Sunday, December 19, 2004

"Merry Christmas" or else?

Kevin Drum read yesterday's article in the LA Times about the besieged American Christians.
I've now read at least a dozen assorted articles and op-eds about the horror — the horror! — of 'Happy Holidays' being used as a seasonal greeting instead of 'Merry Christmas.'
When I was a (non-Christian) kid, I was always uncomfortable with people wishing me Merry Christmas. More recently I have felt a lot more comfortable with the more generic Happy Holidays, and I have appreciated the consideration of those who have made the change.

But even then it didn't bother me enough to want to do anything about it. On the contrary, I tried to find a way to accommodate myself to it. I finally decided that when people wished me "Merry Christmas" I should understand it as an expression on their part that they were happy about celebrating a holiday that was important to them and that they wished to share their joy with me—and not that they were trying to push their religion on me.

Having figured that out, I was much more comfortable with the greeting. But it did take an effort on my part to work this out for myself. I wish the right-wing Christians would work out some stuff about tolerance for themselves.

Here's an earlier post.

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