Ron Paul: War on Christmas & Secular America

[JaJae]

Christmas in Secular America

As we celebrate another Yuletide season, it’s hard not to notice that Christmas in America simply doesn’t feel the same anymore. Although an overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas, and those who don’t celebrate it overwhelmingly accept and respect our nation’s Christmas traditions, a certain shared public sentiment slowly has disappeared. The Christmas spirit, marked by a wonderful feeling of goodwill among men, is in danger of being lost in the ongoing war against religion.

Through perverse court decisions and years of cultural indoctrination, the elitist, secular Left has managed to convince many in our nation that religion must be driven from public view. The justification is always that someone, somewhere, might possibly be offended or feel uncomfortable living in the midst of a largely Christian society, so all must yield to the fragile sensibilities of the few. The ultimate goal of the anti-religious elites is to transform America into a completely secular nation, a nation that is legally and culturally biased against Christianity.

This growing bias explains why many of our wonderful Christmas traditions have been lost. Christmas pageants and plays, including Handel’s Messiah, have been banned from schools and community halls. Nativity scenes have been ordered removed from town squares, and even criticized as offensive when placed on private church lawns. Office Christmas parties have become taboo, replaced by colorless seasonal parties to ensure no employees feel threatened by a “hostile environment.” Even wholly non-religious decorations featuring Santa Claus, snowmen, and the like have been called into question as Christmas symbols that might cause discomfort. Earlier this month, firemen near Chicago reluctantly removed Christmas decorations from their firehouse after a complaint by some embittered busybody. Most noticeably, however, the once commonplace refrain of “Merry Christmas” has been replaced by the vague, ubiquitous “Happy Holidays.” But what holiday? Is Christmas some kind of secret, a word that cannot be uttered in public? Why have we allowed the secularists to intimidate us into downplaying our most cherished and meaningful Christian celebration?

The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers. On the contrary, our Founders’ political views were strongly informed by their religious beliefs. Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion. The establishment clause of the First Amendment was simply intended to forbid the creation of an official state church like the Church of England, not to drive religion out of public life.

The Founding Fathers envisioned a robustly Christian yet religiously tolerant America, with churches serving as vital institutions that would eclipse the state in importance. Throughout our nation’s history, churches have done what no government can ever do, namely teach morality and civility. Moral and civil individuals are largely governed by their own sense of right and wrong, and hence have little need for external government. This is the real reason the collectivist Left hates religion: Churches as institutions compete with the state for the people’s allegiance, and many devout people put their faith in God before their faith in the state. Knowing this, the secularists wage an ongoing war against religion, chipping away bit by bit at our nation’s Christian heritage. Christmas itself may soon be a casualty of that war.

Christmas in Secular America

I agree that there is a PC movement in America that wishes to quelch speaking about Christmas and make it offensive. My girlfriend mentioned "Christmas" in front of a high school class and they flipped out and started joking around calling for security at the very mention of "Christmas" in schools.

Another school in NJ is running the play "A Holiday Story" because their township doesn't allow them to use the word Christmas in print.

Home Depot even got away from "Holiday Trees" and started calling them "Miracle Trees." After some complaints they added the word "Holiday" to the description.
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Why can't our society call a Christmas Tree a Christmas Tree anymore? The PC crap is getting absurd.

In my opinion the movement against Christmas is real. Paul's article makes a lot of sense, but do you think this might bite him in the butt? This article was written 4 years ago, before there was a formal "War on Christmas" reported by pundits in the media.

[IminWonderland]

All I know is that every house in my neighborhood has lights and a blow up thingy on their lawn.

Christmas isn't going anywhere.

[Simius]

I dunno about the rest of you, but I just can't get into the holiday spirit until someone complains about the war Christmas.

Thanks for this thread, now I can do my Christmas shopping with zeal.

[Scrum]

Originally Posted by IminWonderland

All I know is that every house in my neighborhood has lights and a blow up thingy on their lawn.

Christmas isn't going anywhere.

This is just more manufactured scare tactics. Liberals are coming for your holidays.

[kinggovernor]

he is correct, the overzealous PC has got to go. Christmas is a national holiday, and any objection against it should be lodged against congress not with normal people who celebrate the holiday

[hsmith]

Originally Posted by Simius

I dunno about the rest of you, but I just can't get into the holiday spirit until someone complains about the war Christmas.

Thanks for this thread, now I can do my Christmas shopping with zeal.

This year, Australia perpetrated the first attack on Christmas this year

Must Santa's 'Ho, ho, ho' ... go, go, go? -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. -- Most rappers (and Don Imus) would not be good Santa Clauses. Their "hos" -- even in the jolly triplicate -- just wouldn't convey the proper spirit.

But ban working Santas from using "Ho, ho, ho"? That's a realm beyond race, gender and political correctness -- a new frontier in coddling kookiness.

And yet, that was the story out of Australia Thursday, where a firm that trains Santa Clauses reportedly told recruits to avoid "ho, ho, ho," in part because it conjures American slang for a prostitute, according to The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney.

THE WAR IS IN FULL FORCE

[Ardentfrost]

I do find the forced PC shit a bit much. I like to see people celebrating their own holidays, whether it be christmas or jew christmas or brown people christmas or whatever.

Like how I said it as not PC as possible?

[SoFlaJDM]

its about that time of year again...

those dirty liberals have nothing better to do

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by SoFlaJDM

its about that time of year again...

those dirty liberals have nothing better to do

It's not really "those dirty liberals" it's a very small minority of people who are protesting. I think the vast majority of America either don't care or would prefer to not be so PC about this. It probably depends on what part of the country someone comes from as well. Being from NJ, I've seen a huge change in the political correctness around the Christmas season. It's gotten to absurd levels.

[kinggovernor]

Americans Celebrate Christmas in Diverse Ways

Holiday observances blend the traditional with the new

By Michael Jay Friedman
USINFO Staff Writer



Washington -- Christmas, celebrated by most Christians on December 25, commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Americans, like many of the world’s peoples, have developed their own Christmas traditions and observances, and these have changed greatly over time.

Today, most Americans blend religious and secular customs with their own family traditions. Thus, even though Christmas is for many Americans a religious occasion, the federal courts have upheld its status as a legal holiday. As one court reasoned, “by giving federal employees a paid vacation day on Christmas, the government is doing no more than recognizing the cultural significance of the holiday.”

DEVELOPMENT OF THE AMERICAN CHRISTMAS

The early New England Puritans frowned on the often boisterous Christmas celebrations they witnessed in Britain. In 1659, the Massachusetts colony briefly criminalized observance of the day and Christmas remained a regular workday in much of New England and Pennsylvania. Other parts of British North America, however, celebrated with gusto, with costumed revelers passing door to door and receiving small gifts of food and drink.

The modern, more commercialized Christmas began to emerge in the 19th century with the new custom of purchasing gifts for young children. Seasonal “Christmas shopping” began to assume economic importance.

Other Christmas traditions similarly began during the 19th century. Santa Claus -- derived from the Dutch Sinter Klaas and the German Saint Nicholas -- assumed the persona of a jolly dispenser of gifts and pilot of a reindeer-drawn sleigh through such works as the 1823 poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” and an 1863 Harper’s Weekly portrait by the illustrator Thomas Nast. Many organizations, from the Salvation Army charitable organization to the Coca-Cola Company, since have employed Santa’s image.

According to legend, Christmas trees date back to Martin Luther, the 16th century German cleric whose critique of established Catholic Church practices precipitated the Protestant Reformation. According to legend, Luther brought home to his children and lit with candles a fir tree one Christmas Eve to remind them of the wonders of God’s creation.

The custom spread to Britain and the United States in the 19th century. Today, many contemporary Americans either purchase a cut, fresh evergreen tree or a reusable aluminum and plastic model. Placed in the family living room, the Christmas tree is decorated with lights and various ornaments, typically small orbs depicting angels and other figures associated with the holiday. In some families, Christmas gifts appear under the tree on the morning of December 25, deposited there by family members, or, as smaller children might believe, delivered by Santa Klaus after landing reindeer and sleigh on the roof and traversing the chimney -- all after the children are fast asleep!


Mass-produced Christmas cards began to appear in the last quarter of the 19th century. In 1996, Americans purchased and mailed an estimated 2.6 billion Christmas cards. These might depict religious scenes or else convey more secular, often humorous, messages. With the rise of the Internet, electronically transmitted “e-cards” are an increasingly popular option.

CONTEMPORARY OBSERVANCES


With Christmas shopping vitally important to some retailers, Christmas has expanded into a “season” of its own. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed moving the Thanksgiving holiday to extend the shopping period between that holiday and Christmas. Today, the day after Thanksgiving is known as “Black Friday.” An important shopping day (some stores open hours before their normal time), it pushes some businesses into profitability, or “in the black,” and can account for a substantial proportion of annual profits.

This extended Christmas season is about far more than shopping. For many Americans, it is a period of general good will and an occasion for charitable and volunteer work. To some extent, non-Christian holidays celebrated at roughly the same time of year -- most prominently the African-American Kwanzaa and the Jewish Hanukkah -- blend into a broader “holiday season.”

Seasonal popular entertainment includes a number of perennial favorites. Popular telecasts of the motion pictures A Miracle on 34th Street (1945) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) have been joined in recent years by A Christmas Story (1983), based on the tales of the radio raconteur Jean Shepherd.

Christmas-themed animated programs often appear on television. Some, like A Charlie Brown Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, date to the mid-1960s, and are enjoyed by today’s children and their nostalgic parents alike.

An increasing number of radio stations now adjust their formats to feature Christmas music, sometimes exclusively, during the four weeks to six weeks before the holiday. Live and recorded performances of such classical favorites as the “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and J.S. Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” peak during the weeks before Christmas.

The holiday’s original religious meaning remains for many its most important element. Some congregations create manger scenes -- dioramas of the stable where Jesus was born, complete with figurines representing the infant Jesus and those present at his birth. Many churches hold well-attended Christmas Eve candlelight or midnight services. Some include a Mass of the Nativity or a dramatization of the birth of Jesus.

As with so many aspects of U.S. cultural life, Christmas in the United States reflects the values of a free and diverse people.

(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: USINFO - The United States Department of State)

Americans Celebrate Christmas in Diverse Ways

[garbagemanlb]

I agree, forced PC is bullshit. Same goes for those Christians who want to boycott stores that DON'T say 'merry christmas' and just say 'happy holidays'.

It goes both ways.

The government should either include all religions or none, and I couldn't care less what a private business does.

[nbiggershaft]

Since when is happy holidays a PC thing, I can't remember a time without 'happy holidays'

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by nbiggershaft

Since when is happy holidays a PC thing, I can't remember a time without 'happy holidays'

When people are afraid to say Merry Christmas for fear of offending it becomes a PC thing. There was a time when businesses weren't afraid to have "Christmas Sales" and people went to NYC to see the "Christmas Tree", etc..

Now people are afraid of offending by mentioning the word Christmas.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by Scrum

This is just more manufactured scare tactics. Liberals are coming for your holidays.

Actually liberals activists are very good at trying to manufacture false shame. And like most things PC they fail with most everyone but the militant malcontents and limp wristed officials. That is why we get these occasional "War on Christmas" stories. One idiot with some form of authority who is chicken shit to offend a single person makes the news. Liberals can't come for our holidays because the rest of us will not let them! That does not make these PC activist just waiting to be offended anything other than worthless intolerant human beings who really do need to get a life. That is what they are.

Thanks Ron Paul for the message.

A very Merry Christmas to you!

[Dumpy Dooby]

I hate "War on Christmas" crap. Honestly, I'm surprised that its even taken seriously anymore.



The idea that "secular left" is attacking and oppressing the "religious right" is laughable and pathetic at best, and disturbingly ironic at worst.

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by nbiggershaft

Since when is happy holidays a PC thing, I can't remember a time without 'happy holidays'

No indeed.

But I can remember a time when "Merry Christmas" was not considered offensive by anybody. I learned all about the Jewish holidays in a public school and from friends. I may have even been a bit jealous that they were getting gifts before I did. I sang Christmas Carols in a School Choir. Not a single protest that I can recall? Nobody felt some threat of being turned into a Christian!

It seems to me it is mostly the non-religious who seem so hell bent to protect someone of another religion from being offended by "Christian" holiday traditions. That is what they claim. Guess what? I think they are a lot of miserable dishonest little toads. A lump of coal in their stocking!

[RMNIXON]

Originally Posted by Dumpy Dooby

I hate "War on Christmas" crap. Honestly, I'm surprised that its even taken seriously anymore.



The idea that "secular left" is attacking and oppressing the "religious right" is laughable and pathetic at best, and disturbingly ironic at worst.

You might do a little more research Dumpy. There is a historical record of government oppressing majorities as well as minorities. I don't see that in this case just yet. But don't be a fool to think it cannot happen! Just imagine if the PC Nazi's you can find on just about any college campus with real power?

[Scrum]

Originally Posted by garbagemanlb

I agree, forced PC is bullshit. Same goes for those Christians who want to boycott stores that DON'T say 'merry christmas' and just say 'happy holidays'.

It goes both ways.

The government should either include all religions or none, and I couldn't care less what a private business does.

[lew]

Just so everyone knows, this article was written by Paul years ago. I tend to agree with it, but just wanted to point out that it's old so people don't think he just wrote it now to appeal to social conservatives or anything.

[nbiggershaft]

Originally Posted by RMNIXON

No indeed.

But I can remember a time when "Merry Christmas" was not considered offensive by anybody. I learned all about the Jewish holidays in a public school and from friends. I may have even been a bit jealous that they were getting gifts before I did. I sang Christmas Carols in a School Choir. Not a single protest that I can recall? Nobody felt some threat of being turned into a Christian!

It seems to me it is mostly the non-religious who seem so hell bent to protect someone of another religion from being offended by "Christian" holiday traditions. That is what they claim. Guess what? I think they are a lot of miserable dishonest little toads. A lump of coal in their stocking!

Yeah I remember that time. It's now, O'rielly and folks have tricked you into thinking common phrases are a war on christmas.