Monday, December 08, 2003
Our Christmas tree is twinkling and sparkling in the living room..............just seeing it brings back a warm flood of happy memories of when I was a child, and when I had a daughter who was equally immersed in the magic and happiness and love of the Christmas tradition and celebration. I'm saddened by the knowledge that merchants and people who don't celebrate Christmas have been trying to belittle Christmas as a holy day, while still trying to celebrate it THEIR way.
I'm offended by "Xmas" It's "CHRISTMAS!" Jewish people I've spoken to are very sensitive about "Merry Christmas", and "Christmas" and DEMAND that Christmas be called "The Holidays", so as not to exclude them. This is an amazingly evil way to think.
People of other faiths don't want to feel exluded by Christmas, but they don't want Christmas to include the people who celebrate it. In short, they hate Christmas for the religious HOLY DAY it is, but want to be included in the love of the Christmas celebration. These are some confused, arrogant, bigots!
Muslilms I've known don't concern themselves with this issue, and are much more gracious. The same goes for Buddhists, Taoists, and Hindu people I've known (Yes.....I've known many people of other faiths).
If I were Jewish, I would want to be included in my own holidays (such as "Xrosh", "Xkip", and even "Xkka"), and wouldn;t care which holiday the Christians were off celebrating. My Jewish friends and neighbors decorate their homes with Christmas lights, put up Christmas trees in their homes, and use other symbols which have historically been uniquely Christian, used at Christmas. They freely admit that they love the warmth and good feelings of the Christmas season. They are all opposed to the name "CHRISTMAS" being applied to the celebration of CHRISTMAS. They want to celebrate Christmas at Christmas time, when the Christians celebrate Christmas, but they don't want to call it "CHRISTMAS", and they don't want Christians to call it "CHRISTMAS" either. They have decided to call CHRISTMAS "the holdays".
They are offended if I refer to every Jewish holiday as simply "the holiday", saying that Thanksgiving, Halloween, and the Fourth of July are just secular "holidays", and that I shouldn't lump their religious celebrations in the same loose grouping as secular holidays...............but they do that to Christmas and seem amazed that it offends me.
As a Christian, I don't care which holidays the Jews are off celebrating. I think they should eat rock salt, wear little hats, eat chocolate money, burn as many candles as they want, braid their hair, spin pickles, and spin tops until they get sick and dizzy. I belive that they need to leave Christmas alone.
I have never known of a culture which has more demeaning names for people of other races and religions. I've never known of a religion which tales such delight in mocking and quashing other people and other religions. I've never known a culture which is so much like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
One of the lingering myths of Judaism is that of eternal persecution. Another is that of liberal thinking. The treatment of Palestinians by Israel refutes those myths more eloquently than I could.
If you take things away from people, they will fight back to uphold their ownership of that which you have taken.
Does anyone object to "Xrosh", "Xkip", or "Xkka"? Those used to be Jewish holidays, with proper names, and now they're deliberatley reduced to names which are unrecognizable. ("HEY!!! You can't to that to OUR holy days!!") ("It's rude and dishonours our ancient traditions!!!") (We'll take you to court for discrimination and persecution if you do that to our HOLY DAYS!!") I've suggested shortening the names of EVERYONE'S holy days, and the results are always the same...........OUTRAGE!!
Yam = Abraham, Yid = David, Yth = Ruth, Yos = Solomon, Ymy = Naomi. It's not hard to rename all of those epic people, but WHY would anyone want to do it???
WHY do they NEED to rename Christmas by replacing the name of CHRIST with an X?
Why should we Christians settle for anyone's disrespect?
Crosses have been taken down all across this country, and removed from products and packaging, and even homes in public housing. One company, CDW, used to prevent employees from displaying ANY Christmas decorations at their desk, saying that it offended the owner and the managers and others of the Jewish faith. Even a simple10" artificial green pine tree with no ornaments was banned from my desk, and Mary, the head of personnel told me that I would be fired if I displayed anything which the owner said had ANYTHING to do with Christmas.
Hannukka decorations were displayed all over the building, inside and out. A large sign outside the building said "Happy Hannuka". Sale flyers and catalog were done in red and green, but never mentioned the name "Christmas".
Does anyone object to the removal of Menorahs, or images of Menorahs from public places, or from stores?
Does anyone object to the removal of Stars of David from all advertsing, including products in stores?
Does anyone object to the removal of kosher foods from the aisles and shelves of supermarkets?
Does anyone object to the removal of ...............anything which represents THEIR Jewish religion?????
If so, ask yourselves why you feel that way...........if you're honest, you'll find that you are offended by having your religion diminshed, and defaced, and you'll probably begin to wonder why people find you and your religion so offensive.
You'll possibly begin to wonder if some of your Constitutional Rights would be threatened if people begin to belittle, mock, scorn and eradicate the parts of your religion which you celebrate. You might realize that you are behaving like the intolerant people who terrorized Europe in the 1930's and 1940's.
I know that you don't want to see that parallel, but the WHOLE popluation of the Earth sees it.
In the best spirit of Christmas, I wish everyone all of the good things of the Christian CHRISTMAS tradition.
