Yeah, yeah: you’ve heard enough about it.
But this is really diabolic.
Not the attacks on Christmas–nothing devilish about them, for they don’t really exist.
What’s really diabolic is the design behind the outcry against attacks on Christmas.
Defending Christmas? No, that’s not what it’s about. What we have here is another attack on diversity.
I’m not going to bother to link to the blogs and articles and O’Reilly transcripts that are sprouting like mushrooms in a dark, manure-filled barn. You can find them for yourself; it would be harder to find a way to avoid them. To paraphrase P.J. O’Rourke, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a dozen websites either upset by the attacks on Christmas or making fun of the first kind.
What I haven’t seen is anyone stating the obvious (they probably have said it–as I said, I simply haven’t seen it): these people claiming they are defending Christmas aren’t–they are attacking the idea that all beliefs should be respected.
The best defense, they decided, is a good offense. As they really have nothing to defend, all they can really do is attack, anyway.
Saying “Happy Holidays” in no way disses Christmas. To argue that it does is laughable. What it does is open things up. It says, “If you have a holiday at this time of the year, I want you to celebrate it joyfully.” Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or (during some years) Ramadan: celebrate to your heart’s content… I’m all for you. That’s what “Happy Holidays” says.
Again, “Happy Holidays” does not belittle Christmas. It opens things up to include more. Saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” is an indication of a willingness to bring people in rather than keeping them out.
What is wrong with that? Why is that an attack on Christmas?
Patently, it is not.
And why not call a Christmas tree a holiday tree? The tradition of decorating a pine stems not from Christianity but from an ancient Germanic past. Why not, then, expand it so that it can include others besides Christians? How does that hurt the Christians? How is that an attack?
The people who are promoting this “movement” to stop the attack on Christmas know all of this.
But they don’t care.
Their purpose is not to protect Christmas. It needs no protection.
Their purpose is to turn back the diversity clock to a point where Jews, Arabs, Hindus, Buddhists and others are on the outside of American society.
This movement is no accident. It is xenophobic in its base and a careful political attack on diversity.
It’s easy to laugh off this movement to “protect” Christmas.
What’s behind it, though, is a perversion of Christianity that could easily lead us back to burning crosses.
So, laugh… but take this seriously.
It has amused me greatly that this has been taking place. Especially the attack on george’s “Holiday” card.Now, reading your diary here, I see the concern and say to myself, Yes Virginia, there is a a fascist faction trying to take over our nation and they are trying to do it in the name of Jesus.
I am sorry to say this. but I think you just don’t get it! ;-))
When we say “Happy Holidays” and hope that this includes people who celebrate Id, Diwali, Kwanzaa, Hannukah, Gurpurab, etc., we take away the sense of specialness that belongs, by nature, by right and might, only to Christians.
We live in a Christian Country whose God is bigger than the God of everybody else, and to suggest that we are happy that they celebrate their sacred festivals in happiness equal to our is outright blasphemous and traitorous. What is so hard to understand about this??
Your other little traditions are quaint and sometimes even cute, but there’s only one true way.
And I say this because I love you.
/snark.
Well, I might have wondered about this tempest in a tea pot had it not been for years spent in north Thailand where American missionary types are eradicating a people’s culture.
They love tolerance, only for themselves.
It was a big deal when the Muslims took 30 Akha kids to the south of Thailand for religious training. Even US intel went down to have a look. No mention that the christians have taken away thousands to their fake orphanages for indoctrination and brainwashing in the “only true way”.
Take a look at websites like http://www.imjaihouse.com
Northern Thailand? This is completely off the topic, but my brother lives in Chiang Rai, in northwestern Thailand.
When I lived in Africa, I saw two types of missionaries: those who really did try to learn about the local culture and work with it (and everyone, Christian or not) and those who felt they knew better.
So I can’t really condemn all missionaries. Just those who set out knowing they know better than anyone in the country to which they are going.
Apparently a few megachurches are taking Christmas Day off. So. Will Loofah Boy O’Liely and the rest boycott them?
Or maybe they should spend more time following Jesus than making sure we follow them.
Oh, I forgot! This is about power. Silly me.