about Jesus Christ, and it’s about truth. It’s about the Messiah.”

Donahue also went after President Bush in 2005 for allowing the White House to hand out holiday cards that didn’t specifically reference Christmas. “The Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and … they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture,” he said, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

He has also gone after Sen. Charles Schumer, folk singer Joan Osborne for her God-inspired song “One of Us,” ABC drama Nothing Sacred, indie filmmaker Kevin Smith, alt-rocker Marilyn Manson, the fantasy film The Golden Compass, conservative radio host Michael Savage, comedian Kathy Griffin, CBS’ prime-time series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigations” and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.

Donahue blamed gays for the sexual abuse scandals plaguing the Catholic Church. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said in 2005, “Since 2002, Donahue has continued to opportunistically exploit the crisis in the Catholic Church to link adult homosexuality (and gay people in general) with child sexual abuse — ignoring the fact that such abuse of power is not reflective of any healthy adult sexual orientation — gay or straight.”

Not all religious leaders agree with the latest religious tactic to paint themselves as persecuted.

Bishop John Selders of Amistad United Church of Christ in Hartford, Conn., commented in an HRC press release Monday, “As an African-American, I’ve heard this before. A few frustrated members of a minority group respond in anger to a new indignity and the oppressor calls them anarchists,” he said.

“Satan, sometimes called the Father of Lies, is at work when powerful people seek to dehumanize those who are less powerful.”

Rev. Russell agreed. “Many of the leaders cited in this ad preach hate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, then look the other way when LGBT people are the victims of hate crimes,” she said. “This ad is an act of individual and corporate hypocrisy.”