Doing the math, what’s the best business decision.

For myself, I’m not offended when someone wishes me “Happy Holidays,” although I always reply, “Merry Christmas.”

I do the same, and purposely, but kindly respond, “Thank you. Merry Christmas.”

The only thing dumber than being offended at someone wishing you a merry Christmas is being offended that someone doesn’t wish you a merry Christmas.

This evangelical Christian wholeheartedly agrees with that sentiment.

The best I can estimate Eid ul-Fitr (Muslim Holiday celebrating the last day of Ramadan) will fall between Christmas and January 1 in 2027, or maybe 2028. If you are annoyed by atheists, get ready, the real trouble is coming.

There will be a real war on Christmas soon enough.

I was the one who had the conversation with you the other week about Jesus only rebuking the Pharisees.

NeverLiberal on December 23, 2008 at 5:50 PM

You were right then. You’re entitled to your opinion, and certainly should abstain from Christmas if you really believe it’s wrong; but I don’t see any spiritual content in my Christmas tree, and (to the limited extent we’ve done the “Easter Bunny” thing) there’s been no spiritual content to that either.

I will celebrate both secular and Christian elements of Christmas, but no pagan ones. Sorry you’ll be missing that, but I respect your choice.

Everyone else, Merry Christmas or other celebration of your choice! I’m probably out o’ here ’til after the 25th.

If the world revolves around you, I guess so.

MadisonConservative on December 23, 2008 at 11:33 AM

If anyone wants to get upset about me telling them to have a nice month/Christmas/New Years, that’s their problem. I don’t think that’s being self-centered. It’s perfectly reasonable.

Just out of curiosity, do you eve have any cut flowers in your house? Yikes! Or do you ever have any wooden furniture? After all, it is a tree cut down by workmen. Oh, and paper: again, a tree cut down by workmen, out it goes! I apologize for going a little overboard, but I really feel that your response to Christmas trees is absurd
RegularJoe on December 23, 2008 at 4:17 PM

Yeah your right, you are going overboard. Look, its not just the tree thats the problem. The problem is that every single thing about Christmas was taken directly from pagan sun worship. Easter is exactly the same thing, heck they even kept the same name for it. As far having wooden chairs, I go back to my earlier statement:

There is a difference if we learned something directly from the heathen and then adopt their spiritual ways than if there is something that we did on our own that was similar to what the heathen did. For instance, I’m not going to stop wearing pants just because the heathen wear pants.

If something was just similar by chance or wasn’t spiritually centered, then I wouldn’t tell a Christian to stop doing it just because the heathen did something similar. But the fact that pagan festivals and all the customs that went with them were adopted in their entirety by Christians is unacceptable. And I repeat that everything about Christmas customs, whether it be the date, the gift giving, the reeves, the mistletoes, santa claus, all of it was taken straight from pagan worship. How could you possibly turn a blind eye to all of that. How is that not mixing righteousness with unrighteousness. If adopting all their festivals and making them our own isn’t learning the way of the heathen, then what is? I came to these conclusions by reading my Bible, not from going to a church that taught so. Oh and BTW, I was the one who had the conversation with you the other week about Jesus only rebuking the Pharisees.

What lengths am I going to exactly? The Bible says not to learn the way of the heathen and then specifically mentions the tree as an example.

NeverLiberal on December 23, 2008 at 3:49 PM

Except that the passage clearly is NOT about trees, but about idols!! A tree isn’t “like a scarecrow”. No one would have to tell anyone a tree “can’t walk” or “can’t talk”.

Just out of curiosity, do you eve have any cut flowers in your house? Yikes! Or do you ever have any wooden furniture? After all, it is a tree cut down by workmen. Oh, and paper: again, a tree cut down by workmen, out it goes!

I apologize for going a little overboard, but I really feel that your response to Christmas trees is absurd. Of course it’s a free country, and you can do as you like. You can call me names, for that matter, though name-calling (in my experience) does nothing but entrench people’s original thoughts. Of course, if you can come up with something from scripture that remotely supports your interpretation of the verse, I am certainly open to correction (in fact, it happened on this very site a week or so ago, when I was reminded that Jesus was, at times, harsh with even his followers).

Every denomination has its little weird quirks. I live with my Southern Baptist church’s paranoia about alcohol, because they otherwise seem to be very Biblical; but at least I recognize that paranoia for what it is. My guess is that your church — however fine it may well be in other ways — has given you this view of Christmas trees. Okay, there’s nothing Biblical about a Christmas tree, so it’s perfectly fine to go treeless to get along; but when you start correcting someone else’s behavior, I believe it’s important to be QUITE certain your foundation for that criticism is ROCK solid — and it’s difficult to see that as the case here.

Again…

…unless one worships a Christmas tree, there is nothing to be worried about.

Just like Christ changed the cross from a symbol of hate and oppression into a symbol of grace and love…

Yeah, just like I said. You say its ok to adopt Satanic customs just as long as you do it to Jesus and not unto the same god as they did. Actually, you would be less guilty before God if you just went right ahead an worshiped false gods than if you try to mix righteousness with unrighteousness. God spews the lukewarm right out of his mouth. There is a difference if we learned something directly from the heathen and then adopt their spiritual ways than if there is something that we did on our own that was similar to what the heathen did. For instance, I’m not going to stop wearing pants just because the heathen wear pants.

BTW – if you’re going to go to these kinds of lengths in hating on Christmas trees, then I certainly hope you don’t celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th, go to church on Sundays or sing any hymn marked Old English Melody (these were English drinking tunes).Religious_Zealot on December 23, 2008 at 1:04 PM

What lengths am I going to exactly? The Bible says not to learn the way of the heathen and then specifically mentions the tree as an example. If God did not want you to put up trees in your house because it is pagan, then how much more clearly could he make it then that? As for your question regarding my celebrating Jesus’ birth, I celebrate the life and sacrifice of my Lord everyday. The Lord already gave us a way of remembering him, its called the Lord’s supper (This do in remembrance of me).

“Stores” are not people with souls; they are business enterprises. They are not responsible for representing the wishes of their customers except to the degree that it is profitable. I GUAR-ON-TEE every big store chain is carefully surveying their customers to figure out who wants to hear what, and who will file suit in what court, and making the best BUSINESS decision. If you own stock in a company, isn’t that what you’d want them to do? Don’t they, in fact, have an obligation to do that?

In some cases, the customers are so overwhelmingly Christian that it takes no “courage” to say “Merry Christmas”. In other stores, saying “Merry Christmas” would likely offend enough people to be financially damaging.

Another observation: I think there are some Christians who believe that a lost person is going to hear “Merry Christmas” and suddenly come under conviction — and I suppose that’s conceivable. But isn’t it MORE likely that people who might otherwise be inclined to listen to the message of Christ will be put off by Christians huffily demanding that shopkeepers fall in line, “or else”?

Just like all the intra-Christian bickering in other recent threads, we Christians have forgotten how to turn the other cheek.

Hmm, I have another idea, how about instead we just call it an idolatry tree?

NeverLiberal on December 23, 2008 at 12:10 PM

You forgot to include the 5th verse:

Jer 10:5 “Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, For they can do no harm, Nor can they do any good.”

… which makes it clear that “the work of the hands of the workman” includes a lot more than cutting down a tree. This is not merely schlepping a tree into the house and putting enough juice through the limbs to keep every fireman in the free worlds busy for December, but actually fashioning a (little-g) god – an idol.

With all humility (WELL aware of my MANY shortcomings, and becoming aware of more each day), may I suggest you consider the implications of this verse: “But if you had known what this means, ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. (Mat 12:7)
__________________________

You know, there times when I begin to understand what Ghandi meant when he said “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”

Instead of marketing exclusively to Christians, stores offer a broader reason to buy consumer goods so that Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, atheists, and others can feel encouraged to buy stuff at tremendous discounts. That’s just good business.

For those stores that insist on being politically correct (and it’s obvious at most establishments), I’d say to those who celebrate Christmas, boycott them and let those stores reap their profits from the non-Christmas holiday gift-buyers like Hanukka, Eid, Kwansa, or whatever someone decides to create next.

It’s “good business” to disparage the majority of people who buy gifts for Christmas? It would be good business to cater to the majority of your customers rather than a vocal minority.

Oh, so I guess its ok to adopt Satanic customs just as long as you do it in Jesus name then?

Again…

…unless one worships a Christmas tree, there is nothing to be worried about.

Just like Christ changed the cross from a symbol of hate and oppression into a symbol of grace and love…

…Christians have transformed/redeemeds a pagan ritual into a symbol of love and peace.

BTW – if you’re going to go to these kinds of lengths in hating on Christmas trees, then I certainly hope you don’t celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th, go to church on Sundays or sing any hymn marked Old English Melody (these were English drinking tunes).

I don’t see the problem with this businesses using Happy Holidays… there are infact TWO major religious holidays that occur around this time of year, plus New Years. There’s also Kwanzaa and Festivus (Happy Festivus, btw!).

Tom_Shipley on December 23, 2008 at 10:03 AM

Hey Tom, what is the other MAJOR holiday, besides Christmas, you are talking about? Because Hannukah is a minor holiday in Judaism. It’s a celebration of lights and commemorates the rededication of the Temple of Jerusalem by Judas Maccabee in 165 BC. Our MAJOR holidays (Holy Days) are Passover, and Yom Kippur, neither of which occur in December. Hannukah as become somewhat secularized as Jews intergrate into American society and don’t want their kids to feel left out during the Christmas season, but to describe Hannukah as a MAJOR religious holiday is incorrect. Forgive me if you were refering to something else.

asc85 on December 23, 2008 at 12:43 PM

….and as a Catholic Christian I say Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. I use Happy Holidays when I am not sure if the recipient is Christian or Jewish or neither. this is basic consideration and “loving thy neighbor” stuff.

I do sin when I call that other guy a wingnut, but I can’t resist. I’ll mention it in Confession. ;-)

I am embarrassed by the Jews from the article mentioned in an earlier post about the Jews picketing a store because of having to wear Santa hats. Unfortunately, there are many hyper-sensitive groups in America (the Blacks, the Jews, and the Gays come to mind). I just try not to be that way.

I tend to say “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas”, but a Jewish Hot Air poster last year said that he says “Merry Christmas” to his Christian friends, and the more I thought about it, I realized he was correct.

I really love these Biblical cherry pickers.

Since when did Martin Luther become the standard for truth anyways.

NeverLiberal on December 23, 2008 at 12:39 PM

Are you out of your ever-lovin’ mind? Evidently.

(cf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule)