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December 16, 2005
News flash: Christmas is for Christians
It's really quite simple: If you believe Christ is the Lord then by all means celebrate His birthday and hold true to all that is near and dear to you and your faith. If you are an atheist, agnostic, Satanist or a member of a religion that doesn't accept Christ as the savior, please excuse millions of human beings worldwide as they humbly give thanks to Mary, Joseph and Jesus. This is America; the country with a Bill of Rights and chief among those rights is the freedom of religion. That means the freedom to practice any religion and the freedom to not practice any religion in any way whatsoever. Whatever happened to the good old days when people could say Merry Christmas at the mall, at school, at work and anywhere else they felt like greeting somebody during the month of December? Are we really that easily offended? Christians come in all stripes and colors and exist - sometimes perilously - in almost every nation on the planet, even in the Middle East for those of you who live in a world the size of a thumbtack. What I don't understand is the growing accusation that somehow the mainstream media, whatever that label means, is at fault for all of this silliness. Nobody from Stephens Media Group has ordered any of its newspaper editors to not use Christmas, or to replace the Christmas season with the holiday season lest we offend someone who is not a Christian. December 25 is the day Christians have determined Jesus Christ was born. This is their day and they have a right to observe it in any fashion they wish. The hypocrisy of it is this: Christians and non-Christians alike use "the holiday season" as a reason to put up trees, string lights from here to Katmandu, take out a second mortgage on the house to fund the purchase of gifts for friends and family, and act like civilized people for one month out of the year. And Christmas is for kids. There isn't a more magical moment in life than looking at a wide-eyed child viciously unwrap his or her presents on Christmas morning. At dawn. With sleep in our eyes and joy in our hearts. If form follows logic, men and women won't be able to celebrate their wedding anniversary because the man down the road is divorced and the couple's happiness might depress him. Let's cancel the Fourth of July because the fifth of July feels left out. And forget about Thanksgiving. What the hell do some people have to be thankful for? Their lives suck and they do everything they can to make certain yours does too. We wouldn't want to upset the bitterest among us, would we? The argument regarding nativity scenes displayed at public buildings is more difficult to defend, but there is a solution. Rather than ban Jesus from the courthouse, why don't we make certain we put up similar displays for those of other persuasions? A menorah for those of the Jewish faith would be one way to educate the masses for example, or we could put up peace-touting text from Islam's Koran during Ramadan, or erect a huge bong for Rastafarians' big day, whenever that might be. A Harley-Davidson for the biker gathering in Sturgis would be a pretty cool observance, as would a statue from the guy on "Will and Grace" for Gay Pride Week. Heck, the entire year could be one never-ending "holiday season." We can address the incredible diversity of our nation by showing tolerance to all true believers regardless of what they truly believe. The way things are today; we're just ticking off hundreds of millions of people by banning all faiths - and non-faiths - from a seat at the table. In the meantime, let's not forget Christmas is a Christian holiday. Whatever our personal beliefs are we should respect our uniquely American right to be what we want to be - a right the guy and gal next door also enjoys whether he or she is a devout Muslim, Jew, Christian - or someone who is devoid of spiritual inclinations and has no faith at all. On the downside of Christmas and what has become of the holiday, I'm sick and tired of financial forecasters - who are paid by retailers and lent legitimacy by the government - warning Americans that if we don't spend way more than we can afford every Christmas the economy is going to go to hell in a hand basket. How guilty can they make us feel? Oh, you're gouging me with a 950 percent markup and I'm supposed to pony up the cash or some former goat herder in Malaysia might lose the employment you gave him when you moved your plant and its 500 jobs out of Los Angeles? I'm supposed to feel sorry for you because I can't afford to pay hundreds of dollars for a game that doesn't possess $11 dollars worth of parts? And another thing, what's up with people trampling one another to get their hands on the newest fad available at a store near you? I don't want to offend anyone, but is that how Jesus would have behaved? Not even when he was in his terrible twos. Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com. |
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