I think the Talladega Nights “Christmas Jesus/Easter Jesus” distinction is one of the best bits of cultural criticism of the century.

The point being that American pop-Christianity is, like country music, largely about finding meaning in unremarkable lives by valorizing common life milestones.

Americans find it intuitive to celebrate the birth of a child, seeing it as a pathway to salvation, identifying with the caring or cared-for innocent; the fact that Christianity traditionally also celebrates painful death and torture as a hated outcast is elided