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War on Chrismas...I'll give you a war
Dec. 14th, 2006 08:09 amIn the past few years, groups of conservative and closed-minded Christians have developed the "War on Christmas". It is, in essence, a PR and marketing campaign meant to rally their right-wing masses into harassing honest, hardworking citizens of this country because many of them are not conservative, close-minded, right-wing Christians of the type these groups want them to be. Or so I thought.
But a very recent development in my back yard has caused a revelation for me. In SeaTac, a neighbor city of mine, a rabbi asked that the Christmas trees that were scattered around the SeaTac airport be dotted with a few menorahs. Didn't demand that the trees be brought down or anything...just asked that some of the ornaments include his religion. They were reticent about that, so he "encouraged" them by showing them a lawsuit he'd be willing to file if they didn't.
Lou Dobbs on CNN (thanks,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shaterri for the link) has recently posted an article in which he makes his opinion of this situation known. He feels that the whole thing is political correct wackery, and that the Christmas Tree falls under the venue of the "Reindeer Rule" that the Supreme Court made in 1984, in which they deemed that if a symbol of Christmas is mostly secular, like a reindeer, Christmas tree, or Santa Claus, it does not violate church and state.
My first reaction was, what the hell?? Christmas is CHRIST'S MASS, you idiots! How unsecular can you get. Every time my kids hear the word, they are reminded of it.
Then I took a step back. No, in fact, that's not the case at all. To them, Christmas isn't about Christ at all. Christmas is about Santa Claus, and presents, and giving, and joy, and remembering that spring will come again. In fact, both my kids have been singing a lot of Christian themed Christmas carols without a clue to what they actually mean. 'Silent Night', 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing', and so forth. When I asked my seven year old what 'Silent Night' was about, she said it was a lullaby to a baby. No particular baby. Just a lullaby. She doesn't really know who Jesus is.
And I realized, in a revelation, that we are secularizing Christian elements of Christian celebrations that had been Christianized so many centuries ago from Pagan elements. And THAT is what the "War on Christmas" is really all about. We are doing to them what they did to my religious ancestors so many years ago. And they are terrified.
So, I'm going to take it one step further. Christmas is still 'Christ's Mass' in it's spelling, but not in its pronunciation. No one pronounces it 'Christ-mus'. They pronounce it 'Chris-mus'. I see no reason not to amend the spelling to complete the secularization...after all, isn't that what the Supreme Court ruled would have to happen for Christmas to be secular enough?
FROM NOW ON, I SPELL IT CHRISMAS. I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE ELSE TO AS WELL.
(I've added it to my computer spelling dictionaries too).
But a very recent development in my back yard has caused a revelation for me. In SeaTac, a neighbor city of mine, a rabbi asked that the Christmas trees that were scattered around the SeaTac airport be dotted with a few menorahs. Didn't demand that the trees be brought down or anything...just asked that some of the ornaments include his religion. They were reticent about that, so he "encouraged" them by showing them a lawsuit he'd be willing to file if they didn't.
Lou Dobbs on CNN (thanks,
shaterri for the link) has recently posted an article in which he makes his opinion of this situation known. He feels that the whole thing is political correct wackery, and that the Christmas Tree falls under the venue of the "Reindeer Rule" that the Supreme Court made in 1984, in which they deemed that if a symbol of Christmas is mostly secular, like a reindeer, Christmas tree, or Santa Claus, it does not violate church and state.My first reaction was, what the hell?? Christmas is CHRIST'S MASS, you idiots! How unsecular can you get. Every time my kids hear the word, they are reminded of it.
Then I took a step back. No, in fact, that's not the case at all. To them, Christmas isn't about Christ at all. Christmas is about Santa Claus, and presents, and giving, and joy, and remembering that spring will come again. In fact, both my kids have been singing a lot of Christian themed Christmas carols without a clue to what they actually mean. 'Silent Night', 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing', and so forth. When I asked my seven year old what 'Silent Night' was about, she said it was a lullaby to a baby. No particular baby. Just a lullaby. She doesn't really know who Jesus is.
And I realized, in a revelation, that we are secularizing Christian elements of Christian celebrations that had been Christianized so many centuries ago from Pagan elements. And THAT is what the "War on Christmas" is really all about. We are doing to them what they did to my religious ancestors so many years ago. And they are terrified.
So, I'm going to take it one step further. Christmas is still 'Christ's Mass' in it's spelling, but not in its pronunciation. No one pronounces it 'Christ-mus'. They pronounce it 'Chris-mus'. I see no reason not to amend the spelling to complete the secularization...after all, isn't that what the Supreme Court ruled would have to happen for Christmas to be secular enough?
FROM NOW ON, I SPELL IT CHRISMAS. I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE ELSE TO AS WELL.
(I've added it to my computer spelling dictionaries too).
