You know, there was an article in yesterday's LA Times about the profitability of the War on Christmas. The gist is that the a bunch of organizations are saying the War is heating up, and these folks are making a lot of money selling t-shirts, wristbands, doing general fundraising, or whatever. I suppose in the US it's okay to make money off of whatever you want, but the War has always struck me as somewhat of a fallacy -- I mean, the attack is on RETAIL establishments who make a business decision to cater to a broader clientele. Why religious faith should be forcibly expressed through the sale of merchandise is beyond me. And come on -- Starbucks is festooned with red and green trees, "Christmas Blend" coffees and whatever, and I don't celebrate Christmas, but I dutifully go in and buy my $3 latte in the red and green cup all the time nonetheless. What silliness. Although to be honest, I did buy the blue bag o' java labeled "Holiday Blend" instead of the red bag....
And if you want to talk about wars during Christmas, well this is just tragic. This is not what Christmas is about.
To all my friends who celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very Merry Christmas, with peace on earth and goodwill to all men.
2 comments:
Expectations. Our 18-month old has very specific expectations and when they do not become real, he has a tantrum. And so it goes with those who have not yet developed a mature appreciation of the health invested in America's plurality of religions--especially those who expect capitalists to promote one religion over the rest. But they don't scare me--the ones that scare me promote one religion over the rest in public schools and government buildings, thereby doing exactly what the Greeks did in Jerusalem way back when--allowing one religion only to dominate the public sphere. That's just not American, that's currently a Christian form of Hellenism. Some Christians might argue that this nebulous "secularism" is a form of Hellenism, and they might be right, but perhaps we could all do our best to lessen the superficial affects of secularism on our culture by promoting our own religions in those places set aside for that spiritual task--our homes and our religious buildings. I grew up the daughter of a protestant minister; I did not grow up in a home that promoted spirituality, few of my friends and aquaintances did. Secularism starts at home--not at Starbucks.
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