Though I don’t get overly agitated at the PC tendency to remove the meaning from holiday celebrations, I do think this growing practice is an unwelcome tendency in our society. In fact, I don’t think it is even a liberal tendency. Rather, from my point of view, a true liberal holiday greeting would be the opposite. Let me explain. …

I don’t care if you’re Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, or Pagan; if you are celebrating something, let me know what it is. I might not celebrate it with you, but at least I know you’re not just commemorating a day for the day’s sake! Think about it, if someone tells a Christian: “Happy Hannukah” or “Happy Ramadan” of “Happy Solstice”, isn’t that much more meaningful than a happy “holiday”? So, I never refrain from wishing people a Merry Christmas. It’s who I am and I have a right to wish this to people. It’s not horrible, you know. It is intended to be a nice sentiment and a cordial expression, not an offensive one. I think most sane people know this.

Now, if I know someone is not Christian, then I will make every effort to add “Happy Hannukah” or “Happy Kwanza” after my “Merry Christmas” - but I can only wish people the joy that I experience on days special to me, and if they get offended by that joy because I don’t know what is special to them … well, that is their problem. Does this make me conservative? No, not at all. In fact, I think the multicultural diversity of liberalism should encourage the pronouncement of the many blessing and well-wishes that come from all festivals, faiths, and days of celebration. Amen!

And … Merry Christmas!

Rather, from my point of view, a true liberal holiday greeting would be the opposite.

You’re right, Jimmy, but the trouble is that the word “liberal” has been hijacked by people who are anything but, in the classical, live-and-let-live sense.

And only after having ruined the word for modern political discourse (except among those of us who have learned about its original meaning), they have been wanting very badly over recent years to shed it in favor of likewise misapplying such labels as “centrist” and “progressive.”

I’ve never actually met anyone who was “offended” by a CD containing Christmas songs, or a Christmas greeting, or Christmas decorations. I’m not Jewish, but if someone wished me a Happy Hannukah or displayed a menorah I certainly wouldn’t take offense. The concept eludes me completely. Who are they, and, frankly, why should we care about the opinions of such small-minded people?

The West is majority Christian

…so all them Jews and Muslims and whatever can put up and shut up…and who gives a damn what those awful pagans think? They’re not even monotheists, for heaven’s sake! Let’s not even get started on the atheists…

yet we’re letting the very possibility of offending some tiny minority

Define “tiny,” please. Then write a five-page paper on the concept of “tyranny of the majority.”

turn one of our most sacred holidays

Who “our,” Christian man? It ain’t a sacred holiday for me, and I’m every bit as much a part of the West as you are.

into a faith-free winter event.

Cue the violins.

Sure, the two Scotland incidents were extremely dumb. Nobody’s forcing anyone to actually buy the Xmas CD — and anyone with a brain would expect an Xmas CD to have religiously themed songs on it. And you’re right, the restaurant at the very least should not have booked that party.

But, as an agnostic of Jewish heritage, I am so damn tired of Christians assuming that just because everyone in their social circle and workplace celebrates the holiday, the rest of the nation wants it shoved in their faces. Which is precisely the experience of Xmas if you’re not a Christian.

Fine, put up Santa and the reindeer and (as long as my tax dollars don’t go toward its maintenance) the crèche. Just don’t expect me to ooh and ahh over it, OK? For a lot of us, the genuine reaction is, “Gads, I can’t wait until January.” Including — trust me on this — an awful lot of nominal Christians.

Oh, and while I’m here, why is it that if you were to mention to a stranger, “I’m not a Jew” or “I’m not a Muslim,” it would be no big deal, but on the two occasions I’ve told a stranger in conversation “I’m not a Christian,” I’ve been treated to facial expressions that would make a bystander think I’d just confessed to the Green River serial killings?

Finally: Gays make up around 2 percent of the population, yet we’re going to let them intimidate the rest of us and game the system into redefining marriage.

“Gaming the system” being, I guess, a dysphemism for “winning the basic rights automatically given every other citizen in a democracy, regardless of whether any particular church approves or not.”

Reginlief, the point was that you shouldn’t be offended by someone else’s culture. Surpressing someone else’s culture, however? That’s a tad more offensive.

However, I’m skeptical about the truth of this story. The nurses were Scottish, yet this line can’t be true:

Undeterred, the nurses, who were all completely sober

Scots who are sober, while at a resturaunt? Who does this author think (s)he’s trying to kid? ;-{)>

Merry Christmas, and Happy Boxing Day, everyone.

Surpressing someone else’s culture, however? That’s a tad more offensive.

Geoff, please indicate where in my comment I advocated “surpressing” someone else’s culture, if that is what you’re suggesting. I believe I clearly stated that owners of private property can put up any decorations they like, as long as they don’t expect me to gush over it.

And if store owners insist on playing the sappiest renditions of Xmas carols they can find from opening till closing, they shouldn’t be surprised that some of us choose to stay faaaar away until after New Year’s. Really, I’m surprised that more retail clerks don’t go on shooting rampages in December…although, come to think of it, the CNN coverage of the carnage would be a welcome corrective alternative to It’s A Wonderful Life.

And pardon me if I bristle at your presumed equivalence of “American culture” with “Christian culture.” That’s the sort of unspoken assumption that has led to the pendulum swinging far into politically correct territory. I’m an American, and American culture is as much mine as it is yours.

It’s only perfectly fine for those who hate religion or christianity to self-rightgeously shove their views down everyone else’s throats. They’re so rabidly anti-Christian that it’s the same as any religious fanatic in the expression and enforcment of their beliefs. Hypocrits.

and what’s to like about religion? Nothing but harm comes form any religion. Last night I imagined a world without religion, and realized humans need it to justify their actions. Without religion, humans have no one to bless or blam but themselves. I am beyond religion. I have no need for worship, because God Itself told me that worship is a human trap. Religin is for the weak of spirit, It said. Religion is for those who can’t find the answers within themselves, already provided. religion, it said, are for those who need to worship something. But those who are beyond the need for worship sit with gods rather than serve them. Those gods without an Ego, however, which are hard to find. then it said without Ego, there is no need for a “god”

Why can’t someone name the restaurant and the hospital manager and let market/social dynamics engage? This must be an easier way than letting self censorship go banally bananas: will we be censoring reports of the German cannibalism trial in case we offend the spirits of the Pacific island man munchers? Just don’t go to the humbug restaurant and flay the hospital with higher than high ground e-mail. Heh and happy baybee jesus season

First, I’m duly impressed how a story about religious freedom or lack thereof is used to suddenly bash gay marriage. Fascinatingly irrelevant, with an extra ten points for slippery slopism. You forgot to mention that the gays will be using Santa to indoctrinate little boys and girls into the pleasures of homosexual sodomy! Eek!

As for the restaurant, such are the rights of the owners (it’s not censorship for a property owner to control their own property, is it?). If people want to be outraged (and maybe they should be, maybe not, depends on who you are), then I agree with the previous commenter who said let the market work its magic.

Although not a Christian, I don’t agree with those, like in the two given Scottish examples, who self-righteously bash Christianity or who self-censor in the assumption that all will be offended. I don’t expect people of other faiths to have to self-censor (Regin, I wouldn’t be one of those people to give you a dirty look if you said you weren’t Christian), but I also don’t expect Christians to self-censor, either. Simply because they are the majority in some parts of the Western World, I don’t feel they have to hide it.

My Christian friends get Xmas cards; my Jewish friends get Chanukah cards; my pagan friends get Yule cards. The fact that all of these are readily available at Hallmark encourages me, because I like the fact that many faiths celebrate at this time of year.

On a related note, if a business chooses to be openly anti-Christian, I would like to know who they are so that I can be sure to avoid giving them any of my money. I’d do the same with an anti-Jewish or anti-Pagan establishment. I think it’s their right to do so, though, just as it’s my right to withhold my business.

And Regin - EVERYONE hates “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by the 100th time they hear it in two weeks. ;) But some Philly stations have switched to playing Christmas music during the ENTIRE MONTH of December - because that’s what the listeners want. Now, whether that reflects (a) an overwhelming Christianity in this city, or (b) how sick everyone is of the standard rock/pop/rap lineup, I don’t know.

Part of letting the market work its magic is exposing this kind of nonsense. Granted, I don’t expect this blog to have much effect on a restaurant in Scotland, but still…

Did you catch Steve Forbes on Lou Dobbs’ show the other night? Following a screamfest with the ACLU president over whether Christmas trees in the village square violate the constitution, Steve came right out and spoke the forbidden words: “May I say it, Merry Christmas.”

No, I missed the Dobbs appearance. Good for Forbes, though. It’s sad that saying “Merry Christmas” has become an act of rebellion.

Andy: You forgot to mention that the gays will be using Santa to indoctrinate little boys and girls into the pleasures of homosexual sodomy! Eek!

How would Santa indoctrinate little girls into such pleasures? Wouldn’t Mrs. Claus have to do that for him?

Part of the reason I reacted so strongly to the original post is that I had just gotten a multi-forwarded email from my former housemate’s mother, who is born-again. The original writer was objecting to the E’id stamp that the USPS has put out, along with the traditional Xmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, and non-religious stamps.

The basis of the objection was the atrocities that Islamofascists have inflicted on the U.S. in the last few years. Now I don’t agree with the opinion that “Muslim” = “Islamofascist,” as I have, believe it or not, some moderate Muslim friends who are among their co-religionists actually trying to bring about a sort of Islamic Reformation. Often at great risk to their own lives, I might add.

But what really steamed me about the email is that someone (I’m not sure if it was the original writer; I think it was someone in the forwarding chain) prefaced the body of the email with, “They don’t even believe in Christ, and they’re getting their own Christmas stamp!”

In other words, if it’s a December holiday, it’s Christmas. There’s no other “true” holiday this time of year.

As I am very fond of the woman who forwarded me the email and have no wish to hurt her if I can avoid it, I chose my words very carefully. And they began with, “I don’t worship Christ. Does that mean that I am beneath the USPS’s recognition?”

Oh, and the added text that annoyed me also threw in the gratuitous wail about “And we can’t even put up the Ten Commandments in public buildings!” — an obvious reference to Roy Moore. I made a rather mild comment about how Moore had done nothing of note while on the bench except seize onto a controversial issue to generate publicity for himself. If I had thought of it at the time (I was doing several things at once so my attention was a bit scattered), I might have cited Matthew 6:5-6.