It’s “War on Christmas” time again, so let me suggest a tactic that might make those who don’t appreciate the insulting nature of wishing someone “Happy Holidays” take the Christian Warriors more seriously.
Listen, guys, if you really want to make the case that everyone needs to acknowledge the sanctity of Christmas and implicitly, the cultural and moral superiority of your belief system, here’s a great way to do that: start acting like Christians. Not just in December, either, but all year.
It’s really hard for Jews, Muslins, Pagans, et al to respect your demands for obeisance when you blithely and consistently ignore the rules upon which your claims of Christian superiority are based.
When people see you refusing to pay your employees a living wage, when they see you get all pissy about the very idea of giving poor folks access to health insurance, that doesn’t look very Christian to them.
When elected officials like Mike Pence publicly parade their piety but then screw over 400,000 Hoosiers by refusing to use federal dollars to expand Medicaid–all the while pontificating about the need for poor people to take “personal responsibility”–you can’t blame other folks for wondering whether they missed that place in your bible where Jesus refused to share loaves and fishes with the irresponsible masses.
When you make shit up in order to bolster your political arguments, when you get oh-so-offended because someone wished you well without including the magic words, when you wrap yourself in a blanket of victimization whenever a court doesn’t allow you to impose your beliefs on people who don’t share them….well, it gets really hard to see the light of Christian charity in your behavior.
Maybe you’d have better luck–and earn more respect– if you lived in accordance with the religion you want to cram down everyone else’s throat.
Just a thought.
To me; Happy Holidays during this time of year includes Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukka, Kwanza, New Year, Winter Solstice, et al. This way I am not excluding anyone who celebrates whatever their personal holiday happens to be. The anti-religious rules that effected decorations on Monument Circle this time of year have always seemed silly to me. Rather than excluding one religion, why not add others to the lights and music under our famous Christmas tree? How do we follow those anti-religious rulings and continue lighting our Christmas tree to great fanfare?
During Goldsmith’s administration there was a radio talk show host here, Stan Solomon. He wasn’t here long due to his ugly public rants. I can still laugh at his comment one morning in November when he announced that the lighting of the Monument Circle Christmas tree would be done by Goldsmith and himself, both Jews.
It seems to me these days saying “Merry Christmas” (or, as I like to say to throw people off a little, “Happy Christmas”) is not a religious message. It can be akin to “Have a nice day,” or “Happy Friday.” Jews, Muslims, atheists, et al. can enjoy Christmas day like any other day–maybe even more since the gods of commercialism generally aren’t open.
I look forward to the day when the Christianists realize that their oppression exists only in their own minds.
Spot on Professor!