A Rose By Any Other Name...

With all the talk lately about “Holiday Trees” and “Seasons Greetings” One must remember that Christmas is a Christian holiday.

Some people want to celebrate Christmas but do not want to acknowledge the day as the Birth of Christ. I think that is fine, but don’t call it something else. If you wish to celebrate a holiday, do not change the name of it. Take the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a purely Jewish holiday and they use candles and dreidls as elements in the holiday. If the world decided to celebrate Hanukkah one year, how would the Jewish community react to the dreidl renamed to “Oddly-shaped top”? This is similar to the Christmas tree. It is not a “Holiday tree”. There is no need to rename a component of our holiday. And one must remember that since Christmas is a Christian holiday, non-Christians do not have to celebrate it. It is welcomed if others share the joy of the day which the Savior was born.  Watch the Christmas specials.  Exchange gifts.  Donate to the Salvation Army.  Help out at a soup kitchen, if that is your preferred way to celebrate.  Perhaps some peace and goodwill will rub off.  

The point is that the day is a celebration of the birth of Christ. The tree and presents are not fundamental aspects, but rather ones that symbolize the Star in the sky and presents given by the three wise men. (It doesn't matter to me, or to most Christians if some of the symbols of Christmas have roots in pagan religions.  That's not the point.)  If the people of the world want to celebrate solely the exchanging of gifts, go ahead.  Just don't insult us by trying to call it something else. Imagine the uproar if Veterans Day was renamed to “Killers-in-the-name-of-patriotism Day” by this group of kill-joy liberals.

Why is it that people want to remove Christ from Christmas, and for that matter, from American society?  Are people that easily offended?  No, not really.  I don't think anyone is truly offended by Christians, Christian holidays or the Christian aspects of society.  And if these looney libs were honest with themselves, they'd agree that Christianity has done more good for this world than harm (although no one can disagree that people have done bad things in the name of Christianity, and continue to do so).  No, the truth is that these people want to steal the joy from others.  That's what this all boils down to.  They may claim that they are defending someone's rights, or that they want the constitution enforced or whatever other baloney they want to spew.  But the truth is that those trying to remove Christ from our culture just feel left out.  They want everyone else to be as miserable as they are. 

We've all gone to school with school bullies ... the guys that do nothing but cause pain to others.  That's what these anti-christs are doing in our culture today.  They are cultural bullies, using every tool and every trick to spread as much pain and misery as they can.  And they have been quite successful, with the media and the government as their accomplices.

It's time for them to move on.  Let them wallow in their pain in the privacy of their own homes.  Let those of us who want to be joyful and celebrate have Christmas back.

The time spent on thinking up ways to change Christmas can be used more productively elsewhere. If thinking such as this were put towards helping our fellow man or solving the world's problems, perhaps some progress would be made, even if it's just a little.