It’s tough to be Christian, when Christmastime comes,
What with Santa, and reindeer, and elves,
With other religions, or secular folks,
And people who think for themselves
The Christian religion has changed, over time,
And it makes us all anxious as hell,
When the season arrives, and it’s not just for us,
But for other religions as well!
My neighbors are having their holiday feast
And it’s making me angry to see—
Devoutly expressing their deeply felt faith…
But a different religion than me!
The Christian majority’s under attack,
When the holidays force us to share—
We need recognition that’s Christian alone;
Without it, we don’t have a prayer.
A bit more, after the jump:
I found the above image, which I find a gentle and humorous message, at the Christian Today (Australia) site, where it was viewed a bit differently. The American Humanist Association’s position on christmas was decidedly positive:
“We don’t have any problem with the holidays,” Speckhardt said. “Most atheists and agnostics celebrate Christmas like any other Americans. We don’t try to cause offense with our ads, but for those offended by our very existence, there’s not much we can do about it.”
Sound like fightin’ words to you? It certainly sounded that way to Mathew Staver of the Liberty Council:
“I think a campaign like this shows how bankrupt the AHA is by trying to offend people by secularizing a holiday like this,” Staver said. “They have a right to their own viewpoint but the timing is very inappropriate. It shows how out of step they are from the rest of society.”
Because the rest of society does not secularize Christmas. They recognize the role that strings of electric colored lights played in lighting Santa’s path as he brought his sleigh to Bethlehem, where a Christmas tree, holly, and mistletoe marked the place where Baby Jesus lay in a manger, warmed only by the softly glowing yule log. Just like it says in the bible. The rest of society solemnly observes christmas the way our founding fathers did, by going to work and not making a big gaudy deal out of it.
Santa Claus is “secularizing” Christmas?
What, just now?
It’s a secular holiday!
Ooooo – Yummy. Could I borrow that one next year for cards?
But of course, Dorothy!
Christians seem to have overlooked the fact that christmas is the premier commercial event of the retail year. It has been for some time and christians have by an large accepted that. If they do not like the secular event they should not be out shopping. I may be mistaken but if christmas is not a primarily secular event, there were a lot of atheists out there on Black Friday.
David, I’d agree, except that I’d say the vast majority of Christians don’t have the problems with the secularized Christmas that the Liberty Council seems to. It is a very small number of people with megaphones, rather than a large number of normal people.
Why do so many of these theistic groups have words like “Liberty” or “Freedom” in their titles? Methinks religion is for the irony-impaired surely.
rikitiki: Yup. Same as those organizations that have “Family” in their name…meaning “Patriarchy”, and those nation states that call themselves “The People’s Democratic Republic” of something or another, meaning single party dictatorship.
Wonderful poem. I recently finished a song somewhat along the same lines.
It’s here, if you are interested.
Very Nice, Mimmoth!
If anyone is interested in the American history of Christmas, you may want to read “The Battle for Christmas” by Stephen Nissenbaum. It shows how Christmas went from a criminal observance in Puritan New England to, as davidct puts it, “the premier commercial event of the retail year.”
One thing that Xians forget, and are outraged when reminded, is that there is nothing in their own Bible stating the date of Jesus’ birthday. The chances that he WAS born on December 25th (assuming he existed at all) is 1 in 365.2425.