Grrr!
The so-called Christian right’s belligerence in trying to force everybody to SAY “Christmas” (as in “Merry Christmas”- as against “Happy Holidays”) is so offensive and irrational that it almost leaves me speechless.
Almost, but not quite.
This is a CLASSIC case of straining a gnat out of the soup and not noticing the camel standing in it! The gnat is the word “Christ” – or the word “holidays”. The camel is the arrogant self-righteousness and lovelessness – the hate. It does turn out to be hate, you know. It’s a classic case of total, deeply rooted, blinding hypocrisy!
“Love your neighbor as yourself”
BUT ONLY IF
- they pretend to be Christian
- they pretend to be YOUR KIND of Christian, with your favored obsessions
- they pretend, along with you, that rudeness to non-Christian neighbors is a Christian virtue
- they pretend, along with you, that the Constitution and the Founders were eager to enforce a particular faith, or a particular sectarian aspect of that faith.
What’s wrong with wishing that everyone I meet have a truly happy holiday season – and expressing that wish in speech and in writing? There’s nothing wrong with that! But there’s a lot wrong with making it another shallow, artificial, and brutal dividing line between righteous “us” and evil “them”.
I know, lots of “good people” have jumped or fallen onto this bandwagon without thinking about how superficial and dishonest it is. But it’s still baloney, no matter how thin you slice it.
Sadly, there is another reason behind this, besides just shallowness and lovelessness. This is a deliberate sowing of anger and self-righteousness serving the political agenda of the sowers – Dobson, O’Reilly, and others. I’m sorry, but that is what is really going on.
But even those who can’t see the manipulation in it all should be able to discern the moral corruption in it, and then opt out of this sham battle.
Happy Holidays Everyone!!
Update Dec 16,2005
This is a far cry from good poetry! My apologies.
But it does show that rightist belligerence and arrogance on this “Christmas War” thing is perhaps fairly commonly felt. This came to me compliments of the Baptist Center for Ethics. The author is communications specialist for the Baptist General Convention of Missouri .
‘Twas The Fight Over Christmas’
By BRIAN KAYLOR
…I saw their faces that with anger did seethe,
And I guessed there could not be much joy beneath;
I ran back inside as they continued yelling,
To find the One who meant more than all the selling.I searched and searched but He was not in the mall,
But I did find a “God loves you” bouncy ball;
Jesus perfume and a Jesus bobble-head,
…Through buying is not how salvation does work,
So why fight for wording and look like a jerk?
…If we tell of His birth, who cares what stores say?
The message is our job, so focused let’s stay;
At stores you will only receive religion-lite,
Thus “Holidays” is fine, so please stop the dumb fight!
“Jesus bobble-head”!!??
Visits: 100
The irony of the “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” flap, is that the “Merry Christmas” folks
are the spitual, if not lineal, descendants of the Puritans, who thought that Christmas was a
“Popish” invention, and did not observe it. If my memory serves me well, the first Christmas in
America was “celebrated” by the Pilgrims as a fast day. Whenever I hear about the christianist
right actions, I think “What other ‘good’ works must one do to be saved?” They don’t seem ro
understand what the Reformation was all about! GLAD YULE!
Soli Deo Gloria!
oops, by PC i don’t mean PublicChristian, i meant politically correct. and by ‘are we catholic?’, i should have said ‘are we *all* catholic, including the unbelievers?’. forgot that some of us are, my bad.
and i’m pretty sure this flavor of conservatism is what Jesus called “making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down.” (Mark 7:13) already covered that one. tradition outweighs teachings of Christ, “love of many grows cold”, tempers flare, devil laughs.
Nobody’s forcing everyone to do everything. Some Christians act like they would if they definitely could. The attitude is, whether the action is. So-and-so says, “Merry Christmas to all, and I mean it”. I know he’s using his 5 seconds to protest the neutralization, but there’s this fine line between representing and imposing… and the loudest people are seemingly way over to the one side, cheering themselves on. What they don’t know is that the PC crowd is on the same side according to the most important criteria… being this: who actually cares what Jesus thinks? and for that matter, is He anywhere near as offended as they imagine?
Hypocrisy is fighting about a word unbelievers can’t use correctly in the first place— in between Christmas Shopping runs. maybe Jesus would prefer holiday shopping, or unholiday shopping, or Commercialmas Shopping. That’s funny… did it occur to anyone that the -mas comes from the word mass? Are we Catholic? Let the shoppers and the holidays have each other, and let Christ have His own.
PC: … Christian right’s belligerence in trying to force everybody to SAY “Christmasâ€? …
That’s a mis-characterization. It’s about preserving the right for Christians to say “Christmas” in the public arena, not forcing everyone to say it. (Prove me wrong by citing a non-fringe figure that clearly articulates it the way you describe.)
This isn’t a big issue for me, but it’s a good example of one of your typical distortions, followed by endless omniscient reading of others’ hearts (“belligerence…arrogant self-righteousness and lovelessness…hate… ‘evil’ them… anger”).
PC: “Love your neighbor as yourself” BUT ONLY IF … they pretend to be YOUR KIND of Christian, with your favored obsessions…
Consider your own words.
exactly. i think there’s nothing left to say… except maybe to give examples of people whose attitudes are revealed by such a petty waste of breath. i can leave it out, we all know what they sound like… i’m just going to tell people the same as with stem cell debates, that they’ve let someone else pick their battles. again. stupidly.
at the same time this whole silly thing reveals (thru others) a flaw in my usual approach. i reflect, i get frustrated, i want to “write it on a baseball bat and go off swinging” but i resist doing that. or do i?
“I learned to bite the hand that used to pull my chain…” Alice Cooper