Every year, you hear news reports about someone protesting a manger scene or something goofy like that. People cry out, "You're treading on my freedom of religion." Not to sound callous, but I've always questioned the integrity of one's belief system if it's so easily offended by a display of 3-foot high plastic/wood characters kneeling around a box filled with straw with a plastic or wood baby inside it.
To be fair, I supposed I can understand the isolation one must feel if they're not Christian at a time of year when a good chunk of the planet is covered in wreaths, twinkle lights, Christmas trees, and plastic figurines (which, apparently are now replaced by big, obnoxious inflatable globes with styrofoam snow inside). But in a nation governed by the 'rule of the majority,' it bothers me - not religiously, but politically - that one person's gripes can turn the tables on the many. Every person in this nation at some point or another has to bear the influence of something that is contradictory to their belief systems. Period. For some, it's the aforementioned Christmas holiday. For others, it's the increasing explicity of sex and language on primetime television. And though I'm not saying people ought not take a stand for what they believe in at all, I do think that people need thicker skin AND need to know how to pick their battles (and when to change the channel).
For example, one rabbi in Seattle threatened to sue the Seattle airport if the powers-that-be did not put up a menora alongside the Christmas trees. Rather than put up a menora, the airport removed all the Christmas trees, upending a tradition that's lasted for years. After the airport responded this way, the rabbi feared that Jews would now be viewed as Christmas Scrooges. He withdrew the suit, and the trees went back up...and still no menora.
Was he a scrooge? I don't care either way. Once you mix words like "lawsuit" with "decorations," things just look silly to me. Should he have sued? Should the mall have put up a menora? I don't know...
The "War on Christmas" - that's what O'Reilly calls it on Fox News. That may be a bit harsh, but it's a better description than 'controversy.' Even one of our own Decatur Daily editors came down hard on stance in this morning's read, trying to state that Christmas has always had secular roots and that O'Reilly's position has already 'lost' the fight. Strangely, I think this editor totally misses what O'Reilly means by "War on Christmas," since people protesting the holiday are equally protesting the secular elements as well as the spiritual.
This is just the tip of the controversy around Christmas. Don't even get me started on issues of commercialization, Christmas 'myths,' excessive spending, family gatherings, Target vs. Wal-mart over the Salvation Army, and gay nativity scenes (read about that one yesterday).
Festivus anyone?
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to be continued...)
