Letters to the Editor
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Capitalism is not Christian; religious toleration is
"Christmas really isn't even so much Christian. It's a sort of kitschy capitalist thing."
Exactly. No time to read the other 51 letters, but it seems insane to me (studying to be an Episcopal priest) to claim that to be Christian, one has to support enormous religious displays in department stores. The holiday is supposed to celebrate the birth of God incarnate who came in poverty and humility to save the world. Jesus was nice to prostitutes and reserved his bitterest invective for the rich. The way to really involve Christianity in the celebration of its founder's birth would be to STOP SHOPPING.
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Christmas is a Pagan Holiday!
When I became a pagan, I was most upset about not celebrating Christmas, easily my favorite holiday. After a bit of research, I realized that in fact Christmas is a cooption of the pagan celebrations of Winter Solstice. The Christmas tree - pagan, Candles in the window - pagan, Santa - pagan, Holly - pagan, the list goes on. Note that "Deck the Halls" has not even one Christian image. I also will point out that the celebration of Christmas was illegal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (yes, my home and blue state heaven) until the 19th century because the Puritans considered it a - say it with me people - PAGAN HOLIDAY.
So, Christians, you need to relax. Happy Holidays referes to Christmas, Winter Solstice, Ramadam (often in Dec.), Chanukah, the Hindu Festival of Lights, Kwanza, and, of course, New Year's Eve and Day. If someone wishing me a Merry Christmas, or Happy Chanukah (my fincee is Jewish, so many people assume I am as well) I am NOT offened. I wish them a happy holidy (whichever one they wished me) and move on.
Now can we talk about how the parents of my generation (I am 40) have spoiled Halloween for their kids? Now, that feels like a consipircy to me!
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Holiday parties at school
I don't buy it that there are no Christmas parties at schools because my daughter and all her cousins in public schools in different states have Christmas parties. They call them holliday parties- in my daughter's class alone there are two hindus, a few jewish children and a muslim child, so celebrating the season and not Christmas specifically is perfectly reasonable. Why on earth would any reasonable person be offended by this? Maybe because I grew uo in a very diverse area I don't feel any entitlement to pretend other religions don't exist in public.
And then there are the religious grinches- the ones who rain on everyone's parade trying to make us feel guilty for giving our loved one's presents and celebrating. These boring people seem to want us all to quietly reflect on the Savior's birth and for no fun to be had, period. Bleh! Happy Thanksgiving- or am I supposed to sit around and be thankful without celebrating that either?
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Capitalism and Christianity
Actually, there has been a 'silent war' against religious content during the winter shopping season for some time. It's colloquially known as 'contemporary capitalism': these large outlets do not want to do or say anything that will put off or offend potential customers, no matter what religion they do or don't practice.
What we are seeing here is a rightwing backlash against capitalism's deleterious effects on certain conservative symbols and values. Just like the Birchers, however, the current crop of social conservatives identifies free markets with Christ and the flag, and interference with those markets with the UN and Satan. Those making the protests would consider it impossible that anything they want to do actually means intervention where the free market provides results that they find dangerous or distasteful.
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Stealing Christmas
Thank you, Christina, for noting what the real Christmas season is. The Lutheran church year is nearly identical to the RC church year (plus and minus a few festivals) and the song "Silver Bells" has it exactly wrong: Christmastide begins, not ends, with Christmas. Advent, which begins this Sunday, is a solemn time of anticipation of both the first and second comings of Christ. And whatever the Massachusetts Bay Puritans might have thought, Luther loved Christmas; he saw it, correctly, as the feast of the Incarnation.
I too, love the garlands, the lights, the music, and the decorated trees; they make the winter landscape look festive. But I cringe when I hear Christmas music in a store, knowing that, with a few blessed exceptions, it will all disappear on December 26. The music is there to manipulate you into buying. And secular music is the lesser evil for playing in stores; singing about the Savior's birth to boost sales is a breach of the Second (or Third) Commandment, the one about taking God's name in vain, and more Christians should object to it.
IMO there are two grinches who have stolen Christmas: 1) the retail trade, and 2) the religious right, which has turned a joyful holiday into a battleground.
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Happy HollyDaze
I heartily agree with what Mishima666 said: the Religious Right is nothing without an enemy to rage against. Any enemy. So, every season, they take out their list of grievances against the secular world, and start howling about 'attacks' on Christmas, Easter, Christianity, and [insert item here].
It's gotten much worse in the past few years. Their angry ranting is everywhere, gumming up civilized discourse in a phlegm of hateful resentment of everything remotely secular. Their fears are played upon and amplified by the leaders in their parallel universe, and they spill from their churches, to infest everything around them with their hate and fear.
Funny, I thought that Christianity was about love and tolerance, not hate and fear. This Christmas craziness is simply another inflamation of something that has gone very wrong with Christianity.
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Is Christmas not a "Happy Holiday"
I could understand Christians being upset if someone tried to force a priest to say "Happy Holidays" during a Christmas mass. I could see them being upset if someone complained about the lack of diversity at a specificly Christian store. But I don't see why the are upset at their lack of a monopoly on greetings during winter.
I'm a somewhat practicing Catholic (I practice the beliefs, if not the rituals) in my twelfth year of Catholic school. I've learned the beliefs of many cultures, and all of them were presented as (mostly) valid beliefs. I fail to see how reducing "Merry Christmas" to a component of "Happy Holidays" is any more degrading to Christianity than acknowledging that there are other faiths is. Maybe I'd be a little more sympathetic to fundamentalists if we weren't celebrating a pagan holiday with a millenia-old coat of Jesus paint.