The Alleged War on Christmas and Other Such Bullshit

[knight_of_the_star]

Ok, this all gets kicked off by something I saw on tv at work last night.

For those who don't know, I work in a bar in Southern California outside San Diego. The bar manager, when he's there, always, without fail, puts the channel on Faux News. Last night they were on I think From the Heartland or something similarly Rovian and had two people on going off about the new slasher flick Black Christmas. Now personally I could care less for the new remakes of the 70s and 80s classics, so far the only one that's done a good job to my liking was The Hills Have Eyes, but that's a different discussion. What the "investigative journalist" blonde bimbo was flipping out about was that it's "a sign there is an anti-Christian bias in the media and in this country." That hit a vein that I couldn't exercise at work, so I'll let it go now.

Every single fucking time I hear about a War on Christmas or Christian persecution or other such nonesense it seriously makes me want to scream. These people are whining and moaning about greeters at Wal-Mart or other places like that saying, "Happy Holidays," instead of "Merry Christmas." They go nuts over Nativity displays not being allowed on public property, as is declared in the law and settled case law. They blow gaskets over Ten Commandments monuments not being allowed, alone, in the rotunda of a State Supreme Court House. They freak out when the law says it's illegal for them to incite hate against gays, pagans, and other groups they don't like. And every single time, without fail, they cry, "PERSECUTION!"

Last time I checked, there aren't Christian weddings being disrupted by park rangers, Christian teenagers hanging themselves because they can't take the religious harrasment by their peers anymore, Christians losing their jobs when their bosses discover what they really believe, Christian stores being invaded by members of another religion and preaching in their faces while they conduct services and then the local police doing nothing because one of the participants is a department chaplain, Christians being accused of drinking blood and sacrificing animals in newspapers and the authors of said articles not being fired or reprimanded for printing something so untrue, being Christian isn't treated like a mental illness, Christians being openly harrassed for trying to worship as they choose within UCMJ regulations on a military base, Christians being blamed for 9/11. Last time I checked, all of the above has happened to and happens to PAGANS on a regular basis.

Those so-called Christians can whine and scream about persecution all they want to, but until they have experienced even a TENTH of what I listed above as a regular occurence, their whining and moaning is like a five year-old bitching to their mommy that they have to share the toys they got for Christmas. It's like a kid bitching that their younger step-brother got a half a set of dirty socks for Christmas when they got a PS3.

So until they start feeding Christians to the lions again, those sanctimonious stuck-up bastards can go fuck themselves sideways with a rusty lathe lubricated with battery acid because they have NO room to complain whatsoever.

[ClassWarrior]

1. Did you see the email from the ACLU this week?

The ACLU and the So-Called "War on Christmas"

By Jeremy Gunn, Director, Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief

A few years ago, a group called Public Advocate for the United States (which claims to defend America’s traditional family values) sent some Christmas carolers over to sing in front of the ACLU offices in Washington. Carrying signs reading “Merry Christmas” and “Please Don’t Sue Us!”—they also seemed to carry with them some rather strange imaginings about an assault on Christmas. I don’t know what the carolers thought might happen.

To tell the truth, the ACLU is not often serenaded by Christmas carolers. More likely, we realize the holiday season has arrived when we start to receive angry phone calls, emails and cards accusing us of trying to destroy Christmas. So it was with some excitement that the staff went outside and joined in the singing. They brought with them cookies and warm drinks to share. One staff member, who is an ordained Baptist minister, did a little witnessing about his faith to some astonished proponents of family values.

This is just one example of how some groups have used a mythical “war on Christmas” to demonize the ACLU, crush religious diversity, and make a few bucks in the process. Not only do they claim that there is a “war on Christmas,” they insist that the ACLU is leading the battle cry. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.

The ACLU supports the rights of Christians and all religious people to celebrate their holidays in public spaces. What we do oppose is government action that promotes or endorses particular religions or religion over non-religion. Our views are dictated by the Constitution of the United States and are motivated by our commitment to religious liberty for all Americans.

The ACLU works to ensure that people remain free to choose which religious beliefs (or none) they wish to express and that governments, school boards, and legislatures do not become involved in deciding which religious beliefs should be promoted or in spending taxpayer dollars to support religious activities and symbols. We remain fully engaged in defending a broad range of constitutional rights, including rights related to freedom of religion and belief. It is sometimes wrongly imagined that the ACLU does not vigorously protect rights of freedom of religion, particularly of Christians.

What the people who attack the ACLU don’t understand is that our real strength is sticking to fundamental principles—we know that for true religious liberty to flourish, everyone must be free to practice their religion free from government interference. Thank you for everything you do, and have a peaceful holiday season!

NGU.

[tinfoil tiaras]

2. I'm Christian, but i know that Christians are definitely NOT "persecuted"

in this country. Maybe (or probably) Christians are persecuted in Iran or Saudi Arabia or some other country in the Middle East, but definitely not in America. I think it's ridiculous too, to get so riled up about "Happy Holidays" vs. "Merry X-mas" or even about the expression X-mas itself (no, it's not X-ing the "Christ" out of Christmas--X stands for "chi" the Greek letter that begins the word "Christ". The early Christians had to use that because they were actually getting persecuted by the Romans).

We as Christians should have better things to do than bitch about someone not saying "Merry Christmas" to us....um, like helping the poor. Something Jesus told us to do. I don't recall Jesus ever saying "Thou shalt bring wrath onto the person who wishes you a happy holiday" :eyes:

[knight_of_the_star]

3. Thank you

Good to know I'm not alone in feeling this way.

[Az]

4. Its really the War on Tolerance

Ya see liberal/progressive ideas have won out in major ways over the past 50 years. I know it doesn't feel like it sometimes but really.... we have come a long way. The problem is that not everyone in the society moves forward at the same pace. So there are still people that cling to outmoded mindsets concerning tolerance and exactly what should be tolerated.

See society doesn't progress in a uniform lockstep fashion. Progress happens (ie we figure things out) and gradually it perculates through the society. But there are always pockets that resist or reject such ideas. Sometimes these pockets hit a sort of critical mass and backlash against the progress.

Thats whats going on now. Our culture war is the result of decades of progress pushing rigid beliefs and values up against a wall. They have two choices. Give in (ie change) or fight (don't change). It really is a life and death struggle in their eyes. And it is the stuff fueling the NeoCons and their particular fear of social change.

So yeah. Its the War on Tolerance. They don't want to be tolerant any more. They want to dismiss anyone thats not just like them. Problem with that of course is that in the end no one is just like anyone else and eventually you find that intolerance comes back to get you in the end.

[treestar]

5. I was just at Mass light night, and no government agent did any

act of harassment.

IA, I just want to scream when the righties equate not having their religion dominate with "persecution."

"Happy Holidays" is just a way of trying to include all, and they take it as "persecution?" What a joke!

[Batgirl]

6. Last week at the company Christmas luncheon

as things were winding down and people were heading for the exits, a woman came up to the group I was with. Not a staff member, none of us knew who she was or her association with the company, but no matter. She walked up to us with a strangely intent look on her face, an expression that I've seen before when someone is about to make an Important Statement. She then recited a couple of paragraphs that were clearly a memorized routine that she likely trots out many times during the month of December, that went something like:

"All right, I'm just going to come right out and say it. I'm not going to beat around the bush, I'm just going to say -- MERRY CHRISTMAS. There, I said it! I guess I'm just not one of these politically correct people. You know, these people who say "Happy Holdays" or some other nonsense. It's not just a holiday -- it's CHRISTMAS! And I'd like to see someone stop ME from saying MERRY CHRISTMAS! There, I said it again! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!"

Followed by a couple of Jesus-is-the-reason-for-the-season platitudes, offered in a manner indicating she had arrived at these profundities only after weeks of meditation and fasting high atop a desolate mountain range.

This was at a CHRISTMAS lunch, a few feet from a CHRISTMAS tree and other CHRISTMAS decorations, and amidst a group of people who had been discussing the CHRISTMAS gift exchange. There was a moment of awkward silence because I guess no one knew how to respond. Obviously we were supposed to pat her on the back and thank her for keeping Christ in Christmas. Obviously she viewed herself as a sassy, loose cannon of rebellion against the evil secularists.

If not for people like her, Bill O'Reilly would be a junior high school assistant principal in Michigan's Thumb. At least until he got fired for sexual harrassment of the lunch ladies.

[Warpy]

7. I'm a (whatver).

You know that we live here too. Happy holidays.

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. Michigan's Thumb would likely flick O'Reilly into Lake Huron....

Just so long as he didnt reach the Canadian shore. They would probably kick him onto Lake Superior. Nice and large and DEEP!

[Batgirl]

9. I'd settle for Lake Huron nt

[tinfoil tiaras]

10. WTF

I would have just been like, "Okay, great. Yay for Christmas. Now go away." :crazy:

[Batgirl]

11. It would have been unusually cruel to point out

that we were in a room full of people wishing each other some form of "Merry Christmas".

She seemed to cherish the idea that she was swimming against the tide. We were therefore mostly embarrassed for her and some of us hid our giggling by pretending to sip from our plastic cups of soda.

[tinfoil tiaras]

12. Oh my god...

"I'm an AFA warrior rebel! wooohoo!! Anti-establishment!!" :rofl: :crazy:

[kineneb]

13. like, happy holidays from one of DU's Buddhists!

The fundie types seem to have forgotten that there were and are other holidays during December: Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, New Year's Eve, Saturnalia, Natalis Solis Invicti, Beethoven's birthday, and for Buddhists- Bodhi Day (Dec. 8), commemorating the enlightenment of the Buddha. So the "Christians" do not have a monopoly on holidays in December.

So: Happy Holidays, whatever one you celebrate!
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, enjoy the return of the sun!