Shodan, the Sunday before Easter this year is Buddha’s Birthday; the Thursday before Easter marks the start of Passover, at least according to the calendar next to my desk at work. Nevertheless, I don’t see any attempt to celebrate those occaisions publicly in any form, even though Passover is a rather important holiday for Jews. In my own tradition, you don’t wish someone a “Happy Easter” until Easter Sunday itself. It isn’t Easter, a time of joy and celebration; it’s Lent, a season of penitence and reflection. We’re supposed to meditate on our sins and imperfections, not rejoice in our righteousness. Putting up a display wishing someone a “Happy Easter” prior to sunrise April 16th this year is against *my]/i] form of Christianity and is technically as appropriate and accurate as wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” at Thanksgiving.
Are you really comparing an employee being asked to take down a sign saying “Happy Easter” to an act of evil? While I do agree with the premise in The Screwtape Letters that a lot of what passes for petty nonsense, in this case, I think this is petty nonsense. If someone were to wish me a “Happy Easter” today, I’d be confused because it isn’t Easter yet.
I don’t think the woman who set up the display was trying to impose her religion on anyone; I don’t think the person who asked her to take it down was trying to attack Christianity. If I were to speculate about the motives of the individuals involved, I’d guess that the former was acting on her beliefs, and the latter was showing consideration and respect to those who don’t share them, including some of us who are Christians. If it’s appropriate to put up a sign wishing people a Happy Easter, why not with people a Happy Passover or Happy Buddha’s Birthday as well?
Christ told us Christians to love our neighbors as ourselves. How is taking offense at someone’s attempt to recognize that not everyone in the US or a given town is a Christian an attack on that law? Surely looking for a reason to take offense is breaking that Commandment? If I fail to respect the beliefs of others, be they Jewish, Buddhist, or Christians who wish people “Happy Easter” during Lent, then I have broken that Commandment, and I have sinned.
I repeat, the Human Rights guy is claiming he only asked them to remove a sign that said “Happy Easter,” not the entire display. Let’s get the story right.
The feds recognize that holidays have secular aspects which may be celebrated without violating the freedom of religion of captive students; if this is true, then surely the secular aspects of religious holidays can be celebrated by employees without violating FoR.
Again, though, I’ll point out that the HR guy’s decision to take down the display, while unnecessary and PC (I disagree, Dio that the term is meaningless; I just think its prevalence is far exaggerated by conservatives and fundies), didn’t violate anyone’s rights, not even in a trivial sense.
If some one set out a plate of hamataschen, would you think it appropriate to require that it be removed for fear of offending Gentiles?
The fact that some holidays are celebrated more widely than others is not much of an argument for banning a secular display of one that is celebrated.
Well, it is pretty stupid, as many forms of PC wind up to be.
But part of the reason that it is so ridiculous is that it is so petty. It is roughly the equivalent of taking offense at the word “niggardly” - more an indication of the stupidity of the offenderati than of anything else.
Nor does anyone else, except this clown who runs the human rights department.
But isn’t that the point? It was colored eggs and rabbits, not a picture of an empty tomb and the caption “He is Risen”.
And yet some people are so fearful as to relegate speech that isn’t religious except to paranoids to second class. Look at Zoe’s example:
In my view, we are well past the point of respecting anyone’s views, and out into PC Paranoia Land, population Too Many and Growing.
It starts with this kind of bullshit, which is petty and stupid. But it is much of a piece with this kind of bullshit, which is equally stupid and not nearly as petty.
Political correctness is often sold on the basis that it is merely respect for people’s rights. It is not always so. Sometimes it means “to hell with your rights, if some favored or historically disenfranchised or merely loud-mouthed group might take offense.”
What? That piece is about an RA’s successful challenge to “UW-Eau Claire’s unwritten policy - now suspended - that prohibited RAs from holding political, religious or sales events in the dorms in which they work.” Doesn’t sound like a stupid policy to me. I’m glad I went through college without ever having to put up with an RA trying to sell the dormrats on Amway. Or on Christianity.
I’ll halfway disagree with each of you. I reluctantly agree with the decision to let the RA hold religious meetings in his workplace on his own time: even though I the taxpayer am paying for his workplace, it’s the same as his home, and the right for an individual to hold religious meetings in his home trumps the responsibility of the government not to have employees holding religious meetings in government facilities.
However, I’m conflicted about the decision precisely because it’s not of a piece with the decision quoted above: that is, it’s a question of government and religion and how the two should intersect. The Easter Bunny display does not involve religion: it’s a secular display celebrating the secular aspects of a holiday. They’re totally different questions.
True, in both cases administrators tried to avoid intersection of religion and government, and made a wrong decision thereby. In St. Paul, they made a wrong decision because religion had nothing to do with the case, and therefore it was an egregious decision; in Eau Claire, they made the wrong decision because they applied improper weights to two conflicting governmental responsibilities. That’s not an egregious mistake at all to make.