Well, folks, we stand on the cusp of yet another season filled with the blessings of family and friends while celebrating either the birth of Jesus or the Festival of Lights. Lurking right around the corner, though, are the grinches of the ACLU.
Every year, numerous stories arise about some hippie leftover from the left whining about a nativity being displayed on government property somewhere. Evidently, the ACLU has nothing better to do with their time than to try and remove all traces of Christianity from American life.
Aiding the ACLU in their efforts is Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AUSCS). This group of fruits and nuts has been responsible for school Christmas programs to be renamed "Holiday pageants" and for valedictorians across the country to be censored when mentioning God.
I was watching t.v. the other night when a Gap commercial came on. At first, I found myself grooving along with the hip-hop beat of "Go Christmas...go Christmas..." Then I hear "Go Hanukkah..." Not an issue. The two holidays do overlap, and Hanukkah has a legitimate basis in religion. It was when I heard "Go Kwanzaa" and "Go solstice" that I got my panties in a twist.
Can anyone tell me where the hell the idea of Kwanzaa came from??? When I was growing up, black children celebrated Christmas side by side with white children. Who was it that decided to separate the blacks from the whites by inventing a holiday? That seems pretty racist, don't ya think? I mean, what was so wrong with people of all color celebrating the birth of our Savior (and I don't mean BHO)? It was a common bond that has since been broken in the name of black separatism.
Not to leave out the atheists, the idea of celebrating the winter solstice has become popular in recent years. What is there to celebrate about the one day that heralds in nasty weather until March? I, for one, despise the winter solstice in large part because I know it means bone-chilling temperatures and dangerous driving conditions. And these freaks want to celebrate this crap?
I would challenge these groups who desecrate the notion of Christians and Jews alike celebrating their respective holidays to show me the passage in the Constitution that says you can't erect a creche or menorrah on government property. First Amendment, you say? WRONG!!! The First Amendment only dictates that the government shall not establish an official state religion nor restrict anyone's free exercise of their chosen faith. It's freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. In fact, I offer that cleansing society of all traces of religion establishes atheism as the official government religion and is in itself unconstitutional.
The Founding Fathers built this country on Judeo-Christian principles. Removing all traces of it from society in the name of PC is an abomination of the dreams these brave men brought to fruition.
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Ann Coulter had an excellent blog about Kwanza last year. I reposted it on my blog, and recommend it for reading.
Glad to see you are prepared to fight the PC crap of the Christmas season. I'm with you my sister!
I'll do that, BB. The left has tried to take everything else, I'll be damned if they take Christmas from us!
Merry Christmas ... (oops, Happy Holidays) There is some holiday PC for all.
I for one fight PC every day. I refuse to use the words and phrases made popular by the PC crowd.
Well, you know, we pagans were celebrting Dec 25th for thousands of years before you christians came along and renamed it. Just saying.
uzza: So as not to be ignorant (I don't like to be), I'd be interested to know what significance that date held for the pagans. I'm curious.
It's not the propriety of the date isn't what I'm talking about. My beef is that religion, especially Christianity, is being forced from the public venue in the name of PC. The anti-religion crowd seems to push harder for the myth of separation of church and state at what is a holy time for many religions.
There is no guarantee to an offense-free life. Someone needs to tell that to the separation crowd.
Merry CHRISTmas, B & G Fan!
I am the most UN PC person on the polanet, besides all your reat readers and yourself. Kwanza is a crap made up holiday from the 60's made up by a bunch of revolutionaries that I think hailed out of Chicago (gee, go figure) I'll have to read BBills post to doubly refresh my memory.
PS: I like your new background, you are in the CHRISTmas Spirit! Besides Haunukkah, that's all I subscribe to!
Merry CHRISTmas to you and my troops, hon.
I like the background too. Getting me into the season!
*sending much love*
you asked Uzza, but i'll answer.
the Winter Solstice [aka Yule] has been celebrated for millenia. for longer than Christianity has been around.
in FACT, the reason that "Christmas" is held WHEN it's held is, because after the Roman Empire officially converted to Christianity, they tried to convert all people living the the Roman Empire - and the "pagans" had a holiday, on Dec 22/23 [depends on exactly when the solstice happens] celebrating the birth of *their* God.
most Biblican scholars think that Jesus was probably born in late August or early September. the date of the Winter Solstice was appropriated as a means of convincing people that the new religion was similar to the old, and to practice the new religion.
i urge you to examine the Constitution again. what the first amendment *means* is that no law shall be passed, either CONDONING *OR* CONDEMING any religion. not only can the government NOT impose religion upon the nation, they cannot use tax dollars to subsidize religion.
as a non-Christian, i would have NO problem with Nativity scenes - so long as there were an EQUAL effort to show ALL the holidays that occur during this time frame. but they DON'T.
also; as a non-christian, this gets annoying. no, I am NOT celebrating Christmas, and i have [lately] taken insult with people telling me to do so. saying "Merry Christmas" to a person who is not Christian and doesn't celebrate the holiday is *at least* as insulting as you claim "happy holiday" is - at least "holiday" is generic and doesn't presume. i wouldn't begrudge Christmas to Christians if they didn't begrudge me Beltain and Lughnasadh and Samhain and Yule. we have 8 "sundays" a year. and we don't have Christmas. and so i do not say "merry Christmas" i, myself, tend to prefer saying "happy holiday" - would you prefer that i went and spread "Joyful Yule!"??
sorry, i want follow-ups and forgot to check the box :)
And here's where Steve gets to play Devil's Advocate.
I have a problem with people who force-feed religion to others. I also have a problem with people who force-feed non-religion to people.
I'm pretty much an agnostic. I'm pretty ambivalent towards organized religion, especially after looking into all the wars & damage done all in the name of some diety or other. I could go on for hours about the sins committed by Christianity over the millenia. I jokingly say I'm a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster; I'm a Pastafarian.
Yes, the Christians of Rome hijacked Yule. They also hijacked Samhain, made it into Halloween and All Saints Day and tried to make Halloween some evil entity.
I have friends who are pagans and Wiccans. I have friends who are Jews and Catholics and other Christian sects.
However, one must also face the fact that the United States is a predominantly Christian country and was founded as such. Folks who don't like that are free to live elsewhere if they so desire to escape this "oppressive Jesusness" (yeah, America isn't exactly force-fed Christianity like folks are in, oh, say...Muslim countries?)
As a nation, our motto is IN GOD WE TRUST. The same people bitching about the word GOD being used by a governmental entity have no problem spending and/accumulating money that clearly has IN GOD WE TRUST right on it? I don't exactly see those people burning their money in protest.
In closing, I urge you all to bow to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Have you been touched by his noodly appendage? Let's put the FSM back in ChriFSMas...LOL
My only true beef with Christmas is the non-stop holiday music that starts on November 1st, 24/7. That's overkill.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
From everything I've read, numerous cases have determined that there is no legal issue about a publicly-sponsored Nativity scene on government property as long as there are secular symbols incorporated into the display.
See ACLU v. Schundler (1999)
http://atheism.about.com/library/decisions/holydays/bldec_ACLUSchundler.htm
For the record, I'm an atheist. I celebrate Christmas, I call it Christmas, I wish people "Merry Christmas" and I even put up little decorations of angels on a christmas tree with a big shiny star on top.
I consider the holiday to be a celebration of family, and the turning point of summer, when the weather finally starts to cool down again (I hate Queensland summers). Nativity scene's always make me feel slightly awkward, but then again, so do shopping centre santa's, and I'm sure a Morris dance would make me feel just as awkward. Public displays of a religous nature always make me feel a certain level of empathetic embarrassment for those involved, even when they're clearly not embarrassed.
And I think if people want to make a big deal about what it's called, they should get better priorities. As far as I'm concerned, both sides of "the War on Christmas" consist primarily of a load of stuck-up self-righteous people who have devoted a good portion of their time to a completely meaningless endeavor.
Who gives a flying piglet what it's called? If you want to celebrate someone's birthday on christmas, go right ahead. If you want to celebrate the Festival of Lights, or the longest/shortest day of the year, or "what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense," or Yule, or Santa day or the success of capitialism via crass commercialisation of ancient traditions, go right ahead. You can even do it in public, and annoy other people with your beliefs. I don't mind.
But if you want that priviledge, and yes it is a priviledge, please do not try to tell others that they aren't entitled to the same.
"Well, you know, we pagans were celebrting Dec 25th for thousands of years"
Just how old are you Uzza?
"i urge you to examine the Constitution again. what the first amendment *means* is that no law shall be passed, either CONDONING *OR* CONDEMING any religion. not only can the government NOT impose religion upon the nation, they cannot use tax dollars to subsidize religion."
I don't see anything here saying she wants to impose a national religion. She is only asking for respect for her religion since everyone else shoves their beliefs down her throats expecting respect for their non-Christian views.
not creating a "state religion", but forcing non-"X" religion to, to a large extent, follow and observe the traditions of "X" religion? you don't see that problem?
to be clear - Christmas doesn't, of itself, offend me. what offends me is this demand that nothing *BUT* Christmas [*maybe* Hanukkah] be "displayed"; this demand that "Merry Christmas [and, again, *MAYBE* Hanukkah] be the only greeting, etc.
there are multiple holidays going on during the same span of time. i celebrate mine, you celebrate yours, shouldn't be a problem.
some people have a problem with tax dollars being spend to put up RELIGIOUS displays - a thing the government cannot do, at least technically, because that is funding religion.
personally, i don't particularly mind, so long as it *IS* inclusive of all the religions that have a holiday during that time period - or at least, all the religions of all the people whose taxes are going to X display.
but, see, if someone wants something that is not-Christian in a display, then that somehow becomes "opression". i'm not saying having a display that is ONLY about, say, Saturnalia - i am say, there's the Nativity, there's a minorah, there's the Goddess, etc. asking for a place at the table for non-Christians almost always gets tagged as "oppressing" Christians, because Christians somehow have the right to make everyone else say "Merry Christmas" and asking for a religious-neutral statement is wrong.
by-the-bye, the phrase "Happy Holiday" was coined to represent Christmas and New Year's. and that's it. the acknowledgement of OTHER celebrations during that time period came AFTER the phrase "Happy Holiday" was in common usage.
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