Thread: Does Christmas offend you?

MsMuffintops said For a lot of people that do not celebrate Christmas, it's very annoying to live in a supposedly secular nation that is so heavily entrenched in christian dogma. Christmas isn't just a brief celebration anymore. It takes up the entire month of December with decoration, music, and television programs. It even worms it's way into November, with store displays and other commercialism aspects. As Rudolph Quin mentioned, it isn't the holiday itself that is offensive. It's the overbearing domination it has over the culture that is offensive. It simply makes people who do not celebrate it feel like a minority. Then add in the fact that any slight against Christmas automatically makes you some kind of villain. It's all over the media, with this supposed War Against Christmas. Our culture automatically alienates and criminalizes to an extent, those that speak out against Christmas and Christianity as a whole. Click to expand... The majority religion in the US is Christianity, and those who don't celebrate Christmas are a minority, and the media, companies, stores, etc. are going to cater to what is in high demand, and thus it has lead to Christmas being a very prominent holiday in our country. This isn't the government's doing though. Sure, there are issues in our country that do have an unnecessary religious backing, but Christmas is one that I feel people shouldn't have to lighten up on. Aside from politics, work, and school, I think everyone should be open to religious expression and I'm sorry that the majority celebrate Christmas. And the attitude thing can swing both ways. I've met people who were rather smug about not celebrating Christmas and liked to belittle those who do. Coming from my perspective, I personally don't care if people don't celebrate Christmas and don't like it and I won't push it on them either, but what I don't like is being treated like an idiot because I do. This comic I made a few years back is a bit relevant to the thread haha. Click to expand... This is where we differ I don't believe that anyone ought to feel like a minority. I apply this principle to race, and I'll apply it to belief as well. Christmas is bloated, and it will continue to stay that way as long as minorities are discouraged to speak up about it. The following is a quote by Edward R. Murrow regarding censorship in the news in regard to CBS's drive to show the truth in regard to the actions of Senator McCarthy. While I fully realize the words spoken by Mr. Murrow are of a matter far more important and drastic than this Christmas thing, it illustrates my feelings that people ought not just grow up, ought not just deal with it, and ought not just stay quiet. No one familiar with the history of this country, can deny that congressional committees are useful. It is necessary to investigate before legislating. But the line between investigating and persecuting is a very fine one, and the Junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it repeatedly. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always, that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to associate, to speak, and to defend the causes that were for the moment unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Sen. McCarthy's methods to keep silent or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. We proclaim ourselves as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom wherever it continues to exist in the world. But we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home. The actions of the Junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his, he didn't create this situation of fear, he merely exploited it, and rather successfully. Cassius was right, the fault dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves. Good night, and good luck. -- Edward R. Murrow Again, I'm fully aware of the gravity of those words, the circumstances, and how for this particular discussion they are extreme. However, the message is a message of standing up for what any person believes is right, and to have the freedom to do so without fear of punishment or ostracism. To stand up against Christmas, against Christianity, to argue points that are constitutionally sound, should not result in that individual to feel like an ignored minority. For their own beliefs and feelings to be brushed aside in a land of secular freedom, where any criticism of the majority results in national ridicule, is not very American to me.