The Great "Happy Holidays" Conspiracy
by Cathryn Sykes
I have yet to actually run into anyone who's been forbidden to say Merry Christmas. Have you?
I went to the mall yesterday and, as I always do, put money in the Salvation Army bucket, with my usual mental salute of respect to the Nazarene. The SA, an organization I very much admire, had a bucket outside every major entrance. The mall was decorated with Christmas colors, snowflakes, Santas, trees etc. In both the small towns near where I live, the windows of the shops are decorated with "Merry CHRISTmas." The churches are all having choir performances, and I've seen dozens of Nativity scenes in people's yards. Every cable channel I look at is running Christmas specials. So far as I can see, these terrible anti-Christmas secularists are doing a lousy job. (They're such bumblers. They couldn't even get the Bible outlawed. But only because the warning that they were trying to was spread far and wide during the campaign, remember?)
But let's say that you do go into a store where they've hung up a banner that says "Happy Holidays" instead of Merry Christmas. If you should see that, is your faith so weak that it's going to somehow keep you from continuing to be a Christian? Is that what Christmas is about? Whether WalMart or some other store hangs Santas from the ceiling? Or is Christmas something that is celebrated in the churches and homes and hearts of Christians?
(Or is it just that you don't want anyone who's not a Christian to publicly celebrate their faith during this particular time of year? How dare they have a holiday in December! Right! Tell the folks celebrating Ramadan to change their religion! Tell those Jews that Hannnakah will just have to wait! Kwanzaa? Puuuhhhlease!)
I'll aquit you of such pettiness, if you feel this way. But I will say this. It seems to me that Christians nowadays should be concerned about things other than someone occasionally saying "Happy Holidays" despite the overblownand very deliberatecalls to action of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and their ilk.
Maybe a few more Christians should actually spend at least a little bit of the Christmas season reading the Gospels. And remembering that Jesus didn't say:
"Blessed are the war makers."
"The rich shall inherit the earth."
"Suffer the little children to die by the thousands."
"If a man strike you on your right cheek, kill him and everyone in his family."
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after profits, for they shall be filled."
"Blessed are the vengeful, for they shall find revenge."
But, no, let's focus on the great "Happy Holidays" conspiracy! What a brilliant way to divert attention from the misery caused by increasing unemployment, the millions of kids sick and without health insurance, the for-profit destruction of God's natural world, the insane wars that drag on and on with thousands dying each month, the subtle and secret erosion of liberty in this country and elsewhere. What a terrific way to make Christians worry about how stores are decorated, instead of the current violations of Christ's commandment to love one another!
There's a conspiracy herebut it's not against Christmas. It's against the teachings of Christ.
Cathryn Sykes syryn@mac.com is a freelance writer and political independent who lives near Fort Worth, Texas.
