War on Christmas

Andrew 83 · 11-12-2005 02:12PM

nesf wrote:

It offends people now?

I wonder if they'll change the name of Ramadan to international dieting month next.

Exactly.

People need to get a grip of themselves. If they don't want to celebrate Christmas they shouldn't celebrate anything on December 25th or at this time of year. Turning everything into a secular substitute of itself is nonsense. Leave Christmas to those who want to celebrate it instead of forcing non-religious substitutes down everyone's throats. You don't see, as this guy says, people trying to force a secular version of Ramadan or any other festivals that I've seen.

Necronomicon · 11-12-2005 02:31PM

It's ridiculous. If I had a Jewish room-mate I wouldn't have a problem with them celebrating Honica. Christmas is my favourite time of year, and I'll be damned if I'm going to let anyone tell me I can't celebrate it because it offends them.

projectmayhem · 11-12-2005 03:02PM

Karl Hungus wrote:

Best Xmas T-Shirt EVAR!

lmao

NotMe · 11-12-2005 03:48PM

Down with Christmas! :v:

GLaDOS · 11-12-2005 05:26PM

Whats next? Happy 25th day of December?

Hagar · 11-12-2005 05:45PM

Roar wrote:

Jon Stewart's waging war on Xmas too...

I think the war is being won. Who is the X in Xmas? Who took the Christ out of Christmas?:(

boneless · 11-12-2005 05:53PM

Hagar wrote:

I think the war is being won. Who is the X in Xmas? Who took the Christ out of Christmas?:(

Actually, the X goes back to the emperor Constantine... the Greek Chi-ro symbol was used for Christ... it resembles a Roman alphabet X.

Hagar · 11-12-2005 05:58PM

Never too old to learn something new. Thanks.

BlitzKrieg · 11-12-2005 06:19PM

Does anyone have links to reports (outside of FOX) of people getting into trouble for saying merrry christmas, schools banning the word christmas and the colours green and red?

I know shops have 'Happy Holidays' cards etc, but thats been around for years and is nothing to go screaming mad over. Commercialism has already shat all over both the original pagen and the christian meaning of christmas, so why is it a bother that they say 'Happy Holidays' (funnily enough when i was younger i assumed Happy Holidays meant the period before christmas day, and one only says merry christmas on christmas day).

As far as i can see this had been blown out of porportion by both sides.

Blisterman · 11-12-2005 06:30PM

Well there's nothing wrong with saying happy holidays instead of merry christmas. My problem is the banning of celebrations.

BlitzKrieg · 12-12-2005 12:10AM

and has there been any banning of celebrations?

senordingdong · 12-12-2005 12:24AM

As I recall America was a prodominatly christian country.

Do you not think it would be ridiculous to go the middle east and whinge about how their celebrations are offending you?

fly_agaric · 12-12-2005 12:38AM

BlitzKrieg wrote:

Commercialism has already shat all over both the original pagen and the christian meaning of christmas

LOL.
A merry Buymas!

A happy Shopmas to one and all!

Celebrating the miracle of the conspicuous consumption and the birth of the holy baby capitalism, who later suffered, died, and was buried under communism but rose again to save and deliver us from e-vil, ah-men!

In the name of the dollar, the euro, the yen and the renminbi ah-men.

Praise be to Credit!

PRAISE BE TO MONEY!

I am just an economic unit, allow me to transubstantiate my sweat into products, make me worthy to recieve the bounty you can buy from the blessed corporations ah-men.

NotMe · 12-12-2005 01:27AM

^^:) Merry Shopmas to you too.

Blisterman · 12-12-2005 09:56AM

Happy Festivus too.

jaggeh · 12-12-2005 10:25AM

the only holiday im going to be celebrating is wintereenmas.

Squall · 12-12-2005 10:52AM

I second that Jaggeh.......... Long live wintereenmas

December Son · 12-12-2005 12:25PM

It's PC madness gone...well, mad
Everyone is so concerned with not offending others theyre afraid to say what they feel or express themselves in anyway. Its ridiculous. I dont celebrate hannukah, but if i see someone who is celebrating it, im not going to demand they stop, or change its name to 'non denominational moses day' or something. I thought one of those amendments in the american constitution stated 'freedom of religion', so why should they, or anyoneone from any other country for that matter, have to stop celebrating the birth of christ in order to not offend thw 0.001% of the poulous who are so anal that they are offended by a sparkly tree?

jimmycrackcorm · 12-12-2005 12:49PM

I object to thanksgiving in the U.S. - it should be called Happy turkey day instead.

Kernel32 · 12-12-2005 02:57PM

December Son wrote:

It's PC madness gone...well, mad
Everyone is so concerned with not offending others theyre afraid to say what they feel or express themselves in anyway. Its ridiculous. I dont celebrate hannukah, but if i see someone who is celebrating it, im not going to demand they stop, or change its name to 'non denominational moses day' or something. I thought one of those amendments in the american constitution stated 'freedom of religion', so why should they, or anyoneone from any other country for that matter, have to stop celebrating the birth of christ in order to not offend thw 0.001% of the poulous who are so anal that they are offended by a sparkly tree?

Whats equally mad is when people comment on it and just make stuff up. As I posted about this before, individuals and business are free to call Christmas whatever they want. Individuals and businesses are free to celebrate anything they want. Shops call it Christmas, people wish each other a merry Christmas etc, there is no problem with that. The problem is when an entity funded in part or as a whole by tax money, favours one celebration over another celebration. The government is not supposed to promote any one religion over another religion. If a government agency or a school or any publicly funded entity wants to put a tree up they have to call it something generic.

When it comes to religion a government can handle it two ways. The first is they can embrace each and every religion which means they must celebrate everything. This would cost tax payers a huge amount of money. The other option is to not celebrate any religious event and only celebrate national holidays. Thanksgiving is a good example of that. Thanksgiving is not attached to any particular religion so its simply a national holiday.

Personally I don't see whats wrong with that. Most of the comments I see on here are from people who don't seem to understand the reasoning behind what is happening. If you disagree with the idea that a government shouldn't promote a particular religion then that is one thing but it has far wider implications that the celebration of Christmas. Most people like the idea of the government staying out of religion and what is being discussed here is a result of that.

FatherTed · 12-12-2005 04:50PM

Hannukah is a revatively minor religious holiday in the Jewish world. It has been promoted especially in the US just so that the Jewish kids don't feel left out this time of year.
Also Kwanza is also a newish holiday that African-Americans celebrate shortly after Christmas.

I don't think it's so much that non-Christians are offended if someone says Merry Christmas to you. It's kind of a redundant expression to them. I might say Shabot Shalon or Happy Ramadan to 99% of the people in Ireland and they would say "eh?". If you were not a Christian, with a few exceptions, you have no choice in the matter of wanting to work December 25th. It is Christmas day, and whether you celebrate it or not you have to take it off.

lazydaisy · 12-12-2005 06:10PM

Actually kernal, in some shops in NYC the employees are forbidden to say Merry Christmas. They are told to say happy holidays.

I had to take off Yom Kippur and Im not Jewish and I dont get offended by it. It a religious holiday in New York, public schools are closed and most business have off. Also - I wish people happy Rosh Hoshanna or happy Channukah on those days. Big wow. Who cares. People should relax.

So I guess the next thing will be NYC scrapping the St. Patricks Day parade because of its religious connotations. Uh huh, that will go down well.

Religion has ethnic undertones in some parts of the USA, like NYC so its not as cut and dry as it may seem.

War on Christmas

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