War on Christmas 2009
Time for the 4th annual War on Christmas - War on Christmas, 2009!
This year, I am going to say a lot of the same things I said last year, mostly because the argument has not changed, but the tactics of certain Christian organizations have gotten stronger. Beware – the War FOR Christmas is heating up, and the War for Christmas army is at the ready.
The War on Christmas is supposedly a "secular war" waged against Christmas. Christians all over the world don't like it when people don't recognize their holiday, so much so that they are willing to force businesses to use the word "Christmas" in their advertising. They are willing to boycott businesses that don't. The message to businesses is clear: use Christmas in your advertising, or we'll stab you in the eye with our wallets.
While secular people are minding their own business, Christians all over the USA are boycotting businesses that don't happen to have chosen to use "Christmas" in their advertising. They (the War on Christmas folks) have gone so far as to set up a website wherein one can update the "naughty" or "nice" list. The "naughty" list is those businesses that allegedly don't use Christian language in their advertisements, and the "nice" list is those that do. You can also find other
websites devoted to making sure everyone knows just how much more important Christmas is then every other holiday at the end of the year. This is mostly done in the name of "anti political-correctness" but ends up being more about intolerance - intolerance at businesses trying to include other groups of people who celebrate minority holidays during the holidays.
Why, why is it so important that people acknowledge your holiday that you will refuse to shop at businesses that don't? I'm glad atheists don't act like this. Yet secular people are the ones painted as being "Grinches". It seems to me that the Grinches are the ones insisting once again that they are being persecuted and stamped out, organizing boycotts and to shove Christmas down the throats of everyone else. I know it hurts when a tiny slice of your monopoly on the country gets taken away or when you find out that there are people in the world who aren't exactly like you. But really, those guys who care enough to boycott businesses are acting like a child forced to share one toy out of the hundreds in his toy box with his cousin.
I don't know any atheist, Muslim, Jew, or anyone else complaining about Christmas advertising. I know of no huge organizations (such as the Catholic League) of non-Christians insisting that their flock boycott businesses that display Christmas-related schlock. There is a small movement of people dedicated to the war on the commercialization of Christmas and even that is not a war on the religious aspect, it's a war pro-the religious aspect. Really, it's nice when people recognize that not everyone is a Christian. If you say Merry Christmas to me, I don't care all that much. When you cry victim and insist with your wallets that Christmas be part of advertising, I start to care.
Here is the message I hear: everybody who is a Christian has the right to demand that retail sales clerks intuit that they are Christian and thus wish them a merry Christmas - affirming their own personal "reason for the season". Affirm that we both love baby Jesus or THIS MEANS WAR. If you don't recognize exactly what we recognize on this day, we will hate you for being liberal atheist politically correct secular scumbags. Are people really serious when you say it's evil and suppressive to call an annual holiday party at your work a holiday party instead of a Christmas party?
I do think it's silly to call "Christmas trees" "holiday trees". That would be like calling a Menorah a "holiday candelabra". So while I do agree that political correctness can go too far, "happy holidays" doesn't cross the line. Even if I think it's silly, I am not going to wage a war on businesses that call Christmas Trees holiday trees and force them to call them Christmas trees. These are just words. It's not worth getting bent out of shape over. Also, why aren't Christians annoyed that secular businesses like Walmart use their religious holiday as a marketing ploy to get you to buy junk you and your loved ones don't need? If anything, they should be boycotting retailers for using Christmas as a way to capitalize on their religious beliefs. Supposedly Christmas is about the joy of the birth of Jesus, right?
It's not as if secular people are stopping people from celebrating the holiday they wish to celebrate. There is no ban on Christmas. As much as you love to celebrate it, it's also inescapable. We couldn't avoid it even if we wanted to unless we hid in our houses with the TV off all day - and even then. Why can't I buy stamps or milk on Christmas? Whether we like it or not, we're going to be involved in recognizing the holiday sorry, Christmas. No one is being denied their right to celebrate Christmas - though I am certainly being denied my right to have just another day. I can't ignore Christmas, because it is impossible to ignore.
Let's concoct a fun little scenario. Let's say atheism becomes so widespread that atheists get some random day designated as "Godless day". Two months before godless day, businesses all over start putting up "Merry godlessness" decorations. We devote entire radio stations to music promoting atheism, and we play atheist musak in retail stores. We organize parades that take up city streets, throw decorations up everywhere, and generally stuff our reason for the season down your throats. On godless day, most businesses close down so that you can't get your oil changed, your laundry done, or mail any packages. Moreover, if businesses don't acknowledge Atheist Day in their advertising, we organize a boycott. If you're a war on Christmas pundit, this probably sounds incredibly crappy and offensive, doesn't it? What about the guys who don't celebrate atheism? Are they to simply fade into the background and be absorbed by our festivities? Well no. Try to think about this from another perspective – the best way to do that is to pick a religion or a worldview you don't especially agree with and pretend that they are doing the same thing you are doing.
Being civil and polite means recognizing that people are different, and not making those differences a point of conflict and contention. Yes, it's okay to say Merry Christmas: or Happy Hanukkah, or Merry Kwanza, or Happy Just Another Day. It's okay to encourage people to say Happy Holidays. It is not okay to force people to recognize your holiday. It's not okay, as a business, to insist your workers don't say Merry Christmas - thankfully, that's never actually happened.
Merry Friday!
Happy War for Christmas!
Happy Just another Day!
Happy I get to take a day off work even though I don't celebrate this holiday day!
This year, I am going to say a lot of the same things I said last year, mostly because the argument has not changed, but the tactics of certain Christian organizations have gotten stronger. Beware – the War FOR Christmas is heating up, and the War for Christmas army is at the ready.
The War on Christmas is supposedly a "secular war" waged against Christmas. Christians all over the world don't like it when people don't recognize their holiday, so much so that they are willing to force businesses to use the word "Christmas" in their advertising. They are willing to boycott businesses that don't. The message to businesses is clear: use Christmas in your advertising, or we'll stab you in the eye with our wallets.
While secular people are minding their own business, Christians all over the USA are boycotting businesses that don't happen to have chosen to use "Christmas" in their advertising. They (the War on Christmas folks) have gone so far as to set up a website wherein one can update the "naughty" or "nice" list. The "naughty" list is those businesses that allegedly don't use Christian language in their advertisements, and the "nice" list is those that do. You can also find other
websites devoted to making sure everyone knows just how much more important Christmas is then every other holiday at the end of the year. This is mostly done in the name of "anti political-correctness" but ends up being more about intolerance - intolerance at businesses trying to include other groups of people who celebrate minority holidays during the holidays.
Why, why is it so important that people acknowledge your holiday that you will refuse to shop at businesses that don't? I'm glad atheists don't act like this. Yet secular people are the ones painted as being "Grinches". It seems to me that the Grinches are the ones insisting once again that they are being persecuted and stamped out, organizing boycotts and to shove Christmas down the throats of everyone else. I know it hurts when a tiny slice of your monopoly on the country gets taken away or when you find out that there are people in the world who aren't exactly like you. But really, those guys who care enough to boycott businesses are acting like a child forced to share one toy out of the hundreds in his toy box with his cousin.
I don't know any atheist, Muslim, Jew, or anyone else complaining about Christmas advertising. I know of no huge organizations (such as the Catholic League) of non-Christians insisting that their flock boycott businesses that display Christmas-related schlock. There is a small movement of people dedicated to the war on the commercialization of Christmas and even that is not a war on the religious aspect, it's a war pro-the religious aspect. Really, it's nice when people recognize that not everyone is a Christian. If you say Merry Christmas to me, I don't care all that much. When you cry victim and insist with your wallets that Christmas be part of advertising, I start to care.
Here is the message I hear: everybody who is a Christian has the right to demand that retail sales clerks intuit that they are Christian and thus wish them a merry Christmas - affirming their own personal "reason for the season". Affirm that we both love baby Jesus or THIS MEANS WAR. If you don't recognize exactly what we recognize on this day, we will hate you for being liberal atheist politically correct secular scumbags. Are people really serious when you say it's evil and suppressive to call an annual holiday party at your work a holiday party instead of a Christmas party?
I do think it's silly to call "Christmas trees" "holiday trees". That would be like calling a Menorah a "holiday candelabra". So while I do agree that political correctness can go too far, "happy holidays" doesn't cross the line. Even if I think it's silly, I am not going to wage a war on businesses that call Christmas Trees holiday trees and force them to call them Christmas trees. These are just words. It's not worth getting bent out of shape over. Also, why aren't Christians annoyed that secular businesses like Walmart use their religious holiday as a marketing ploy to get you to buy junk you and your loved ones don't need? If anything, they should be boycotting retailers for using Christmas as a way to capitalize on their religious beliefs. Supposedly Christmas is about the joy of the birth of Jesus, right?
It's not as if secular people are stopping people from celebrating the holiday they wish to celebrate. There is no ban on Christmas. As much as you love to celebrate it, it's also inescapable. We couldn't avoid it even if we wanted to unless we hid in our houses with the TV off all day - and even then. Why can't I buy stamps or milk on Christmas? Whether we like it or not, we're going to be involved in recognizing the holiday sorry, Christmas. No one is being denied their right to celebrate Christmas - though I am certainly being denied my right to have just another day. I can't ignore Christmas, because it is impossible to ignore.
Let's concoct a fun little scenario. Let's say atheism becomes so widespread that atheists get some random day designated as "Godless day". Two months before godless day, businesses all over start putting up "Merry godlessness" decorations. We devote entire radio stations to music promoting atheism, and we play atheist musak in retail stores. We organize parades that take up city streets, throw decorations up everywhere, and generally stuff our reason for the season down your throats. On godless day, most businesses close down so that you can't get your oil changed, your laundry done, or mail any packages. Moreover, if businesses don't acknowledge Atheist Day in their advertising, we organize a boycott. If you're a war on Christmas pundit, this probably sounds incredibly crappy and offensive, doesn't it? What about the guys who don't celebrate atheism? Are they to simply fade into the background and be absorbed by our festivities? Well no. Try to think about this from another perspective – the best way to do that is to pick a religion or a worldview you don't especially agree with and pretend that they are doing the same thing you are doing.
Being civil and polite means recognizing that people are different, and not making those differences a point of conflict and contention. Yes, it's okay to say Merry Christmas: or Happy Hanukkah, or Merry Kwanza, or Happy Just Another Day. It's okay to encourage people to say Happy Holidays. It is not okay to force people to recognize your holiday. It's not okay, as a business, to insist your workers don't say Merry Christmas - thankfully, that's never actually happened.
Merry Friday!
Happy War for Christmas!
Happy Just another Day!
Happy I get to take a day off work even though I don't celebrate this holiday day!
posted by Ziztur
at
6:00 PM
9 Comments:
Yeah, so "Merry Christmas" is supposed to be wishing people joy as we celebrate God the Father's sending His Son, the Savior of all, the bringer of true joy and peace - between God and people and between people and people - to earth to fulfill the mission of redeeming fallen, broken people. Anytime this good news is treated as a civil right, it is robbed of its goodness. To this end, I make a slight correction that boycotting businesses for not using "Merry Christmas" is going against the purpose of Jesus, unless we mean that every business owner should be following Jesus. If we mean that, then we need to be doing a lot more talking and listening to these business owners if they're ever going to hear the news of Jesus. Boycotting them sure isn't going to work.
This is very well-written. I can't imagine how you write articles of this quality so frequently...
Also, have you considered capitalizing Atheist? (I'm sure you have a reason for not doing it, but I'd like to hear what it is.) It seems to me that if you're going to put us in a list: "I don't know any atheist, Muslim, Jew...", we should get what might be called equal billing.
Good post! Glad I found you.
It seems to me the chief argument against "political correctness" (which is a construct of the right wing) is — it is "thought control", i.e. telling us what to think, feel and say.
Urging businesses and people to say "Merry Christmas" — just so Christians will not be offended — is surely Political Correctness gone mad.
This darling little fly in the ointment should be pointed out and amplified whenever the mythical "war on Christmas" is dredged up in the media. Will they recognize their bizarre paranoid sense of victimhood has forced them to become what they most hate?
Or will their hatred of diversity and pluralism blind them to continued hypocrisy?
Great post! I went googling for some sanity after seeing the first "Merry CHRISTmas!" type post from a fundie on facebook. Best to you.
You made some excellent points. I don't necessarily agree with your beliefs, but I respect your right to your own opinion. I'm a Catholic and I say Merry Christmas to everyone. Even if I know they are Jewish, Muslim or Atheist. My Brother in law is an atheist and goes all out at Christmas. Huge tree, lots of decorations, big party.
I'm not offended if someone says happy holidays, I'm really not. I would never want to force someone to say or do something they didn't believe in.
It does bother me though when certain traditions are done away with because some non-believer got a bug up his butt and raised a fuss. For example if there is a manger scene that has been set up in the town square for the last 75 years. Suddenly the "seperation of church and state freaks" start to file formal protests and threaten to sue because their delicate sensibilities can't handle being confronted by the evil baby Jesus. What the hell is that about? Get over it grouchy!
In a nutshell- If you live in American you are going to have to deal with Christmas being the big deal that it is. It is as much a cultural holiday as it is a religious holiday. Just like if you lived in Saudi Arabia you would have Ramadan shoved down your throat or if you lived in Israel, Passover would be prominant, or if you lived in India you wouldn't escape Ganesh Chaturthi. I think Vietnam has the highest percentage of Atheists in their country, maybe you can escape the religous presecution of all these mall Santas in Da Nang.
Peace.
Christina
Hmmm. Your argument is disingenious given the fact that this generation, this society, this culture did not create Christmas. Isn't your War on Christmas intolerance? I do not believe Jesus would have a problem with people boycotting businesses in His name. Stores and advertizers high-jacked the Christian celebration generations ago, perhaps your secular ancestors. Peace be with you and yours this very merry Christmas!
Cindy
Christina and Cindy - Hi! Welcome to the blog!
"I'm a Catholic and I say Merry Christmas to everyone. Even if I know they are Jewish, Muslim or Atheist."
I'm . . . not sure why you would do that, Christina. If someone you know celebrated Kwanzaa, and they knew that you celebrated Christmas, would you consider it a bit rude if they always said "Happy Kwanzaa"?
"For example if there is a manger scene that has been set up in the town square for the last 75 years."
*Shrug*
If you can honestly say that it wouldn't bother you at all if a chunk of the government did something that pretty clearly stated that there is no god, then okay, we can agree to disagree.
Cindy, I'm afraid I'm just terribly, terribly confused. We're well aware that Christmas was around well before modern American culture. What does this have to do with anything?
"Isn't your War on Christmas intolerance?"
I'm very entertained by the fact that you think our post is about our declaring a war on Christmas. Did you even read it?
"I do not believe Jesus would have a problem with people boycotting businesses in His name."
I personally think that Jesus (as he is portrayed in the Gospels) would consider such a thing to be petty and almost prideful, in a way (at least the way the boycotts are typically advocated). Remember how he felt about people who pray or give money in public, blowing a trumpet so that all would see? That's what I see in these boycotts, but that's just me.
Just so you know, Ziztur and I don't advocate any "war on Christmas." We think it's cool if a store doesn't exclude people who don't celebrate Christmas (by saying "Happy Holidays" instead), but we don't really care if a store insists on saying "Merry Christmas."
That's our only point, really. Ziztur and I are atheists, and we wouldn't even really consider boycotting a store that said "Merry Christmas" (even though they are technically being exclusive of people of other faiths). Some significant minority of Christians, however, absolutely DO boycott stores that say "Happy Holidays" (which includes Christmas, obviously) simply because they are NOT specifically excluding people of other religions.
The people who rant about the War on Christmas and advocate boycotts of stores that say "Happy Holidays" are simply being petty, childish, and unbelievably immature.
Check out how San Francisco celebrates the holidays. Annually a gay group creates The World's Tree of Hope in City Hall. It is cover with thousands of orgami cranes each inscribed with wishes send in from around the world. Obama, Clinton, Jane Goodall, Pelosi have all sent in wishes as well as everyday folks from around the world. You can send a wish in online for free at: http://www.rainbowfund.org/tree The tree is stunning - they are adding wishes through out December. They will print your wish, fold it into a crane and place it on the tree. It is billed as a project promoting, peace, love and humanitarianism for all people on earth. That is really "Christmas" spirit!
Oooooo . . . Sounds cool.
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