Wondering what your opinion is on Happy Holiday vs. Christmas, banning nativity scenes, stuff like that.
B.R.: My brief take on it: there's no requirement for sharing a sentiment with someone. If you know they don't celebrate Christmas, it's polite to use a different phrase. I don't think we need to impose a standard on the nation, though. Most of the changes we see from "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" are marketing attempts to keep their reach as wide and general as possible.
As for nativity scenes, I love them dearly and love to see them on private property, in homes, businesses, and churches. If a nativity scene is set up on public property, and citizens in that area don't appreciate it, they can speak up and the community can decide what to do. If it were my community, I'd rather petition to put up MORE spiritual and religious icons around this holiday time, rather than stripping them all, but that's just me.
B.R.: Also, the idea of there being a "War on Christmas" is pretty silly.
D.G.: I know you didn't ask me :), but my 2c: a lot of countries in Europe have official state religions, but are actually more secular than the US.
While I personally am against the government putting up religious symbols, I think that in most cases it's such a gray area that we would be much better off leaving it up to community discretion rather than making a constitutional issue of it.
Me: D.G., you answer questions I didn't ask you and don't answer ones I did ;)
The government has been putting up religious symbols since the beginning of the country. Since the founders were obviously engaging in unconstitutional activity, should those symbols be purged?
Me: B.R., what's polite is a standard to which civilized people engage. If this were the case, we would never here the F-bomb in public. It seems the standard of politeness only goes one way.
D.G.: I engage when I feel like I have the knowledge, time and energy for a discussion. I do admire the breadth of your areas of interest, and I'm already someone describes myself as a 'professional dilettante.' ;)
Constitutional interpretation is a huge other topic. Like I said above, I /don't/ think we should make a constitutional issue of religious symbols. So it sounds like we agree on that.
B.R.: I don't swear around people I know don't like it. Isn't that polite enough?
Me: Not trying to set any sort of standard for you, Ben. If saying merry christmas violates a standard of politeness (this was your criteria), then there are certainly other things people might say to each other that might violate that standard, don't you think?
Me: Since opponents of religious symbols are claiming constitutional grounds for their objections, I think that pony has already left the corral.
B.R.: There's an important distinction for me: I say "merry Christmas" to my family and friends, and "happy holidays" to strangers.
I think saying "Merry Christmas" is very polite, no matter who's saying it or who they're saying it to. The non-specific alternative phrases are polite too, but they're less presumptuous and more inclusive. It's like using "Ms" with a stranger instead of "Mrs" or "miss". Look, if you're in an area where everyone clearly celebrates Christmas, then say "Merry Christmas". I'm in Seattle, where there's a crazy variety of faiths, traditions, and preferences, so I say "Happy Holidays". Frankly, when I say that, I'm saying it because New Year's Eve happens right after Xmas and I think of this time as "the holiday season". I know zero Kwanzaa celebrators. I know zero Hanukkah celebrators, or at least zero who say anything about it. But it's a time of good will toward men (and women), so when talking to folks I don't know, I use more inclusive language.
Me: Seems like you're walking on eggshells, tailoring your greetings to your perceptions on how they will be received.
I think your approach is flawed, however. I think you ought to base your holiday greetings on your orientation, worldview, and religious persuasion, not on what you think someone else's might be. After all, you are who you are, and screw 'em if they don't like it...
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