Monday, December 05, 2005

War on Christmas

Instapundit has some commentary on the Christmas culture clash.
I find the whole thing kind of bemusing: Merchants who desperately want people to spend money because it's Christmas are afraid to say the word, while those who are complaining are basically demanding that we commercialize Christmas more openly. Sigh.
I don't think many Christians are demanding that we commercialize Christmas more. Christians in general have come to accept the commercialization of Christmas. It has been this way for centuries. As far back as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Puritans were rejecting Christmas as too commercial. American Puritans celebrated Thanksgiving instead. Many people know that Thanksgiving didn't become a national holiday until the early twentieth century. Truth be told, Christmas wasn't a national Holiday either. Most of New England didn't celebrate it until after the Civil War.

But if we have accepted some commercialization of Christmas, we don't have to like it. Many of us see the Christ in the Christmas as the seasons only redeeming virtue. The silver lining as it were. If you drop that mention of Jesus, then this is simply the season of Fat Commie Elves and horrible mall traffic. Why the hell would I celebrate that?

In the end if I have to put up with all this secular crap for Christmas, if I have to put up with being called a bigot by leftists who can't discern the difference between types of discrimination, if I have to put up with driver's IQs dropping within a mile radius of a shopping mall, if I have to watch my holiest of holy days turn into a tinsel-covered sham, then frankly, I damn well better get told to have a Merry Christmas. Because otherwise I just might forget.

I can turn on a TV and see Seasons Greetings from my local TV news. I can be told to have a Happy Hanukkah, a Kooky Kwansaa, a Riotous Ramadan. Well excused me, but you missed one. I may be the majority, but that is no excuse to discriminate against me. All I'm asking for is some equal time. Don't stop wishing people a Happy Hanukkah, but please slip a Merry Christmas into the rotation. It won't kill you. The other folks won't be offended, because with 98% of the US population celebrating Christmas, the other 2% knows when it's Christmas time. They aren't stupid. They've noticed even if it is just to pencil in December 25 for "Jews Eat Chinese and Go to the Movies" Day.

Why do put ourselves through this every year? For this I have to cite the wisdom of Charlie Brown. When Charlie Brown is fed up about the materialism and the hypocrisy and he asks why am I doing this, Linus answers:
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'". That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.
Thank you Charles M. Schulz and thank you Lord God Almighty. I give because I have received and trust me, that is the only reason I keep doing it.

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