[Vision2020] Separation of church and state holidays

Wed Dec 13 00:09:12 PST 2006

I too wish everyone would just lighten up a bit. If someone wishes me a Happy Hanukkah, Holy Ramadan, Happy Halloween, Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas or whatever, I take it as feeling of good well toward me by my neighbor, and nothing else. 

  For people to be offended by the reality that every person that wishes them good will doesn't update their Blackberry for their current beliefs and holidays celebrated before addressing them seems deeply conceded to me. Apparently, some people, instead of being thankful for someone wishing them well, they instead try to find personal fault in another well intentioned human being. 

  Merry Christmas,

  Donovan J Arnold

Pat Kraut <pkraut at moscow.com> wrote:
  When I wish someone a Merry Christmas I am giving them the very best I have
in the form a God I believe in firmly. It isn't about the person I am
talking to it is about ME. And it is totally discounting of me for someone
to be insulted by my desire for them to have the very best I have to offer.
It is what is lost in all this 'diversity' and making sure that no one is
insulted. The speaker is insulted. If someone offers me the greeting of
their faith I assume that is the best they have to give me and for them it
is a very good thing so I do not get insulted. BUT, if a Christian should
offer an honest greeting from their heart there is immediately cries of
dominance. Where are my rights to be who I am??

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "keely emerinemix" 
To: ; 
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 7:39 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Separation of church and state holidays

I appreciate this, Wayne -- and I agree. I celebrate Christmas as the birth
of Jesus, who I believe is God Incarnate. My friend Hollis doesn't. She
celebrates something else -- why not wish her a happy season with her family
and friends, knowing that Christ is no less God Incarnate because Keely's
friend in Colorado doesn't celebrate the holiday that marks His birth.

Merry Christmas to all of you who identify as Christian. Happy Hanukkah to
my Jewish friends, and Happy Holidays to the people in my life who don't
celebrate any particular holiday.

God bless us, everyone.

keely

From: "Art Deco" 
To: "Vision 2020" 
Subject: [Vision2020] Separation of church and state holidays
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 07:29:48 -0800

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Separation of church and state holidays
J.R. Labbe
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
December 12, 2006

The e-mail came from a well-meaning and locally respected physician. His
concern? The use of the word "holiday" in place of Christmas.

"I have talked to many people about this, and have UNIFORMLY found them to
be irritated about the anti- Christian, defamatory use of holiday instead of
Christmas," he wrote. "I talked to my ham radio friends at coffee, my wine
drinking buddies at our weekly Wednesday noon lunch, to a Best-Buy Store
manager (they shun 'Christmas,' but he said 'many people are upset about
it.'), my neighbors, a retired CEO who owned an international corporation
headquartered in FW (Fort Worth), etc. I really dislike 'holiday' & I am
sick of it in the (Fort Worth Star-Telegram), on TV, & the radio. Why does
the Star-Telegram not have something about this?"

The good doctor included a number of attachments to his e-mail, including an
editorial cartoon bemoaning a politically correct Santa wishing a "Merry
religious holiday of your preference" and commentaries by self-described
conservatives Don Feder and Dennis Prager on the purging of Christmas from
our culture.

In an attempt to be educational, I suggested that retailers started using
the phrase "Happy Holidays" in their advertising as a way to save money.
Since the "holiday" season runs from the day after Halloween to Jan. 1, they
were looking for a phrase that captured Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas,
New Year's, Kwanzaa and Diwali - every conceivable celebration during this
time of year - so they didn't have to go to the expense of remaking their
ads.

"There's nothing anti-Christian about it. It is purely a business decision,"
my e-mail said. "As a Christian, it does not bother me one bit whether
someone wishes me Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Don't you think our
Lord and Savior would want us to concentrate more on following His great
commandment to love one another - than on something as trivial as this?"

The use of "trivial" hit a nerve.

"Honestly, I think we should have a little respect for the Christmas season,
and not act like Jell-O-spined wimps who can be molded like putty," he
wrote.

I attempted to counter the doc's inclusion of the newspaper in the war on
Christmas by pointing out the times that the Star-Telegram has reprinted the
Christmas story from the Book of Luke, the number of columns I and other
Christian writers have written about our faith, the letters to the editor
that consistently and openly represent Christian viewpoints on a variety of
issues.

"My God is so much bigger than this trivial - yes, trivial - non-debate," my
e-mail said. "If you want to be outraged about what's happening to
Christians in the 21st century, I'd direct your attention to our brothers
and sisters in Christ living in nations that don't have the freedom to
worship as one chooses. Christians in other parts of the world are being
beaten, jailed, tortured and killed for their faith. You're upset because
someone says 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'? Sorry, I'm
saving my outrage for issues that merit it."

Re-reading these words I realize I sounded much more harsh than intended.
The good doctor is obviously experiencing real angst from what he perceives
as an encroachment or minimalization of his faith.

Navigating this intersection of sectarian with the secular is crowded with
dented fenders and smashed bumpers. In a nation that values individual
freedom and the ability to worship the god of one's own belief, the
co-opting of a religious observance into the commercial world makes for
trouble.

Last year, Charles C. Haynes, senior scholar and director of education
programs at the First Amendment Center, wrote a thought-provoking column
titled, "To save Christmas, separate Christ from commerce."

"If the aim is to keep 'Christ' in the shopping-mall Christmas or to ensure
that pagan trees and mistletoe don't lose their Christian labels, then it
might make sense to attack presidents and business owners who commit the
'happy holiday' sin," Haynes wrote. "But if the goal is to restore the
religious meaning of the Christian holy day, then they are aiming at the
wrong Target.

"Once the birth of Jesus was made a 'national holiday,' taking 'Christ out
of Christmas' was destined to happen."

Therein lies the answer for all who bemoan the corruption of Christianity:
The United States should no longer "celebrate" Christmas - or Easter for
that matter - as national holidays. Let the retailers have the days; just
don't call them Christmas or Easter.

To expand on an idea posited first by the Puritan minister Roger Williams,
who warned about the worldly pollution of faith back in 1635, and developed
by Haynes in his column, let the merchants have their pagan trees and
"Jingle Bells," Santa Claus and the elves, chocolate Easter bunnies and
pastel-colored eggs.

Leave the creche and the cross out of it.

If you want to put Christ back into Christmas, then instead of battling the
mall crowd to spend outrageous amounts of money on presents that will be
forgotten by Easter, use that time and money to feed the hungry, clothe the
poor and visit the infirm.

Jesus' new commandment was not for "them" to love us, but for us to love
them.
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