I'm getting sick and tired of the secular attack on Christmas, and Christians in general. Stores are now removing Christmas from their advertising and in-store greetings, replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays."
The latest attack is on the "Christmas" tree, now calling it the "holiday" tree. Let me see... Jews don't have a "Yahweh" tree... Muslims don't have an "Allah" tree... Buddhists don't have a "Buddha" tree. Hindus have no holiday in December. Atheists, I would assume, don't buy Christmas trees or presents.
All this is supposedly to keep from offending non-Christians shopping for presents during the holiday season.
My understanding is that Muslims and Jews exchange very modest gifts during their December holidays, mostly religious books, jewellery and/or other religious items. They also buy the majority of these specialized items from their own religious stores. Buddhists, I understand, have no such holiday tradition.
In fact, the little bit of research I've conducted shows that Christians buy the overwhelmingly vast majority of Christmas presents! Non-Christians only purchase a minuscule amount of merchandise as presents during this time.
In a straw poll, 80 percent of those polled identify themselves as being "Christian" of some sort, 2 percent identify themselves as Jewish, 2 percent claim some "other" religion, and 9 percent claim no religious affiliation. (I don't know what happened to the other 7 percent, but for simplicity I'll concede that 20 percent are non-Christian.)
So after my research, I'm wondering exactly "who" these retailers are trying not to offend?
For one, I'm offended! I have decided to buy my Christmas fare at stores that recognize Christmas.
Christmas is a Christian celebration of Christ's birth. While there were other societies who placed trees in their homes during their holidays, the Christmas tree has been an item in the American Christian home since the mid-1800s. If there is another religion or culture using trees in the home during this season, somebody please enlighten me.
In my humble opinion, we Christians should let these retailers know what we think of their marketing practices with letters, emails, phone calls... and especially our money.
