What I sent the American Family Association...

[cynatnite]

When I say 'Happy Holidays' it's not because there is some conspiracy to destroy Christmas. The retailers have gone to great length to make sure that doesn't happen with their pushing that holiday prior to Halloween.

But when I read you're using over half a million bucks for buttons to encourage people to say 'Merry Christmas' I was dumbfounded.

Jesus preached caring for the sick and the poor. He preached spreading love and peace.

If you truly believed that, you would take this money and use it for those who need it the most. The hungry, the impoverished and other unfortunates that Jesus went out of his way to show they had value and God loved them.

You would have been the money changers Jesus would have thrown out of his house of worship.

I got pissed after reading this:

The "War on Christmas" has never been so profitable.

For the fourth year running, conservative Christian groups have spent much of December mobilizing against what they see as a liberal plot to censor Christmas.

But this year, it's more than a cause. It's a heck of a fundraiser.

The American Family Assn., a conservative activist group, has rung up more than $550,000 in sales of buttons and magnets stamped with the slogan "Merry Christmas: It's Worth Saying."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-christmas23dec23,0,6673512.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[RC]

1. Conservatives need an enemy to function.

They cannot even conceive of any other way of doing things. Help someone? Negotiate to avoid a conflict? Only to further some self interest goal, usually determemtral to another group; the current enemy.

[Gman]

4. Very true

Conservatives were a party without a cause duriing the 90's and after the fall of the Iron Curtain. They had no more Communists to be the object of their divisiveness. Once 9/11 happened they once again had a cause and were able to scare and polarize people.

[Hekate]

2. I used to like the old slogan "Jesus is the reason for the season"...

...because of the way it placed the emphasis on religion and away from consumerism. And it rhymed cleverly, too.

The current campaign is sickening, with its none-too-subtle bigotry and overtones of crass consumerism/commercialism.

Thanks for taking action on what I only thought when I read the article. Yeah, "money-changers in the temple" pretty much nails it.

Hekate

[EST]

3. To those hypocrites, it's always just a matter of perception.

People aren't really starving to death, being murdered, losing limbs, being burned, raped, on and on.
You don't have to fix the problem or even do anything about it, other that manage perception.

It's all a matter of salesmanship. Hypnotize 'em into believing everything's ok; spend all the funds on selling it instead of fixing it.
Worthless asshats.

[valerief]

5. These people are Wedgetarians. They create wedge issues and

exploit them.

[bobbolink]

6. Thank you for writing to them, and for sharing it with us.

As I read your letter, I felt like you were speaking up for me, and I appreciate that very much!

You have brought peace to the season.

[prole_for_peace]

7. let us know if they respond

and what that response is.

[Az]

8. Not everyone is as aware

I was in the grocerie store the other day and a bagger said merry Christmas to me. I responded and Happy Hanukkah to you... and Kwanza, and Winter Solstice, and a Happy New Year... he got this blank look for a second and then suddenly brightened up and said "Oh yeah, I forgot all those other holidays are going on". Some people are just innocent bystanders in the war on Christmas.

[bobbolink]

9. One thing that's becoming a tradition here as much as Nutcracker

is a local dance company does "Granny Dances To A Holiday Drum", and it includes all the various celebrations for this time of year.

Wait... it doesn't have Makahiki....gotta fix that. :hi:

Mele Kalikimaka!

[Az]

10. Its a word you say

On this bright Hawaian Christmas day.

[bobbolink]

11. On the first day of Christmas, my Tutu gave to me...

my....tail....back....

:hi: