From Catholic Stand
By Dennis Dillon
Innocently wish someone a Merry Christmas, and you might get any one of several angry retorts such as I’m not Christian, and that offends me; an old fashion Charles Dickens, Bah Humbug! Or you may get no comment but just a grumpy smirk! Your good seasonal wishes did not resonate with that person.
The Secular Left
I can understand the secular left being upset at Christmastime because it is the most extended season of the year that reminds them that America is still a religious country. The secular left wants God out of everything; they mainly wish Christ out of Christmas. That is the chance we take when we as Christians say Merry Christmas; we may bump into one of these secular left anti-God warriors.
Scornful retorts to Merry Christmas can amp up when the secular left identifies you as a Catholic. That is understandable, says Dale Ahlquist, a writer for the Catholic World Report. He says, “we are publicly professing a Catholic doctrine in a culture that hates the Catholic Church, proclaiming the Virgin Birth to a culture that scoffs at chastity and praises contraception, and singing “For unto Us a Child is Born” to a culture that kills babies.” Even at that scornfulness, “(Catholics) are not celebrating Christmas to be counter-cultural. We celebrate because we are happy. We commemorate a joyful event, and we commemorate it joyfully. We will sing and pray and worship. We will also eat and drink and laugh.”
Happy Holidays?
To me, championing Happy Holidays is another secular left ploy to take Christ out of Christmas under the guise of political correctness. The goal of the secular left is to get religion out of Western as well as Eastern societies. Unfortunately, they have been successful in much of the public sectors of each culture.
Almost every elementary, middle, high school, college, and university in the US doesn’t call it a Christmas Vacation anymore; instead, they call it a Winter Vacation. Companies don’t have Christmas Parties; they have Holiday Parties. Statehouse rotundas and townhouse offices display Holiday Trees, not Christmas Trees, and, of course, they ban Nativity scenes on public grounds.
Fortunately, the private sector has rallied for the return of spiritual values and practices during Christmastime.
Several years ago, the secular movement was so strong that many giant retailers decided to eliminate Merry Christmas from their November through December marketing campaigns. The backlash was severe as Americans voted with their dollars by not shopping at these stores and boycotting them. Merry Christmas sales, decorations, and marketing themes have made a comeback in mainstream America, much to the chagrin of the minority secular left, but to the delight of the majority Merry Christmas crowd.
Political Correctness
Some say political correctness is a way of being nice. I think it is always good to be nice, but the politically correct secular left people I am talking about aren’t about being nice. They plan to rid cultures of God, and that’s not nice. They haven’t quite figured out that eroding divine rights is directly related to eroding human rights; I’m not into that kind of political correctness. I believe that the sacred always trumps the secular at Christmastime. Saying Merry Christmas is not an assault on “inclusiveness” as the secular left might have you think.
Say Merry Christmas
So, I say Merry Christmas! Or, Happy Christmas Holidays is okay, but definitely, you won’t hear me say Happy Holidays while standing in front of a Nativity scene or a Christmas tree. My greeting is to wish you only Joy, Happiness, and Love at the great news of a Savior being born!
A kneeling Santa Claus in front of a Nativity display is a powerful symbol of the secular bowing down to the sacred at Christmastime as it should be! Yes, saying Merry Christmas is an act of defiance to the modern-day anti-God secular left.
Merry Christmas!
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