Are you a Liberal... (Page 3)

It was another poster that commented on the throat thing and I just took off from that in my comment.

If I were to identify with any religion, it is Buddhism and would I agree that the displays of Christianity or actually the bastardization of Christianity during this season does not compel me to stop in to my local church either.

I do believe that there is a culture war and religion is just one piece of that societal conflict.

My son has a "Secret Santa" with the rest of his 5th grade class. But, of course, they can't call it a "Secret Santa", no, no, perish the thought. So they've come up with "Holiday Homies".

It makes me simulataneously laugh and shake my head.

I do not get that. I can see if it was originally called Mohammad friend or Jesus pal.

In Australia we still say Merry Christmas though yesterday saw my first TV Ad for Happy Holidays by Apple.

Santa was in fact a real person (saint Nicklaus) or some such.

I will continue to say Merry Christmas to anyone if they don't like it then don't say it back. The world has gone mad.

Yeah, to the tremendous credit of all the 5th graders, my son said that pretty much everyone still calls it "Secret Santa", and, to the credit of the teachers, no one seems to be too concerned with correcting them.

You say "Merry Christmas" and not "Happy Christmas"?

Merry Christmas! And Happy Winter Solstice (a day late). I sent out my list of grievances to be letterpressed, to make Festivus a more formal celebration this year and so that I can hand them out as mementoes. The letterpress artist makes the most mundane and trivial seem so special.

LIBERAL

I consider myself liberal, always have. It seems to me that 'liberal' is often conflated with the Democratic party, and I don't subscribe to conflating liberalism with a party. I have no party affiliation and have had none for over 30 years; I've known since I was 7 that people will often disconnect their words or ideals from their deeds.

There is a spectrum of authority rights vs individual rights. Because I believe the rights of the individual are greater than the rights of the state (authority), I identify as liberal. The opposite end of the spectrum is, of course, that the rights of the state are greater than the rights of the individual. Where you lie on the spectrum is where we get into using words like moderate and extreme. Being a pragmatist who enjoys living in a more or less stable society, I approve of the rule of law that holds these two perspectives in a healthy, necessary tension. At the end of the day, I lean towards the rights of the individual, unless the state makes a sound and compelling case for trumping those rights. That's what being a liberal means to me.

HOLY DAYS

I no longer celebrate Christmas, but back when I did (before I found Buddhism), I always found the commercial (and now political) fetishization of Christmas to be distasteful and irrelevant to my Catholic faith. My favorite Christmas tradition was attending midnight mass on Christmas. It made me feel more connected to and warmth for my fellow man. Every year, like dreadful clockwork, I hear and read comments about the war on Christmas. Speaking as someone who once observed the holy day, but felt a great emptiness around what I considered to be the growing, orgiastic materialism of Christmas, I think more damage is done to the holy day by this hyper-consumerism and idolatry (Santa et al), and by the fetishization of Christmas, rather than by those who simply don't want religious figures displayed on government spaces or those who say Happy Holiday. And, while I agree with the overarching sentiment that Jesus is the Reason for the Season, it's not a season. It's a holy day, 2 days at best, and not the most important holy day on the liturgical calendar - that would be Easter which is actually a Holy Week, with a Lenten season. I think the Christian community in the US lost something special when the holy day became a holiday as excuse for a 7 week long spending-spree. I do not wish to harsh anyone's Christmas glow; I'm just sharing how I experienced Christmas and my sense of disconnect to how it was/is pervasively celebrated. I held these beliefs when I called myself a Christian, and I still see it that way, though it no longer makes me as sad for what is no longer my faith. Given this war on Christmas mentality every year, I feel the need to insist that I am not attacking anyone's beliefs. Practice as you wish. Really.

As for how to extend or receive warm wishes, I am no more offended by hearing Merry Christmas than I am by hearing Happy Holidays, Happy Chanukah, Happy Winter Solstice, or Happy Festivus. I tend to say Happy Holiday when the faith identity of my audience is ambiguous. If I know their faith identity, then I'll make my good wishes faith specific. How it is received is up to the receiver, not me. Please believe me when I write I am not warring upon you when I extend good wishes, albeit in a manner you might find insufficient to your faith.

However you celebrate, whatever you celebrate, whatever gets you through the night, it's all right.

(And Jonah, chag Chanukah sameach!)

I'm late to this party, but I always get a kick out of the whole "war on Christmas" mindset. Most people forget that the Puritans banned Christmas. And that Christmas was not an "official" holiday in the US until after the Civil War.

http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm

In our house, we celebrate holidays of several traditions - at least the ones that involve eating and gifts. We celebrate in a purely secular fashion. And we are fine with that. So this time of year, we have a big tree AND a menorah. And now that the kids are grown, we have our ham dinner for christmas eve and our latkes on christmas day.