It’s Called ‘Christmas,’ Stupid
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee has designated the traditional state Christmas tree as the “holiday tree.” So, what holiday does the tree represent — Kwanzaa, Chanukah, New Years, or Eid al-Fitr? Are our holidays now interchangeable, or are they one big homogeneous politically correct melting pot? Imagine walking through Macy’s and hearing, “Silver bells, silver bells. It’s Kwanzaa time in the city. Ring-a-ling, soon it will be Eid al-Fitr.”
It’s a Christmas tree, not a holiday tree. It has always been a Christmas tree, and you can call it a holiday tree, but every two-year-old knows it’s a Christmas tree. No one is being fooled. Those afraid to mouth the word “Christmas,” as if it were some sort of obscenity, just appear foolish.
The University of California, Berkeley, provides a prayer room in the student union for Muslim students, and the University of Michigan-Dearborn has installed footbaths for Muslim students, as have a dozen other universities. A technical school in Minnesota has installed footbaths, but the coffee cart’s Christmas music has been turned off as a violation of the separation of church and state and, perhaps, insulting to those taking a footbath.
Ever vigilante when Christianity is ostensibly intruding in the public domain, the ACLU has been reluctant to object to footbaths, calling the issue “complicated.” And universities, in their typical newspeak, have claimed that anyone can use the footbaths. We all know how many non-Muslim students are in need of a footbath five times a day.
As a society, we seem especially sensitive to the presence of religion in the public square when that religion is Christianity. Otherwise, religion in the public square is simply celebrated as part of our multicultural heritage.
Perhaps, we need to be reminded that despite what President Obama said in his Islamic-pandering speech in Cairo, this is a Christian country. A majority of Americans still identify as Christians and some 95% of Americans, Christians and non-Christians, celebrate Christmas. These non-Christians celebrate Christmas as an authentic and quintessential American holiday. It was this fact that led the Supreme Court to uphold the right to have a Christmas tree in the public square and to call it that.
Christians have so far been incredibly tolerant of the affronts to their beliefs. No person who created, funded, or otherwise supported the outrageously offensive “Piss Christ” has been physically harmed for it. I doubt if those who smugly believe that Piss Christ is pushing the parameters of art would attempt a similar work involving Mohammed.
Sometimes, as Mark Twain noted, along with having a First-Amendment right comes the good sense of knowing when not to exercise it. It seems that when it comes to Christianity, that sense ceases to exist.
Christians are told that their religion needs to be scrutinized for constitutional violations. Christmas trees are an affront, but the pre-sunrise call to prayer that blasts nearby residents from sleep is emblematic of religious tolerance.
When our ancestors came here as immigrants, they knew it was a Christian country, not by establishment, but by custom and tradition. When they voluntarily changed geography, they also changed history, and with that, they acquired a new set of cultural expectations.
Increasingly, we see groups of immigrants who also yearn to come to America but do not desire to become Americans. They seek not just accommodation but privilege to impose the culture, politics, law, and religion of the places they left behind on the rest of us. They seek rights for their faith and restriction on the faith of the majority. They bemoan Christmas closings as a violation of church and state and decry the presence of Christian symbols in the public square, even though the Supreme Court has upheld the public display of Christmas trees and even nativity scenes — when appropriately done — as part of our secular and cultural heritage.
The word “Christmas” has nearly become taboo. Non-denominational prayer in school, even a moment of silence, is prohibited. There are also a variety of activist organizations that will rush to court at the slightest hint of prayer in school, Christian prayer in school that is. Yet school systems have created space for Muslim prayers, and in Wellesley, Massachusetts, one school transported students to the Roxbury mosque, where they prayed in gender-segregated rooms. In the Bryon Union School District in California, students lived and prayed as Muslims for three weeks, and none of the usual civil liberties organizations raised an objection. The program, eventually challenged by the Thomas Moore Legal Center, was upheld by the liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the appellate court’s decision. Nearly everyone knows that if students were living and praying as Christians, the appellate court would have come to a much different decision.
Such prejudicial attitudes do not pave the way for a more tolerant and inclusive society, but they do give rise to resentment and outrage that invariably lead to an organized mass movement. Mobilized to defend a majority culture under attack, that kind of movement, once unleashed, will gravitate toward the extremes.
So, when you see the symbols of Christmas in the public square, remember those are the symbols of people who, in this country, created a unique religious tolerance, people who refused to permit government to establish a religion, and people who extended that tolerance to other religions and even to non-believers.
Yes, it’s a Christmas tree, and “Merry Christmas” is not an epithet. You live in a Christian country. Be thankful for it. In case you haven’t noticed, the alternatives are a lot worse.
“Christmas Trees” have nothing to do with the true meaning of Christmas at all. Its a relic from the pagan days in Germany. As a Christian, I would not mind at all if the trees were completely eliminated, along with the secular exploitation of our beliefs into selling junk.
As per the “Piss Christ”…my faith is strong enough that I need not the validation of some hack artist. It speaks of the greatness of the Christian Faith that there are no symbolic taboos akin to the nonsense that the Muhammad’s have. You could burn the flag, the bible, or anything else for all I care…they are meaningless to the power of Christ.
“I would not mind at all if the trees were completely eliminated”…..
Question. What other traditions would you not “mind” being eliminated and who would you like to designate, or have designated by the authorities, to do the eliminating? Is it possible that there is a future for you as a “Religious Traditions Coordinator and Adjustment Czar”? Maybe so.
Merry Christmas!
I claim to speak for no one. I apologize for daring to point out that much of this nonsense is set to protect the exploitation of our Lord Jesus Christ as a money making tool. I care not for the actions of a secular authority as ultimately it is meaningless. Christmas Trees have as much to do with Christianity as Chinese Food has to Judaism. I will pray for you Yooper that you turn away from your dark path for we all are sinners.
You’re really thick, are you?
This isn’t about Christmas trees at all, it’s about the focussed and constant destruction of Christian symbols and values by American (in particular, but western in general) politicians.
And oh, if you’re not against abolishing and banning any Christian symbol as long as it’s not “originally Christian” you’re no doubt also not against banning the holy cross? After all, it isn’t originally Christian but was merely adopted by them, inspired by the cross used to crucify criminals in the Roman empire, several hundred years after Christ was so executed for crimes against the person of the emperor.
If the actions of a secular authority influences your actions as a believer in Jesus Christ, I weep for you. The logic you are implying indicate that the original Christians should have never practice the faith as the official religion of the time was paganism. You seem to think that secular support from governments is required for Christians to exist. I’m not sure if its the theology or the history that you are ignoring that saddens me more.
The US government could outlaw all of Christianity, force everyone into Scientology or some other nonsense, and it would not matter. Claiming that the US is somehow a country based on Christianity is an insult to Christ. No part of the US government, both domestically and internationally, is based on the tenets of Christianity.
Gaining approval of secular authorities gives control of religious matters to them. For example, the fiasco involving marriage. This is a complete non-issue except that US citizens gave what was once the domain of the church, to the government. Now marriage involves tax benefits and other legal issues and its no wonder that the sodomites want the same. Had we not demanded the secular authorities to recognize religious marriages, this issue would not exist.
JT, if you are dependent on Congress, the President, or any other elected official or judge to validate your faith, you need to refocus your attention on the love of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t need the US government.
Diablo says “Claiming that the US is somehow a country based on Christianity is an insult to Christ. No part of the US government, both domestically and internationally, is based on the tenets of Christianity.”
Wow – you aren’t just a joyless grouch, you are completely missing the mark. The founding fathers were Christians and as such understood that man was incompetent to rule over other men.
Don’t take my word for it: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”
Their entire purpose was not to create a government based on Christian principles, but as Christians, they wanted to create a system that checked the power of man to rule over other men.
Go read Conservative Wanderer (comment #21) He’s got it right. You – eh..not so much.
Christ wasn’t born on December 25th but in spring. The church wanted to make it easier for pagans to turn christian and so they changed his birth date to the date the pagans celebrated the yule festival, the logic being you can go to the old temples and celebrate on the same old dates and only the deity has been changed. Gargoyles in churches, Christmas trees, picture of Zeus as the creator is all paganism infused into Christianity.
A visitor to the United States military college at West Point asked why cadets marched from class to class with their hands closed in a particular way rather than with fingers fully extended. He was told by the commandant, “If I can get my cadets to march in a particular way right down to the way in which they close their hands, I can get them to do anything.”
The politically correct language police used the same tactics. The effect is profound. If tyrants can persuade us by social pressure or by decree to use particular words in everyday life, they can get us to think and do almost anything.
Political correctness has a specific lineage that I traced here: http://clarespark.com/2011/10/24/turning-points-in-the-ascentdecline-of-the-west/. There is much more detail in the last link to my memoir of days at Pacifica Radio, surely a site of Islamic penetration.
I know Harvard Yard very well, and especially admire the statue of Charles Sumner located a hop and a skip away.Political correctness was the last thing he had in mind.
Reference please. This anecdote does not ring true to me. Cadets are taught to obey orders, but the idea of a Commandant/Superintendent specifying a marching posture element for the sake of mindless obedience is at West Point or any other military academy is highly suspect. Just doesn’t seem to match the culture.
Thank you for your article and Merry Christmas
FM 22-5
Not to rain on your parade, but…
Long before is was a “Christmas” tree, it was a Yule tree. The tradition predated Christ. It never really was a fully Christian tradition. There’s no theological connection. It’s just a shiny green thing with sparkly stuff.
@snork
You’re right. It does have origins in Germanic pagan culture. Whether it’s a “Christmas tree” or a “Yule tree” it still stands true that it’s NOT a generic “Holiday tree”. That’s like saying “life-cycle celebration cake”.
All you had to say was “Bah Humbug”.
The (Christmas tree/yule tree) tidbit is a Trivial Pursuit question— because it’s trivia…
Merry Christmas!
So? Before the ascension of Christianity in the Roman Empire, December 25 was called Saturnalia, which was the occasion for a huge drunken carouse in which rape and assault were frequent components. Some cultures observed that date with sacrifices to Amon Ra, pleading with him to allow the return of the Sun.
Christianity has absorbed the Yule tree and the December 25 holiday. They are now explicitly Christian symbols; without Christianity, they would evince no reference whatsoever. (Find me an American who worships Cronus the Titan or Amon Ra.) And America is a preponderantly Christian country — 74% at the last census.
“Find me an American who worships Cronus the Titan or Amon Ra”
Out of a population of 300+ millions there are probably a few here and there … and they all voted for Obama.
Here’s what they are doing in schools today. These are the children from my grandaughter’s private school singing that old Christmas favorite “We Wish You a Happy Holiday”. If you listen carefully can hear one child singing the word “merry” drowned out by the rest.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-8PCJ5kHDU
The little cutie in the lavender sweater belongs to me.
Yes, the alternatives are much worse. During Christmas Eve Services tonight I thought about how fortunate we are to be able worship openly without fear of anyone bursting in to beat us, imprison us or worse. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have such fear. I pray we never have to experience it for ourselves.
Those who hate Christ, hate G-d the Father.
What bothers me, is pagans use to worship Tammuz at the winter Soltice, then the Universal Church took this pagan Holiday, and made it Christmas.
I suppose we will not be sent to hell for having a birthday party for Christ. But, I believe he was born in the spring as Shephards watched their flocks.
Anyway, Merry Christmas.
Leatherneck: so do I, about April….when the sheep were lambing.
Anyway, whenever we celebrate – MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Stand up and speak out every chance you get. Don’t be silent. Raise the very issues brought to fore in this piece whenever you can. We cannot afford to be silent and polite while the very fabric of who we are as a people is being cut and stripped and reshaped into a horrid form. This is about something much larger than a Christmas tree and we all know it.
I’m an Orthodox Jew, and Christmas trees do not offend me. So long as you do not force me to celebrate Christmas, please feel free to do whatever you want.
And I will not be offended if you wish me a Merry Christmas. I have no objection to people being happy. People who get offended by Christmas need to get a life.
Just wanted to go on the record.
Peace on earth to men of good will. You, Ephraim, are a man of good will. Thank you for your comment.
Gee, thanks for being so magnanimous. Your slur regarding us not forcing you to celebrate Christmas goes much further in who you really are which is a pig. You take advantage of our nation, our laws and our tolerance and you have the audacity to make such a statement.
You keep pushing us and one day we will fight back.
WT?!? How on earth could ANYONE take offence to that? Get a grip.
Wow! What a looooooser. Get a life!
The ACLU and most Democrats belong to a secular religion called Progressivism which advocates humans as dictator gods (this is why Obama could get away with his King Canute-like claims about stopping rising oceans). It is why the starving North Koreans have to publicly cry when their chubby hedonist in chief dies.
…and then pickle him so they have something to worship.
Holiday Tree eh?
Tell you what.
Gather yourself up a bunch of those there Holiday Trees and open up a lot say in June selling the trees for the Fourth of July Holiday.
Lemme know how many of those there Holiday Trees you move.
I am Jewish also and sad to see that people need to jump through so many hoops just to celebrate Christmas for what it is. To me as a non Christian I think it is a magnificent holiday, filled with tradition, family values and all the best that religious faith can offer. It is encouraging that despite all of the negativity, this happens every year.
Our world would be a lesser place without this holiday. I like this time and all that goes with it. No need to rebrand it as something else. Just enjoy and celebrate.
Merry Christmas
Spindok
Thank you for your kind words.
It’s sad indeed when someone’s tender feelings carry more weight than the rule of law.
I’m an atheist, but I embrace Christmas as a tradition of my own, as it belongs to my cultural and social inheritance. I reject the concept of a god, but I never will be against Western Civilization. And that is what this Christmas issue is about.
Western civilization is an expression of Christianity. Without Christianity there is no free western civilization as we know it.
The God you reject is the very source from which the concept of freedom originates.
I’m just trying to get this into some kind of frame work that I can understand, it bounces off the logic center in my brain like a cube shaped ball.
Some people I grew up around enjoyed the many benefits of wealthy parents, and yet they completely rejected their parents too. I guess it’s something like that.
“I guess it’s something like that.”
Not so much.
One can acknowledge the positive influences that Christianity has had on our culture, accept and adopt the good ideas that came from it without accepting supernatural beliefs. To reject the good ideas and positive concepts just because one rejects the supernatural would be illogical. Democracy was born from a pagan culture, yet we do not reject it.
I am an atheist. I am not offended by Christmas celebrations, or any Christian celebrations for that matter. I have a Christmas tree in my home and I wish people merry Christmas all the time.
I am an atheist but it angers me when Christians are attacked for celebrating their holidays. I have seen many Christians react with confusion or become defensive when I tell them that most atheists ( all of the ones I know) would give their lives fighting for American Christians right to freely practice their religion. Atheist or not, I was born in a Christian country, a country I love. I will defend it and celebrate it , it’s people, and it’s culture with my life.
Great article.
The liberals, ACLU, non-believers and universities can be as intolerant and politically correct as they want. But the fact remains that the overwhelming majority of Americans believe in God and that Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. You don’t have to hang lights or put up a tree. You don’t have to share giving which is one of the most important elements of Jesus. You can pass by a nativity scene without a thought of what it stands for. You can be cynical, insulting, and full of hate over it. But if it wasn’t for the belief in Jesus Christ, you would be living in a country of oppression, tyranny,persecution,scarcity and slavery.
Merry Christmas
Its the secular progressive war on Christianity. Remember it was Michelle Obama who said we would have to have new traditions, new holdiays. The War on Chrisitianity is just one way to implement it. So we replace the Christmas Tree with the Holdiay Tree and the Easter Egg with the Spring Egg. And drip by drip, we lose. The Left are an intolerant bunch. Speech codes and intolerance are the left’s tool.
First Lady?
She is an extremist racist and married to our President so what does that make him?
Didn’t know that? Or, how do I know?
A simple reading of her Princeton thesis will make it very clear.
She, “Can’t imagine how blacks can feel comfortable in a room with whites”.
She mourns that she will face “further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant”.
etc etc
Take a look at the Oct 8th talkback and download the thesis if you want to.
http://tinyurl.com/3qzhcu5
But it’s not very pleasant reading and she doesn’t even come across as very bright.
Well said Abe and Merry Christmas !
I think the attack on Christianity and the acquiescence of Islam is due to fear.
Christians continue to turn the other cheek whereas those in power, whether they be politicians or school principals etc know that there will be a huge outcry followed by violence if Muslims are not catered to.
And the take over of host countries by Muslims would seem planned rather than random.
Take a look at this ..
http://www.ourchangingglobe.com/islams-goal-in-laymans-terms/
From a best selling book on the subject entitled, “Slavery, Terrorism and Islam.
Merry Christmas, one and all.
In the New Testament, Paul was preaching the Gospel in Ephasus (Acts 19)and the merchants who sold Diana Goddess merchandise became enraged because Paul was discouraging Diana worship and the sale of their silver idols. Christmas is the biggest commercial holiday in America. If the people who object to “Christmas” keep disrupting the worship of Jesus and the sale of Christmas merchandise, the merchants will become enraged and attack the Christmas Objectors. So, if you are one who despises Christmas, Christ and everything associated with Christmas, Beware the Merchant’s WRATH.
Merry Christmas!
From an email I received last nite:
Radical stuff, hmmm?
best post by far – thanks!
Merry Christmas!
Excellent!
Christianity is seen as a competitor to the absolute awe and reliance due the federal government, it’s power, control, it’s image, false as it is. Leftists will brook no other faith, tolerate no other belief, Being aggressive freaks they can’t abide a divided loyalty. Of course they have,or in their twisted minds think they have, tolerance for other faiths, islam in particular. But only in so far as they can be used to weaken the status of Christianity. Islam in particular is favored because of it’s destructive miltancy, and of course they, it, kills people, always a plus to the barely subsumed murderous hate in the leftist, rat like mind.
Just wanted to add my thoughts. I am a Jewish lady (not Orthodox), however I enjoy the Christmas season. It is a time for family get-togethers and another chance to be thankful and grateful to our friends, neighbors, and co-workers for all the wonderful things that they do through-out the year.
Annual Christmas cards/Christmas letters are a beautiful way to keep in touch with those who are out-of-touch for most of the year, yet are more personal than electronic messages. It is a lovely tradition in this impersonal world. Christmas decorations and Christmas music add light, harmony & melody to our surroundings… why should we ever get rid of Christmas??
I want to wish everyone here a Happy Winter’s Solstice and Kwanza. It’s a very special time of year to celebrate these ancient holidays of giving thanks to Mother Earth for the bounty She gives to Her children. I don’t believe in “prayer” generally, but I think a few quick words (spoken to oneself, please!) are in order this grand time of the year. This truly is a time of community and communal realtionships, which we need to build upon in a national movement. I know that deep down inside most people’s black, corrupt, materialistic hearts, there is a light of hope. Let’s work together this upcoming year to invest this hope in the few men and womyn who will create a new society and move the human race forward toward true communal happiness!
Is’nt Kwansa only about 40 years old? Brought to the government plantation by a Felon?
In the New Age everyone is good inside, so how can anyone have a black heart? You’re a bit behind your fellow New Agers. I’m not sure I can trust your intent here.
As a Christian, wife, mother, and womAn, I find your statement offensive, insensitive, and mean-spirited. Keep your feminist paganism to yourself.
…So, did you enjoy being on the other end of intolerance?
Please read “1984″. And the source for “there is a light of hope.” is GOD.
Merry Christmas and may you enjoy the fruits of Christianity for years to come.
Many Jewish and atheistic leaders believe that they can eliminate Christianity from the US and Europe, and replace it with a tolerant, secular, multicultural society. Unfortunately, the void left by the elimination of Christianity is being filled by Islam and anti-social nihilism.
“Many Jewish…” How’s things on Sturm und Front?
So, where is it in the Torah that commands killing all goyim? Got any video clips of rabid rabbis calling for the murder of Christians?
I could not agree with you more nor could I express it so succinctly! Happy Holidays.
The abolition of the word “Christmas” is the same semantic gibberish as changing “B.C.” to “B.C.E.” Meanwhile Muslims are pandered to out of sheer fear in the same way Latinos are pandered to out of sheer numbers and refusal to obey laws; the first illegal shanty towns in America are just around the corner – it will be a melding of OWS and Latino notions of “law” which is to say there are none.
No American artist has the balls to make a “Piss Mohamed” – partly out of fear and partly out of the fact that Muslims occupy the politically correct space the Left loves. Ironically self-censorship in America when it comes to Muslims is the greatest reason to not have them here compared to other groups since Muslims are by far the most feared group in America.
If only a few million Muslims can do this in the heart of America, it is easy to understand how they operate in their own countries and why they have so little use for democracy or the greater good. Why vote when you can throw a molotov?
I is just the political constipated continuing their ruinous actions toward the successful. Next time one of the these peons confront you, tell them how it actually is and remember it is their lack of education and that it all is just ignorant constipation.
Perhaps we should point out that the word ‘holiday’ comes from ‘Holy Day’, forcing federal and state governments to ‘un-recognize’ them. We can’t have paid Holy Days, can we?
What most, if not all, self-righteous christians are so completely ignorant to is Christmas itself is the revamping of a pagan Roman holiday, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual birth date of Jesus. The christians have been seriously duped by the ancient elders who created a religion from myths and handed-down campfire tales about a man who taught that spiritual discovery could be discovered within one’s self without the need of a disingenuously dogmatic hierarchy.
Yeah thanks, we didn’t all know that by the time of 8. We’re all blind compared to you and this stunning revelation.
Then you’re really gonna be shocked when you learn virgins cannot get pregnant. The point I’m trying to make is that most christians are completely clueless about the real life of Jesus, instead choosing to hang their beliefs on the myths and fairy tales that surround his life as demanded by the religious hierarchy.
Faith does not require evidence. It requires…faith. Just ask Michael Mann and the rest of the Gaia Warming zealots.
Not true. Mother Mary aside, those little wigglers can find their way to the target even if penetration has not occurred, if there has been sufficient proximity. And let us not forget the advent of syringes.
If one postulates the existence of a Being who can create the entire earth and the universe around it, then how hard would making a viable sperm in the right place at the right time be for this Being?
That’s fine for you, Rebel. But I would prefer to continue my own, meaningful celebration of Christmas, Just the way I want to.
If that’s okay with you.
Or even if it’s not.
That’s fine for you, Rebel. But I would prefer to continue my own, meaningful celebration of Christmas, Just the way I want to.
If that’s okay with you.
Or even if it’s not.
Ok, Rebel. You really are fearless. My, my. Speaking truth to power yet again.
Now let’s hear your rant about Mohammet, buddy.
Thank you, Dr. Miller, for hitting the target directly on center. The Governor’s avoidance of the term “Christmas” is part of a decades long effort to destroy the influence of Christianity and Christians in academic discourse, societal decision making and governmental deliberations. Those engaged in such efforts forget that without the Christian Utopean experiment called the “American Republic,” we would have had no refuge from the religious intolerance of other places. For that matter, without Christianity, and Jesus of Nazerath and the Bible, we would yet have slavery (remember, it was the Baptists of England, who’s Christ-informed sensitivities grieved over the cruelty of slavery, and who accomplished its demise throughout the British Empire. It was American Christians, especially Baptists, but Bible-centered Christianity that took up the challenge in America.)
Americans who seek to destroy the influence of Christ-centered Christianity in America are like children playing in a straw house with a box of kitchen matches. They have no grasp of the impact of their actions. They think their exalted secular society, and religion-free thinking will march in to fill the vacuum they hope to create!; that they will be in control of the cart they have began to let loose down the hill. When German liberalism had finished with a decades long rant against the influence of the Bible and Bible-based Christianity, filling their educational and governmental institutions with Hegel’s nonsense, existential religious reflections, and a wide-range of soul-emptying speculations, the vacuum was filled by the Neitchean superman-wannabe. Having dulled the society’s instincts for sensing evil, that society became the instrumentality for profound evil. And secularists, like the enabler Governor of NJ, either lined up to salute the devil enfleshed or were sent to the concentration camps with Jewish people and Bible-believing Christians. Ditto for the anti-God Marxist Utopeas. When the influence of Christ and Christians and Christianity are derailed in a society, something will come calling to fill the vacuume. If its sharia law, at least there will be no camps.
For some of the other comments: its not about the Chrismas Tree or about the time when Christmas is celebrated, or whether its celebrated at all: its about Christianity in America, what ever its emblems. Soon, they’ll start chiseling the Scripture quotations off the monuments, to further obliterate references to Christianity and the Bible from our historical memory.
Thank you, Dr. Miller, for your marvelous insights. May the lights of Christmas and Hanukka fill your home!
Nothing will destroy the American ideals of freedom, liberty, and justice for all faster than implementing theocratic dogma into what should be secular governance of the people. I don’t expect anyone to agree with my atheism, yet christians remain determined to shove their superstitious beliefs down everybody’s throat via legislative process and expect all citizens to accept it or be persecuted for their lack of faith. That christians consider themselves a persecuted people in America is disingenuous and laughable.
Christianity as a theory has a very limited place within academic, social, and governmental deliberations given it’s indisputable lack of any credible, tangible, verifiable, measurable, and scientifically valid evidence whatsoever.
As an atheist American, I will defend the right for myself and family to be educated and governed and live our lives without religious influence. And I will also defend the right of people to worship as they deem appropriate as long as they refrain from trying to reform this nation into a christian theocracy, which our founding fathers absolutely did not intend.
Your atheism informs your daily actions, and because of our country’s freedom OF religion, no one tells you to leave your atheism at home or to discount it when making decisions–such as voting. Likewise, others’ religion informs their actions, and you have no right to tell them to leave their religion at home or to discount it when making decisions.
The Founders did NOT declare freedom FROM religion. So you’ll just have to put up with the religious majority doing horrible things like building and attending churches, feeding the poor, and doing other faith-based things.
If you want to live in a place where offensive thoughts and beliefs of others don’t besmirch you, there are plenty of unpopulated places on Earth where you can pitch a tent.
Not surprisingly, my words have been misconstrued by someone unwilling to comprehend the entirety of the issue. Christians are quite adept at adorning the mantle of victimhood whenever someone defies their beliefs, and have a bad habit of walking around with a chip on their shoulder.
The founders intended our government to be secular without intruding upon the peoples right to worship as they choose. Neither did they intend for anyones personal religious beliefs ~ or non-beliefs ~ to be subject to forced theocratic legislation. America was never intended to be a christian nation, but a nation where a diversity of beliefs is accepted and tolerated. That’s called separation of church and state.
I have no objection to christians, or muslims, hindus, wiccans, or buddhists for that matter, adorning their personal property with religious symbols, or gathering into congregations or covens and participating in their preferred religious ceremonies. But lately we’ve got certain people howling because their pagan-based Christmas holiday, the celebration of which has nothing to do with the timing of Jesus’ birth, isn’t viewed with the same superstitious piety they self-righteously think it deserves. To them I say, if you can’t handle being greeted with a “Happy holidays”instead of a “Merry Christmas”, stay in your homes from Thanksgiving through December so you don’t get your feelings hurt.
Sounds like you want to give the appearance of looking for a fight. If you really think Christians are trying to shove anything down your throat, why not find another neighborhood? Nationally, the media are on your side.
If you’re an athiest, that doesn’t exclude you from making judgements on belief systems. Go for it. And explain, in disinterested fashion, how they’re all just basically the same, and how nobody benefits more or less from living as Christian or under islam. True atheism is non-belief, not simply going to the trouble of saying there is no God. I was an atheist and there is nothing less complicated in religious terms. God is not an issue, period.
As for pagan based symbols, who cares? I mean, really. Martin Luther was the latter day Christian proponent of the Christmas Tree ( w/ apologia to boot ). What does a Christmas Tree mean today? It means, Christmas, of course. Just as, conversely, “holiday,” means a day off, whatever etymology takes us back to “holy day” is so dusty that nobody but an etymologist would care.
So, I wish you a Merry Christmas and you can wish me whatever you want.
“Not surprisingly, my words have been misconstrued by someone unwilling to comprehend the entirety of the issue.”
Not surprisingly because you do not make sense. If you find living here so detestable go live in Cuba or N. Korea… Surely your wish to live in a religious vacuum could be better accomodated in those places.
Until then I hope you continue to suffer all the indignities you feel every hour of every day by living in this Christian nation.
Go suck an egg!!
good article! creeping sharia is a definite problem, especially where I live, only about 30 miles from Dearbornistan.
one correction tho and it’s kind of an important one: it’s the “Thomas MORE” Legal Center, not “Moore.”
the reason this isn’t just a random cranky typo thing is that it was named after Saint Thomas More, the Christian martyr who was beheaded by Henrey VIII when Sir Thomas wouldn’t sanction his marriage to Anne Boleyn. Thomas More was one of the heroes of Christianity (and Catholicism in particular) so I thought it was worth mentioning.
I would like to hear less from More.
As an atheist, I find the shunning of the word Christmas stupid. The phrase is “Merry Christmas”, not “Happy Holidays”. I’ve even gotten a card from one couple I know that said “Happy Winter”, which has got to be the stupidest thing I ever heard.
Still, I gotta object when you say that people are preventing you from praying or having a moment of silence at a school function. Since you can pray anytime you want and noone will know it (or are you required to say your prayer out loud?), they can’t stop you from praying. What is prohibited is having an authority figure at a school LEAD you in a prayer, which is something entirely different.
I’m all with you on the “Merry Christmas” thing, but seriously, you religious folks have got to take the chip off your shoulder when it comes to school LED prayer. NOONE IS STOPPING YOU FROM PRAYING! Just do it to yourself, for yourself and stop trying to make other people do it. Having an authority figure LEAD in a prayer is no different than having an authority figure LEAD you in your political thinking. Political viewpoints and religious belief are individual rights, so do them individually, thank you.
+1 compadre.
Atheist wading in here. For what its worth I’ve read many but not all comments here. I believe the Framers dictated freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. I don’t care what angle a person comes from but to me being a rational person secure in whatever belief suits you also means tolerance for whoever and whatever you may encounter. Intolerance of differing faiths means lack of faith in your own. It is a matter of respect for your fellow man which seems to be severely lacking these days. To me organized religion is a farce but that doesn’t mean I can’t respect the beliefs of others. All day today I’ve wished folks merry Christmas because I’m secure in my Atheism and also, in the spirit of harmony, want to meet folks in a pleasant setting. At no point in my life am I out to shove my show on anyone else. The amount of intolerance between religions/beliefs is appalling and if more folks would extend to those of other faiths the level of respect they expect towards their own faith the world would be a much better place.
They seek not just accommodation but privilege to impose the culture.. no matter that was that culture .. that meade them run away from their countries
It makes my eyes spin in my head to hear the intolerant scream of their ‘right’ to receive tolerance – while refusing to give it. God bless you, Abe, for showing what REAL tolerance is.
Merry Christmas – and Happy Hannukah!
What I find fascinating about the Christians lamenting the secularization of Christmas is that they themselves are responsible for it!
Advent, for example, was once a somber time of reflection, repentance, and preparation. Christians didn’t decorate, put up a tree, or hang stockings until Christmas Eve. Today, Advent is kicked off by Black Friday at 12:00 AM after Thanksgiving and is a raucous time of celebration and maxing out credit cards.
Many Christmas symbols Christians use are wholly pagan in origin. Holly, mistletoe, and even the Christmas Tree and exchanging of gifts are pagan symbols and rites appropriated by Christians to ease the transformation from the seasons pagan roots.
So before all you good Christians start bemoaning Christmas’ faltering religious significance in this nation, take a good hard look at just why that’s happening and who’s really the cause.
I hope everybody had a very enjoyable Winter Solstice!
Twas thousands of years before Christmas, and all over the world, ancient civilizations honored the sun. Didn’t matter where they lived — Northern Europe or Britain or Egypt or Rome. Can you blame them? (Especially considering there was no electricity?) Anyway, as the shortest day of the year, Winter Solstice symbolized rebirth; literally, the rebirth of the Sun God: The beginning of longer, warmer days, plants/crops growing again, trees bearing fruit … you get the idea. The triumph of life over death.
So the Winter Solstice, also known as Yule or Saturnalia, was definitely a reason to party! The go-to decor for home and temple? Evergreen boughs, which, because they are ever green, symbolize eternal life. The Vikings even thought that the evergreen was a special plant of their sun god, Balder. The Romans, on the other hand, thought holly was the special plant of their agricultural god, Saturn.
The Druids, meanwhile, cut mistletoe from oak trees and gave it as a blessing. Because they considered oak trees to be sacred, the winter fruit of the mistletoe represented life in the cold and darkness. The Druids also came up with the Yule log, meant to illuminate the darkness and banish evil spirits. Indeed, fire was an important element of most solstice festivities (more of that light/sun/life thing), which explains that string of lights around your blue spruce and the candles in the windows.
John 3:16-17
King James Version (KJV)
16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
*********************
I readily admit that I’ve seen no demonstration of convincing proof that that above statements from St. John are true, and yet, the belief that God loves us has profound implications about our nature and our relationships to one another. How are you supposed to treat someone who is loved by God?
It seems to me that the world would be a poorer, unhappier place without the fundamental belief that makes Christmas special to Christians, and it also seems that we need the curmudgeons to remind us about the way we fall short in acting upon that belief.
I have known fundamentalist oriented Christians who call the Christmas tree a Pagan Tree.
The Christmas Tree was a protestant Tree before it became generalized among Christians.
Christmas trees were only in about 20% of American homes by 1900.
So whats the big deal?
Kwanzaa, A Racist Festivus
It was a shock, a shock I tell you, to discover that Festivus, the holiday for the rest of us, was not the brainchild of Frank Costanza, George’s father on “Seinfeld.” Close enough, it was the creation of “Seinfeld” screenwriter, Daniel O’Keefe, whose family has celebrated Festivus on December 23rd for 45 years.
As such, the faux holiday pre-dated another phony festival, Kwanzaa. The chief difference between the two is that everyone watching “Seinfeld” knew Festivus was a joke. Kwanzaa is a joke as well but few people are aware it is also a racist-inspired, Marxist creation of an ex-con black revolutionary.
Maulana Ron Karenga, born Ronald McKinley Everett, invented Kwanzaa two years after being released from prison. Along with two others, the cult leader had been convicted of felonious assault and false imprisonment for kidnapping and torturing dissident cult members Deborah Jones and Gail Davis.
Ms. Jones testified he had ordered them to strip naked and beat them with an electric cord. Gun in hand, Everett/Karenga supervised as a hot soldering iron and detergent were forced into their mouths and a water hose was turned “full force on their faces.”
The inventor of Kwanzaa and co-founder of Organization Us, (United slaves), a black nationalist group implicated in the 1969 murders of two Black Panthers at UCLA, proudly admitted to being a white-hater influenced by the teachings of fellow ex-con and African-American revolutionary Malcolm X.
He went on to become a prolific author and Chairman of the Department of Africana Studies at the University of California, Long Beach.
Quite the résumé and quite the testimony to the greatness of a country in which a convicted, vicious torturer can rise from the ashes of a career in thuggery and anti-Americanism to the lofty heights of originator of a national holiday, of sorts, and to the prestigious position of departmental chairmanship at a noted university, albeit a California university.
Maulana Ron Karenga-Elliott is quite the man and Kwanzaa is quite a holiday.
Precisely what inspired Karenga-Elliott to institute the first black holiday in 1966 in a nation devoid of any “white holidays” is unclear. However, considering the inventor’s seamy background, Marxist philosophy, and the fact Kwanzaa was hatched at the height of the black power movement, it can reasonably be assumed the inspiration wasn’t love of Caucasians, love of country, or an insatiable desire for peaceful co-existence and integration.
Like Karenga-Elliott, Kwanzaa is a joke, a fake, and a fraud. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=11928.)