War on Christmas gets personal

I blogged a week or so ago about the supposed "War on Christmas." Well, I get especially irritated about it because a cousin of mine bombards me with forwarded emails about it (along with other conservative agenda emails... during the election it was anti-obama emails). I've asked her nicely repeatedly to stop sending me these "War on Christmas" emails and I've tried to explain to her nicely about why I don't want them. Well, she continues to send them. Yesterday I had finally got sick of it (maybe because I got 4 emails on the subject from her yesterday). The email she sent that I chose to respond to wasn't particularly aggressive or mean. It's by far not the worst one I've gotten from her on the subject, but I finally decided that I had had enough. So, I sent her my final email.

She sent me the following:

I will be making a conscious effort to wish everyone a Merry Christmas .. My way of saying that I am celebrating the birth Of Jesus Christ. So I am asking my email buddies, if you agree with me, to please do the same. And if you'll pass this on to your email buddies, and so on... maybe we can prevent one more American tradition from being lost in the sea of "Political Correctness".

I sent her back the following:

I am a Christian. I say Happy Holidays. When I say it, I'm not saying it out of disrespect for Jesus Christ. I am saying it out of respect for people of other faiths. I have friends who are Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist, and atheist. Many of them celebrate holidays this month other than the one that I celebrate. Below is a list of holidays which are celebrated in this month.

Advent: four weeks prior to Christmas.

Saint Nicholas' Day: December 6

Bodhi Day: December 8

Eid ul-Adha: Starting on the 10th of Dhul Hijja (December 8, 2008)

Winter Solstice: December 21-December 22

Hanukkah: Starting on 25 Kislev (December 22, 2008)

HumanLight: December 23

Christmas Eve: December 24

Christmas: December 25

Signature of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan): December 25

Boxing Day: December 26

Saint Stephen's Day: December 26

Kwanzaa: December 26 - January 1

Saint John the Evangelist's Day: December 27

Holy Innocents' Day: December 28

Saint Sylvester's Day: December 31

Watch Night: December 31

New Year's Eve: December 31

Hogmanay: Night of December 31 - Before dawn of January 1

New Year's Day: January 1

As you can see, some of them are Christian, and some of them are not. So, I choose to say Happy Holidays because I don't presume to think that everyone that I come across is Christian. If there were no other holidays in December, then it would make sense to be offended by the saying "Happy Holidays." However, Christmas is not the only holiday. Therefore, even though you claim to be being persecuted by the saying "Happy Holidays," I think it would be more fair to say that you are persecuting those who do not celebrate Christmas by refusing to accept that Christmas is not the only holiday of the month.

And furthermore, Christmas is not an "American tradition." Christmas is a Christian tradition. America is not a Christian nation. It is a nation unassociated with any religion. There is no American religion. In the United States, we have freedom of religion [You might try to argue that that is what our founding fathers intended, but you would be wrong... a lot of our founding fathers were not Christian (and those that were still insisted on a separation between church and state), therefore it wouldn't make sense that they would want a Christian nation http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html]. While Christians may make up a majority of the population, there are still over 20% of Americans who are not Christian. And Christians have no right to persecute those who are not a part of the majority.

So, instead of pretending that there is some sort of war on Christianity or Christmas, how about doing the Christian thing and being loving and respectful of our neighbors? It's not "Political Correctness." It's being kind and showing respect, instead of being uppity and pretending that Christmas is the only holiday in this season.

While this email may not change your mind about the Merry Christmas versus Happy Holidays issue, I would appreciate if you would take me off of your list if you're going to be sending out more emails such as these.

Thank you.

I'm not sure that Dr. Fuller would be proud of me since this email does not exhibit perfect psychic space, but I am proud of myself for being assertive. :)