Happy Holidays

There’s been a lot of things going on in the world that I haven’t written about.  Intelligent Design debates, scandals in in the White House administration, new countries accepting gay marriage…  It’s been a long time since I’ve written about things like this and I think it has come time for me to do so again.

But what to write about?  Considering how close Christmas Day has come, I think it may be fitting to talk about the controversy that has been stirred up regarding the phrases "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas."  Apparently the poor Christians out there feel persecuted by companies who encourage their employees to say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" so they can be inclusive of all faiths.

Supposedly this is yet another attempt by the liberal left to remove Jesus and all of Christianity from the United States completely.  Just like the "banning" of Bibles and prayer from schools and removal of the Ten Commandments from court houses, this is a direct attack specifically against Christianity and is evidence of our ever worsening decline into the evils of secularism.  It is clear why Christians are so afraid of being inclusive of other religions.  They don’t want competition out there.  When faced with a belief that they don’t agree with, many people respond with denigration and malicious attacks, because if such ideas were allowed to survive, gosh, more people might start believing them.  We can’t have that at all.  Diversity of thought is the work of satan and must be purged from our good, pure Christian nation at all costs.

So to that end, we arrive here, with Christians clamouring over the supposed injustice done to them by companies wishing people "Happy Holidays" instead of a "Merry Christmas."  Because it’s apparently offensive for a Christian to be told "Happy Holidays" but it’s not offensive for a Jew or Muslim or Hindu or Pagan to be told "Merry Christmas."  And by all means, we must be sure not to offend to poor Christians who suffer persecution from all sides in this country.

More and more I’m becoming convinced that organized religion is one of the biggest contributors to social injustice in all of history.  When masses of people get together and decide "this is what we believe" they tend to get so wrapped up in that belief that they forget that there are other people out there who disagree and have just as much support for their side of the story.  How many of you have ever studied a religion other than the one your parents taught you?  If you’re a Christian, have you ever studied Hinduism and do you know anything about what they believe?  Have you ever studied Buddhism?  So few people ever consider a religion other than the one they were taught as a child, yet they come to believe that those other religions are false, and the extremists even start to believe that those of other religions are barbarians or evil.  The online community appears to be a bit more openminded about religious exploration, but there are still far too many people who’ve never learned a thing about one of the other major world religions.

What happens then, is that these people following their organized religion become blind to other ways of thinking.  They forget how to divorce social morality from their religion and turn to some book or religious authority to answer all of the questions about right and wrong.  Organized religion turns people into lazy fundamentalists who accept their teachings without any critical examination or consideration for others because it’s easier to just follow what your minister says rather than thinking for yourself.  You missed the message.

Organized religion seems to have one common thread – convert as many people as you can to your own religion.  No wonder Catholics are against birth control; more babies equals more people to follow Catholicism.

There was a time when I remember Christians going around saying Christianity isn’t a religion, it is a personal relationship with God.  What ever happened to that?  When did your personal relationship become a social relationship that everyone had to abide by?  Why do I have to suffer because you choose to believe that homosexuality is wrong?  Why does science have to suffer because you can’t accept a creation story as metaphorical?  Why do Jews have to put up with "Merry Christmas" because you get offended by "Happy Holidays?"

Have your personal relationship with God.  Keep it personal.  Grow in your relationship by developing an attitude of compassion for others.  If it is so wrong for us gays to get married, women to have abortions, or a company to wish us "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," then let your God do his job and punish us for our horrible sins.  You don’t have to get an abortion or recognize a gay marriage.  You can tell your friends Merry Christmas until you can’t speak anymore.  Just let us live in peace without your whining about the life of sin we are living in.  That’s between us and the Supreme, whoever or whatever that is.