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Why Should Christians Have to Hide Christmas?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
By John Gibson
I seem to have set off a small firestorm with my new book "The War on Christmas (search)."
Secularists are angry. Religionists other than Christian are angry. Christians are angry. All angry for different reasons and demanding what they want.
So here's what I want and here's why I wrote "The War on Christmas."
I don't want anti-Christian policies and attitudes tolerated. Same as I wouldn't want anti-religious policies tolerated for any other religion.
Christians are 84 percent of the country. They have tolerated other religionists throughout the history of this country and supported our basic legal rights to ensure the protection of free religious speech for religious minorities.
The less than ten percent of this country that is not Christian has thrived and flourished in this country because this is a nation whose Christian majority has been willing and happy to live with other religionists, by and large.
This country stands for tolerance. We stand for tolerance for Muslims, Jews, Wiccans, Kwanzans and for Christians.
Tolerance should continue in this country and it should continue even for the supermajority which happens to be Christian.
This isn't always the case. It's all too easy in this country to say, "Hey, no Christmas tree, fire Santa, ban red and green because they're just too Christian."
Doesn't that clang on somebody's ear?
Doesn't that ring of the same intolerance that we condemn when it comes to other religions?
Why should Christians have to hide their religious holiday — put it away, out of sight, unseen and unheard in schools lets say, or city hall — because minorities are intolerant of the majority's religious holiday?
Changing the traditions of this country is always tricky business, but changing those traditions because of an intolerance for the majority religion, because of an anti-Christian attitude which has suddenly and inexplicably become acceptable, this is not a good development.
That's why I wrote "The War on Christmas."
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__________________
“So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it but I couldn’t find honest employment.” —Mark Twain
The article responds to a real scenario. More each year there are attempts to remove nativity displays, and other associations of Christianity, from school and/or city Christmas displays.
Yet in his public school my son has learned about menorah<sp> candles and dredels (Jewish), Kwanza rituals, Ramadan, etc.
Let me make it clear, I have no problem with him learning about these other cultures within his public education. But I do have a problem with the attempts to diminish Christianity and it's symbols while upholding other faiths and beliefs.
__________________
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
I grew up with various Christmas display and am none the worse for it. Frankly I don't even really look on it a religious, to me it's just traditional. Doesn't irritate me at all.
However I do understand the some of the motivations [even if I don't agree with them]. Over the last decade the Evangelical Chtristian community has been politicizing their religion. They have been trying to push the agenda onto the country. This type of thing is a reaction to that, you may not like hearing it but it is true.
When you start trying to get legislation passed to encode your beliefs in law, others will notice you and resist. This is a problem of your own making.
The more you scream about it, the higher the profile you make it, the worse the problem will become.
Let me make it clear, I have no problem with him learning about these other cultures within his public education. But I do have a problem with the attempts to diminish Christianity and it's symbols while upholding other faiths and beliefs.
I have no problem with christmas displays, i get a tree and have the nativity set and all. I know...shocking.
I would trust someone like CardLogic who i think to be a pretty decent person (no matter what I say ) and might trust HIS judgement as to how to coordinate that in a school.
I do not however trust the majority of christian people to do this.
Anyone see trading spouses and that women finds out the people she is with isnt christian and goes insane?
My point exactly.
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Goal for 2008: Half as many penalties.
Anyone see trading spouses and that women finds out the people she is with isnt christian and goes insane?
Is THAT what that was about? Wow - from the promos, she needed a big ol shot of Haldol on the spot.
Christmas-time is a borrowed holiday, built on the ashes of Solstice, a seasonal natural event which has been celebrated in some version pretty much everywhere. Christmas trees and yule logs, mistletoe, and holly are actually Druid customs, not Christian; Santa Claus-like characters show up in nearly all cultures (In Japanese Buddhism it's Dai-Ko-Ko-San, a wandering Zen master who carries a sack of fruit and sweets for children) - and Santa's elves are certainly not Christian! nor are flying reindeer, etc. That's probably from some ethnic Lapland fables. I doubt red and green has anything to do with Christianity, for that matter.
So to rule these non-religious cultural icons out of public settings just because they have become popularly associated with a (secularized) Christian holiday shows the historical ignorance of our mainstream culture. If you want a nativity on your own yard, or a church yard, fine - keep the nativity off the town square or school yard, and try to enjoy the season. How's that for compromise?
Besides - aren't most public trees white plastic with blue or white lights now?
__________________
oderint dum metuant (Latin for 'let them hate, so long as they fear').
Well, in truth I'm actually not a total hawk, but I'm not a dove either -- I'm more like an angry pigeon flying over the political arena after a really big meal. -Abba Gav
Christians are 84 percent of the country. They have tolerated other religionists throughout the history of this country and supported our basic legal rights to ensure the protection of free religious speech for religious minorities.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 40yearfan
The less than ten percent of this country that is not Christian
Did anyone else notice that math isn't this gentleman's strong suit?
100
-84
----
16%
And many who say they are christian, aren't practicing christians. Hell, on all my Army records I'm listed as a Methodist....just so that I could get a burial that my parents/loved ones would appreciate. I won't care about how I'm buried if I did die.
Did anyone else notice that math isn't this gentleman's strong suit?
100
-84
----
16%
And many who say they are christian, aren't practicing christians. Hell, on all my Army records I'm listed as a Methodist....just so that I could get a burial that my parents/loved ones would appreciate. I won't care about how I'm buried if I did die.
LOL...I hope the book isn't as atrocious as the article.
However I do understand the some of the motivations [even if I don't agree with them]. Over the last decade the Evangelical Chtristian community has been politicizing their religion. They have been trying to push the agenda onto the country. This type of thing is a reaction to that, you may not like hearing it but it is true.
When you start trying to get legislation passed to encode your beliefs in law, others will notice you and resist. This is a problem of your own making.
Interesting, you see secularism as a response to aggressive Christianity, I see emboldened Christianity as a response to overzealous secularism. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
__________________
"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."
-Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Cosmic Defender Champion!
) and might trust HIS judgement as to how to coordinate that in a school.
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