The American Family Association and Liberty Counsel, bastions of Christian bigotry, have both released their Naughty or Nice lists of retailers, which is basically about whether or not chances are you might hear “Happy Christmas” rather than the oh so evil and awful “Happy Holidays”. Personally, I don’t care, and if I do get a “Merry Christmas” from someone, I happily respond with “A Merry Giftmas to you!”, which always receives an appreciate laugh and smile.
This self-righteous bullshit on the part of some Christians is beyond idiocy. Christians who actually live according to the bible don’t celebrate the blasphemous Winter celebration, as the bible says it’s right bad, that whole tree and decoration business, and it doesn’t have jack shit to do with Christ or Christianity. It really doesn’t take much effort to learn about the Church’s dubious history with the various Winter holidays, and their attempt to stomp out all those nasty festivals and rituals. It’s also very hypocritical, because the majority of Christians celebrate the same Xmas as everyone else, all wrapped up in the commercialism and crassness, but neither the AFA or Liberty Counsel is in the slightest abashed about putting out their list of retail stores, where people can go and toss out astonishing amounts of money on goods which have nothing to do with poor ol’ baby Jesus. It’s like Zoidberg Jesus in a group of Santa Clauses.
As Right Wing Watch notes, they can’t even agree on the naughty or nice list. Oh, the confusion!
For the second year in a row, the American Family Association and Liberty Counsel have released dueling “Naughty or Nice” lists designed to, as Liberty Counsel puts it, let Religious Right consumers know “which stores are censoring Christmas and which are openly celebrating it.”
Such efforts are vital, the AFA explained, because “there are secular forces in our country that hate Christmas because the word itself is a reminder of Jesus Christ. They want to eradicate anything that reminds Americans of Christianity. That is why it is important to remind governments and companies to keep the word Christmas alive.”
Right. So how many people are suddenly illuminated with thoughts of Jesus Christ when they hear the word Christmas? Or are the associations more likely to be trees, lights, gifts, decorations, family? Or perhaps frustration, debt, loss, loneliness, sadness, or despair? If you’re a Christian, be honest with yourself here. This is Christian puffery and hate at its finest – the mere idea of inclusion being so repugnant to so-called Christians. You’ll know them by their disdain and hate, not their love.
Unfortunately, AFA and Liberty Counsel can’t seem to agree upon which companies are “naughty” and which ones are “nice,” as several stores that are listed in one category by one group are listed in the other by the other group.
For instance, while Liberty Counsel declares that Barnes & Noble, Best Buy and Staples are all “nice,” the AFA declares that those same stores are all “naughty”:
Similarly, while AFA places Dick’s Sporting Goods and TJ Maxx on its “nice” list, Liberty Counsel has designated them as “naughty”:
Hopefully, next year AFA and Liberty Counsel can iron out this discrepancy so that conservative Christian consumers can know whether they stores they are patronizing are good, God-fearing businesses or evil misanthropes intent on subjecting Americans to the unimaginable horror of being wished a happy holiday.
Oh yes, the awful! Oh all the gods, the thought of being nice to all people! The horror! Christians, the very best reason to eschew Christmas. I’ll take Saturnalia instead.
Via RRW.
American Family Association and Liberty Counsel have released dueling “Naughty or Nice”
I do get a laugh when the religious fall into battles of mutual excommunication. Remember: they’re the poor unfortunates being oppressed by secularism.
Ok yeah that is the oddest thing to me. Apparently, just by saying “Happy Holidays” to people I am somehow oppressing them and fighting a terrible battle. Who knew those two words packed so much punch? All this time I thought I was being polite; how naive I was! **rolls eyes**
Now I have dueling banjos stuck in my head…thanks Caine! =P
Don’t know about you guys but I’d wear excommunication like a badge of honour.
Shiv:
Me too.
Funny how things like this (and so many other examples) demonstrate how religious people (and so many rightwigners in general are the same way) really seem to believe in the idea of magic words….
oogedy boogedy!!
Seriously, a fairly standard exchange in Germany is “Merry Christmas!” “You too, and happy holidays!”
I’m very sure that stores around the USA are pretty happy about Giftmas…
@2 kestrel
Yeah, but just acknowledging their holidays isn’t worth it unless you also at least implicitly disavow all others. After all, not treating them as special is persecution, and lining up the term “happy holidays” to always coincide with the major Christian holiday and not major holidays of other religions isn’t treating them as special enough.
The bible isn’t even consistent; it would be too much to ask that modern-day christians be consistent, too.
(They might be shocked to learn that, in many other languages, the translation for “christmas” actually translates back to the pagan name for the holiday! In Latvian, if you direct-translate back, it means “winter celebration/holiday”, or just plain “Winterfest”. No christ at all. And the phrase “Happy winterfest” is shortened in conversation to just plain “Happy fest!” I guess religion is dead here? HAHAHA.)
And then right-wingers complain about Political Correctness.
rq @ 9
In Swedish and Finnish, the old Germanic name for the midwinter festival is used, jul in Swedish and joulu in Finnish. Santa Claus looks the same but is called Julgubben and Joulupukki (Old Man of Yule, He-Goat of Yule, pukki is also used as an epithet for a womanizer).
German it’s “Weihnachten”, “blessed night”. Though that is clearly religious, it’s not actually christianity specific.
BTW, do they have a naughty list for stores that commemorate the pagan goddess Ostera?
Giliell @ 11
Or sell the Ostara cultivar of potatoes.
Ice Swimmer
Do you have any idea what jul means?
In Latvian, we tend to use the epithet of he-goat for someone showing a distinct lack of intelligence in a particularly stubborn manner.
Interesting. I do like the idea of Odin as Santa Claus, but with a far more badass set of presents and criteria for awarding them.
The historical season of Yule (and Jul) seems to coincide with the Latvian season of Meteņi -- basically the deep winter months when you’d wander to the neighbours’ bringing luck dressed in odd costumes and clothing and sing and dance and threaten to destroy crops (and to ‘beg’ for food, obv.) for fun.
rq @13
No, I don’t and according to Wikipedia, neither does anybody else. That hasn’t stopped Finns to loan the word twice, for juhla, meaning festival or party and joulu.
In Finnish, the word for ram (male sheep), pässi, is used for stupid and stubborn people.
rq @ 14
That Meteni thing is similar to the now dead nuuttipukki tradition, where at the end of the Christmas time, nuutinpäivä (Knut’s day) people would do similar stuff.