Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Another December, another faux "War on Christmas."  Once again the Christian right and Fox News is dragging out that tired old refrain.  To save energy they could just plug in a repeat of the previous year's show, I'm not sure why they don't.  It's kind of like watching Miracle on 34th Street every single year - the dialogue doesn't change any.

Let's get one thing straight - there is no War on Christmas.  There is a War on Diversity.

According to some Christians (not all, I'll admit), the only proper greeting to be made the entire month of December is "Merry Christmas."  If one says "Happy Holidays" in an attempt to be inclusive of people who may be celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice or just Santa and reindeer, then you're trying to kill Jesus!  You're taking the Christ out of Christmas!  Where I come from you'll see bumper stickers saying "keep the Christ in Christmas" all the time.  I didn't know anyone was trying to take him out of that particular holiday simply by using a greeting that is non-discriminatory of people who may have different beliefs.

It's clear that those who are so touchy about Christmas don't understand how the holiday came about in the first place.  To facilitate the overtaking of pagan beliefs by Christianity, ancient Christians took the traditional winter celebration of the pagans, including the feast and the decorated tree, stuck a star on the top of the tree and called it Christmas.  So now you can't call a decorated tree a holiday tree, even though that tradition was a pagan one, and if you say anything but Merry Christmas for an entire month you're trying to kill the Christian deity.  All righty, then.

Corporations, including those that are publicly traded on the stock market, have faced backlash for wanting to be inclusive of people of varying faiths or no faith at all.  This kind of inclusiveness is called diversity, something most corporations work hard to obtain.  They have diversity teams, diversity events, people whose sole job it is to promote diversity.  But some Christians just don't like it, especially during the month they want to claim belongs to Christians and Christians alone.

Those who disdain the greeting "Happy Holidays" are showing their ignorance, their prejudice and their bigotry.  You can't tell someone's religion by looking at them.  What if you say "Merry Christmas" to a Jew?  Or a Buddhist?  How about a secular humanist such as myself?  These Christians have decided that it's their religion, and their religion only, that matters during December, and we're not supposed to be offended.

But I am offended; just as offended as I am that every day I have to handle currency that says "In God We Trust" (which, by the way, was adopted as the national motto in 1956 during the Red Scare).  Every December, this one being no exception, I'm inundated with people greeting me with a "Merry Christmas" and sending me "Merry Christmas" cards, under the assumption that I am, of course, a Christian.  When someone greets me with "Merry Christmas" I've decided just to say "same to you" in return.  Until people get educated about why diversity is important, they're not going to understand why "Merry Christmas" is an inappropriate greeting unless you know the person you're addressing is a Christian.

I've even discovered that finding a charity I can support during this holiday season is getting increasingly tough.  For years I "adopted" an Angel from the Salvation Army Christmas Angels program, i.e., I bought clothes and toys for little boys and girls who were in need.  But the Salvation Army is an evangelical Christian organization, and despite what they may want you to believe if you read their website, has a very anti-gay stance.  My belief is that the LGBT community suffers much from Christians who take one statement out of the Bible as reason to discriminate against them and even incite violence against them, yet they don't do the same for any other commandment in their holy book.  This year I have resolved to stop supporting the Salvation Army and donate instead to the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots program.

Us secular humanists are just as charitable as Christians are, and yet charitable donations and offers of volunteer work from atheist organizations have literally been turned down by some charities so they won't be seen as affiliating with atheists.  (See the article here from Religion News Service.)

The people who were going to be helped by their generosity may never know this.

Christians should not assume that their beliefs should apply to everyone, and any other beliefs (or non-beliefs) are invalid.  That's the difference between saying "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays."

So Happy Holidays, everyone, whatever you're celebrating!