I prefer “Mele Kalikimaka” myself.
No further than my computer this morning.
By that standard: I’m sick and tired of everyone trying to make my dick bigger!
Just popped in to say two things
First - Valterongreat poem. I read it out loud to my husband and pictured illustrations by Dr. Seuss. Very fun.
Second - Happy Holidays was good enough for Bing sixty years ago, so it’s good enough for me. Like lynxie said above, a great many of the cards sent from and received by my parent’s very Christian home in the '60’s asid Seasons Greetings and Happy Holidays. My assumption growing up was the holidays in question covered the whole midwinter season, including Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years. Nobody used to take any offence at it and it seemed to be used interchangeably with Merry Christmas. Even as an atheist of many decades standing, I’ll use either.
Flogging a dead horse, so to speak? 
Just ribbing you, Thurdlow. … . . I am sure the more appropriate aphorism is “taking coals to Newscastle” right?
But I know how you feel. I used to complain that even someone endowed normal or better (modesty forbids me from mentioning who) could start to get a complex after the 500th email telling him to make his dick bigger.
Merry Christmas to you!
Wait a second, I have just said the forbidden words and no PC police have beaten down my door and arrested me? Sayyyyyyy. . . . . you don’t suppose the religious right are exagerating a tiny bit?
You must have typed this wrong.
You’re not saying you’re a Baha’i and you’re an atheist are you, since Baha’i’s believe in God. Furthermore what’s with “an atheist , but non Christian”? That’s a well duh!
I’m kinda sick of Christians in general. You wanna worship, be my guest. Just keep it to yourself and your Christian friends. I’m tired of hearing about it.
Whooo boy did you miss the point. It has nothing to do with being tolerant of others religious holidays. It has to do with this country changing and becoming more diverse. The Christian conservatives are annoyed because they usually think Christianity has dibbs on America. Nobody is asking Christians to change how they choose to celebrate Christmas or complaining about a greeting. Try reading the OP before you post. It helps sometimes
FTR Love the poem V. I’ll be forwarding it to some I know will appreciate it. I got taken off my Christian relatives forward list because when they sent me something I assumed they wanted an honest response. I was mistaken.
When I grew up Christmas was all Santa and Jesus so I understand a certain wistful longing for lost traditions. Feeling persecuted and claiming people have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas is bogus. The people that have forgotten Jesus the most are the ones who claim his name as a label. If you want to start convincing people the message of Jesus is important, start living it.
I was going to move this to Cafe Society, but then the OP did not elicit the critical evaluation of the poems I had expected. Then it looked to be a poll about reactions to the poems, thus better suited to IMHO, but that does not seem to be the case, either.
However, since there is no actual debate, here, it certainly does not belong in GD, so I guess that it will find a comfortable home in MPSIMS.
[ /Modding ]
As a moderate left-of-center Christian, it is getting much harder to resist the temptation to drink heavily whenever this kind of thing starts up again.
Who wants to pass the eggnog?
Yes, I find the “Happy Holidays” issue tiring. But I’ve heard almost none of it this year. I’ve actually heard more people complaining about people who complain about it - all of two threads on this forum. I’ve gotten one email about keeping the Christ in Christmas. I am sure some people are carping about it, but I haven’t even seen one Pit thread about some idiot Congressman or Fox pundit who has spouted off about it. Surprise surprise: my conclusion is that this year, people have some real crap to worry about, so they’re not getting worked up about any bullshit about the greeter at the department store saying the wrong words.
I mentioned this a while back and somebody said it’d probably crop up as we got closer to Christmas. A reasonable theory, but Christmas is now about six days away and I’m still hearing nothing.
Oops.
I rarely hear those sorts of comments here, but they don’t bother me.
As soon as Allah goes away I will let Jesus go. Fair deal?
Yes, and what’s even worse is that I was reprimanded for this (saying Happy Holidays) by a school teacher no less. A public school teacher! In Canada by the way.
Do people really feel unwelcome or offended when a store clerk wishes them a Merry Christmas?
I’m sorry Valteron but Islam is a religion and Muslims are the people who embrace that faith. Islam in and of itself is a peaceful religion, though sometimes it does seem a bit harsh. But I think it is just wrong to say that Islam is the Naziisme of religions. Islam is a faith that promotes brotherhood, and sacrifice for others. It’s just that some stupid, power-crazed people have taken the concept of jihad and turned it on it’s head. It’s supposed to be a struggle to better yourself and through you, your faith. And they perversely turned it into ‘holy war’ in which you must destroy anyone not of your faith. They even hate other muslims for living together peacefully with peoples of other faiths.
From Wikipedia:
*Within Islamic jurisprudence jihad is the only form of warfare permissible under Islamic law, and may be declared against apostates, rebels, highway robbers, violent groups, non-Islamic leaders or non-Muslim combatants, but there are other ways to perform jihad as well, including civil disobedience. *
As you can see in jihad you cannot take the life of the innocent (granted waging war on apostates is a tad stupid). And it’s not always about war (so maybe just shun apostates rather than killing them, I suppose) . Every religion has had some megalomaniac use it for political, or power-driven motives, it’s just that lately Islam has had more bad PR, as it were. What those terrorists believe is not Islam, it’s not even a religion. So please take what you said back.
FTR I’m not a Muslim, but I do live in a predominately Islamic country, and from what I see they are a very nice lot.
Maybe you are talking about the extremism of religions and I think that noone in their right minds really goes for that.
By the way, loved your poem.
I agree with the entire post, but I can’t get up to the level of irked. The best I can manage is mildly bemused.
I’d be happier if they did away with the holiday altogether. I don’t care what they call it.
Can you not see how it’s hard to view Islam as a religion of peace when it outlines its own terms of war and specifies that war can only be used against criminals and non-believers?
Where in Christianity or Bhuddism or Judaism does it outline acceptable terms of doing violence against those who do not accept it or who happen to believe differently?
Perhaps without these tenets of Islamic jurisprudence, there would be far less encouragement to violence for extremists to hang their hats on.
Yes I do see it. Though to be fair, it is just a part of the religion and it does say that war is not the only option. But now I’m just repeating myself. But people do gloss over the fact that jihad is not about waging war. It’s about the struggle to better oneself. It’s a noble thought, though one that can be misinterpreted so badly that it becomes ‘kill the non-believers!!’
That’s why I agree with you wholeheartedly, Starving Artist. It is hard to believe that a religion that sanctions brutal punishments like chopping the hands off of thieves is peaceful. But again that’s only one part of the story.
Living here in Indonesia, where over 80% of the 220 million people or so people are Muslims you get to appreciate that what those terrorists do is not in any way a part of Islam. The most vehement haters of those Islamic terrorists are as I see it, moderate Muslims. And you can’t fault that, they’re making them look bad.
My main point is that Islam is not the Naziisme of religion. It is a religion, not without faults, but nevertheless still basically a good one.