Nonsense...No Doubt.
 

This article gave me one more reason to be thankful that I no longer call myself a Christian.

http://www.kmbc.com/money/14661906/detail.html

and the organization's website:

http://www.lc.org/

Despite the growing persecution complex among the religious majority, in no way do these people represent any sort of majority. That will be clear when all of these stores are still packed every day up to Christmas and no substantial amount of money is lost.

People who generalize and act like religions and collections of religious individuals are single-minded armies or a hive mind of semi-individuals don't make me proud to be an atheist.

On corporations which do ban the use of the term "Christmas" though... Ive always found it very silly.

I've never known a Sikh, Mulsim, or Jew (or an agnostic or atheist) who is offended by it.

People have festivals of their own religions, and are absolutely free to celebrate them, why should the Christian one's be censored because Christianity is seen as a majority? (although in the UK, there are probably more people who call themselves Christian in general terms than anyone else - but I think there are more practising Muslims than practising Christians)

If a group of people want to boycott a store because they think their actions are tasteless or offend their beliefs, I have no problem with that; anymore than I dont have a problem with Muslims boycotting Danish products because some Danish guy insulted The Prophet (peace be upon him)

I think thats a bit silly as well, but if it is what they want to do, they should be completely free to do it.

If this Christian group was going to firebomb these stores - then sure, we'd have a problem then.

Aren't these people aware that not everyone recognizes Christianity as the "one true" religion?

I dont think that this particular instance carries that implication.

They are saying that they will not support stores which refuse to even acknowledge the most important festival of their religion.

That isnt exactly the same as saying everyone must worship their God.

I find it funny that the Moral Majority laments any and all attempts to 'remove' Christmas from the holiday season, while failing to realize that Christmas, for the most part, has lost any sort of meaning whatsoever.

Christmas has long since transformed from a holiday of Christianity to a holiday of capitalism. Not that I think this is a bad thing, though. After all, Christmas has become capitalism's greatest gift upon itself.

I just wish the MM would realize that Christmas is no longer a holiday that's exclusive to themselves.

Don't mark that masses by a few individuals.

I don't really care but the self loathing and fear some people have for saying 'Merry Christmas' is pretty insane right now.

I'm an atheist who enjoys Christmas, and I have no problem saying Merry Christmas. Stores are doing this in order to 'not offend' and I assume they think it would cost them money, well this could be a reality check for them. I don't think it really matters.

although i do think it's stupid to censor the word "christmas" or to limit its use, these groups go way too crazy over it.

by "these groups" i mean fringe miniorities that give the broader group they are included in a bad name

Eh, it's the least of the country's problems.
I'm surprised, though, that Kohl's didn't make the "nice" list-they play regular "Christmas" songs ad nauseum.
And Staples because they sell Channukah stuff? Don't most stores?
Utter silliness....

I'm Catholic and I'm offended that stores don't sell more stuff for Hanukkah.


I was in Target the other day. I was walking by the gift card section. It was filled top to bottom with Christmas card. And on the very end there was a tiny Hanukkah section. Makes me angry.

Imagine the amount of good that could be done if these "don't censor Christmas" people would divert their attention to alleviating a real problem, like poverty. It's been a while since I've been to church, but I'm willing to go out on a limb here and say that's what Jesus would do.

I am an atheist who still celebrates Christmas. You see, christians have been so successful in spreading the Christmas meme around the world that it has been largely adopted by just about everyone. As such, it's become a secular celebration for many.

I don't believe in (the mystical side of), let alone celebrate the birth of Christ. For me Christmas is simply a time to get together with family and friends.

Those who cry out about a war on Christmas need to take stock of their own home before pointing fingers at others.

Are you joking or being serious?

Why would a company make an equal number of products for two separate groups when one group vastly outnumbers the other...therefore making them more money than the minority group ever could?

yakov smirnoff had it right - "America: What a country..."

I'm completely serious.



You do know that in some parts of the world that Jews aren't the minority?

If you can show me where it says that Jews in the United States are in the majority then I'll retract my statement. However, as I believe we're discussing the US of A then my original question stands. Why would a company devote resources they're not going to get back just to please a minority group?

*edit* While I can understand that you where mad about it why not try to change the situation instead of getting upset about it. They're only doing what's in their best interests, just as you would do given the same problem.

Do you realize that what your saying is very hateful towards the Jewish religion?


According to you stores shouldn't bother selling anything for Hanukkah because "there is no way of making money off Jews."

It must be. they have their own religion

WK..while i can understand what your saying, i do think your wrong.

at the end ofthe day its about business and making money. if your not goingto move your stock fast enough your going to lose money. so it makes business sense to make enough cards for hannakah as is necesary.

what is necesary u ask? thats up to the company to decide and see what profits and gains they want to make. but merely spending on things that wont get sold forthe sake of appeasing any particular group is just wrong business sense.

as a muslim id love to see Eid celebrated in australia.. but i wont get upset cos its not. its all about business!

then some greek guy came up with halal mcdonalds in sydney. he didnt do it cos he agreed with the halal concept..nor cos he was muslim, but cos it made good business sense and he could make good money to a niche market of muslims who only eat halal meat.

made great business sense!

Lets just move Christmas to April.....more likely date for the Christs' birthday anyway. Then we can come up with a really cool name for this upcoming celebration.


Any Ideas?

I want to name it "Back in retail Black"

Oh boo hoo! There are Christians who are worried that Christmas is under attack! Well, see if I care. They used Christmas to steal the celebrations of Winter Solstice and Sol Invictus from the pagans, and they even stole their "Christmas" tree, among other things. I won't be shedding a tear over this. It's about time the Christians lost their stranglehold on this time of year.

You just took a running start to jump to that conclusion. I'm saying that companies should make what sells and in a number that nets them the most profit. It's not hate, it's econ 101. Not all products will do well in all markets, therefore a company must tailor their production in a way that makes sense. Making just as many Hanukkah cards as Christmas cards (or Gift Cards) doesn't make sense. Not as many people are going to buy them, so they're not going to spend $100,000 making all these cards and only make $10,000 selling them. If you wish to change the status quo then start your own company making things for the more niche holidays, prove the larger companies wrong and show that one can make a profit. Then & only then will the selection of Hanukkah cards increase (assuming Christianity doesn't take some sort of meteoric dive in popularity somehow). That's all I'm going to say on this subject as anything else will just be a merry-go-round argument.

You got something better?

Not for Christians.

People are free to celebrate whatever they eay wish. But Chritmas is an important celebration for Christians and regardless of how anyone else feels about it, why deny the importance it has for Christians?

And what makes you think these people DON'T take a hand in alleviating poverty?

Most Churches that I have been involved with have this as one of their primary activities.

There is nothing "better" than Christmas; there are only things that are different.

Boycott stores who won't say "Merry Christmas"? Seriously.... That is their prerogative. I make my own value-based decisions. Christians are allow to do the same. But should they think Christmas is under attack? I hope not.

* * * * *

If we don't want Christianity in the schools, why not keep it out of stores? Why not open it up? I don't mind if they say "Merry Christmas" or not, but I get concerned when people get upset when someone decides they'd rather generalize to the public by saying "Happy Holidays." What's wrong with being inclusive?

This seems to me a paranoia from the Christian perspective. They look at the changing times as a form of social decay. Our societies are not as "pure" as they were in the past. Get over it.

Hey WK,

I just moved to Broomfield, CO, and there are proportionately fewer Jewish people in Denver than back in Washington, DC.

There are many more scooters and scooter shops in Denver than in DC. Scooter people must be discriminated against! Besides, who wants a fucking card unless it has money or a gift card in it?

I like Tecoyah's idea in post #21

I'm working on an Idea.

LOL...I'm in on this - I'm voting we call it Christmas...who's with me?

My cousin was upset when she saw my box of decorations marked X-mas.

We swing to the left.
Then we swing to the right-ish.
Swinging can be fun.

No nauseation.
Mass creation, we will do.
Until we do not.

The word "Christmas" is a contraction of two words "Christ's mass" and is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes mæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038. In early Greek versions of the New Testament, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ (Χριστός). Since the mid-16th century Χ, or the similar Roman letter X, was used as an abbreviation for Christ. Thus, Xmas is an abbreviation for Christmas.

One of my friends named Christi has the online nickname Xi due to exactly this ^^

This is what I meant by "Ironically humorous".

Anywho...

Why? Because they advocate not shopping at stores which don't call Christmas, Christmas? Lousy reason if there ever were one.

I think that BlueEyes' comment was meant to convey that he (she?) doesn't want to be associated with the kind of narrow-mindedness.


On a side note, I've met many thousands of "Christians" in my 41 years on this planet. Maybe a couple dozen of them are/were truly worthy of the label.

I know. I liked it, too. Silly Christians.

Festivus comes to mind.

What criteria do you use when determining one's worthiness to call themselves Christian?

...and to think that you would have enough depth of knowlege of "many thousand" people with whom you have come in contact to make such a judgement is hard to believe.:orly:

never thought of Xi as christi.. moreso ive redy it as Exi.. as in sexi

yes, perhaps I overstated a bit. lets say many hundreds instead. as for the criteria, I consider someone worthy of being called a Christian if he or she makes an honest and sincere effort to live a Christ-like life. very few people I've ever met do that.

and in my opinion, it doesn't always take a significant depth of knowledge of a person to see if they are truly attempting to follow the teachings of Christ. Any time you hear any sort of hate coming from their mouths, you know they aren't truly Christian. a perfect example of this is the Phelps group, who spew hate every time they make a public appearance.

Israel and New York. I"m sure anywhere else the population is still under 1% of the 14 million globally.

I wouldn't think it's hateful to not stock a large amount of Jewish religious, Hanukkah stuff if there isn't a market for it. You don't see Hollywood putting out Christmas movies in June.

But if you see it as hateful to Jews, then add it to the list of complaints. It certainly is your right to object.

This thread reminded me how funny I find religion and religious discussion. The humor is mostly a defense mechanism so I don't jump off the nearest tall building when it comes up, but I can still find it funny.

Wow. I didn't realize the article, and my comment could cause such a stir. While I realize that Christmas is a Christian Holiday, it has become so incredibly commercialized, and not about Christ, that I find it silly that this group of people will not shop at Kohl's (for example) because they say, "Happy Holidays!"

Another irritation of mine is Christians that believe that God loves everyone, but continue to persecute anyone unlike themselves.

No, I don't put all Christians in this small group of people that I've shown in the article. I'm just pretty recently removed from going to church myself. (As a matter of fact, I think I'm still a "member") I know a few good people who really honestly try to be Christ-like. But I was also raised in a church that was/is continually full of hate towards not only the outside world, but even themselves! I cannot find much honesty and real love within the walls of Christianity. That's my first reason for being separated from it. The second is that I just can't make logical sense of it.
Overall, with this articlethe point I was trying to make (and someone made for me) is that I hate to be associated with narrow mindedness.

As this is America it is their right to protest those they do not agree with. Calling them narrow minded may be viewed as a compliment. If you read the text they are to set themselves apart. Perhaps more people of Christian faith should follow their doctrine. Imagine how much better the world would be if Christians would really act like Christ and serve others.

The differences are what makes America such a terrific place to live.

You're right. When I think about it, someone that is a part of a religion that they honestly belong to, they should commit to it with everything they have. I don't necessarily agree with it, but too each their own. Kudos to them, for supporting their cause, as long as they still are able to show compassion and love towards others.