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{"id":186,"date":"2012-01-08T20:28:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-09T00:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/01\/a-late-christmas-rant\/"},"modified":"2012-08-10T00:36:32","modified_gmt":"2012-08-10T04:36:32","slug":"a-late-christmas-rant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2012\/01\/a-late-christmas-rant.html","title":{"rendered":"A (Late) Christmas Rant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

A while back I saw a church sign that said \u201cI Miss Hearing \u2018Merry Christmas.'\u201d You know what, Mr. Christian? If you miss hearing \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d how about you <\/em>say it more often? You can\u2019t control anyone else, and you shouldn\u2019t want to. If it floats someone else\u2019s boat to say \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d or \u201cSeason\u2019s Greetings,\u201d what is it to you? We have this thing called \u201cfreedom\u201d in this country, and that means people don\u2019t have to celebrate the holidays in any one specific way, even in the way you want them to. So hows about you celebrate the holidays your <\/em>way and let everyone else do it their <\/em>way? <\/span><\/p>\n

As we saw in one of Rick Perry\u2019s television ads, there\u2019s this idea among a segment of fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity that there\u2019s a \u201cwar on Christmas.\u201d There\u2019s this idea that Christmas has been secularized and robbed of its religious meaning. And I used to believe it. I don\u2019t any longer, and the reason is simple. <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t enforce any one way to celebrate holidays. There is no \u201cwar on Christmas\u201d because there\u2019s no one stopping evangelical or fundamentalist Christians from celebrating Christmas however they like. If there\u2019s a \u201cwar on Christmas,\u201d it\u2019s that fundamentalists and evangelicals are not allowed to force their way of celebrating Christmas on everyone else \u2013 and that\u2019s generally called \u201cfreedom,\u201d not a \u201coppression.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Have you noticed the men wearing black uniforms who go around taking away families\u2019 nativity sets? Have you noticed how Christians have to sneak to church on Christmas Eve in secret so that they won\u2019t be fined or imprisoned? Have you noticed that Christians must speak to each other of Jesus\u2019 birth in secret, so that no one will report them? No? Yeah, me neither. <\/span><\/p>\n

The beauty of this country\u2019s emphasis on freedom, religious and otherwise, is that every family may celebrate holidays as they choose to. Jews can celebrate their Jewish holidays, Muslims can celebrate their Muslim holidays, and so on. No one is stopping Christians from celebrating their <\/em>religious holidays, most primarily Christmas and Easter. If a Christian family wants to center Christmas around Jesus\u2019 birth, and relate every aspect of their Christmas celebration to their religious beliefs, they can have at it and no one will stop them. <\/span><\/p>\n

One argument I\u2019ve heard made, including in Perry\u2019s ad, is that there\u2019s a \u201cwar on Christmas\u201d because Christmas can\u2019t be celebrated in public schools and nativity scenes can\u2019t be placed on official government property. The problem with this argument is that we don\u2019t celebrate Ramadan in schools either, or Purim, or any other religion\u2019s religious holidays. Schools aren\u2019t the place for celebrating religious holidays, they\u2019re a place for learning \u2013 celebrating religious holidays should be left up to houses of worship and individual families. The only sort of holidays that should be allowed to be celebrated in schools are those that are cultural rather than religious. Or, conversely, we could celebrate all religious holidays in school, but I\u2019m pretty sure evangelicals and fundamentalists wouldn\u2019t like that either. As for nativity scenes, we don\u2019t put religious symbols on courthouse lawns for Ramadan or Purim, and until we do I see no reason why religious symbols should be placed on courthouse yards for Christmas either. This isn\u2019t an issue of religious persecution<\/em>. It\u2019s an issue of religious freedom<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Something I\u2019ve noticed over the last three years is that when evangelical and fundamentalist Christians cry \u201cpersecution!\u201d what they really mean is that their beliefs are not being held up as the establishment and enforced on others. The \u201cwar on Christmas\u201d means \u201ceveryone else isn\u2019t celebrating Christmas OUR way!\u201d or \u201cwe\u2019re not allowed to have OUR way of celebrating Christmas publicly endorsed by the government!\u201d The war on traditional marriage means \u201ceveryone else isn\u2019t doing marriage OUR way!\u201d The war on Biblical morality means \u201ceveryone else isn\u2019t following OUR morals!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

You know what? Christians are free to celebrate Christmas as they like, carry out their marriages as they like, and follow the morals they find in the Bible. What they are not <\/em>free to do is force others to do the same. And<\/em> that is not called persecution of Christians.<\/em> It\u2019s called freedom<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n

So yeah. That whole \u201cwar on Christmas\u201d thing?\u00a0Baloney. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"