Thursday, October 20, 2005
I'm Angry
Last December, I was sending out a letter to the volunteers who help deliver Pet Food for Meals on Wheels clients. I am the coordinator for this program, and the letter was written from me, signed by me, with personal thoughts and wishes for my wonderful volunteers. I gave it to my boss, who immediately skimmed it, said, "looks fine," then as I turned to copy it, added, "you know you can't say 'Merry Christmas' on there." What?! Why can't I? Because she's not a Christian, I can't say Merry Christmas? I didn't push this issue, but it didn't set well with me either. I didn't change the letter to "Seasons Greetings" either, I just ended with a general "Sincerely." Today, I was working in a different area of our building where a note is posted for some of our volunteers reminding them about a special offer for our clients. It was signed cheerfully by one of my co-workers, "Happy Halloween." Maybe later, I'll write a post about how I feel about Halloween, but just suffice it to say that the notion that it is not okay for me to wish someone a Merry Celebration of the Incarnation, the coming of my Lord and Savior with grace and peace to all men, but she can, without fear post a public comment saying "Happy Celebration of all things Dark" makes me angry. Humph!
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4 comments:
My friend Jason told me about the time he was in Wal-Mart around Easter time...He was around the movie section and there was a display of resurrection type movies with Jesus on the cover. While he was standing there, a guy walked by and looked at the display. This guy's words left Jason dumbfounded. He actually said, "What the *%#@ does Jesus have to do with Easter?" Simply stunning...We live in such a confused and messed up world.
I'm with you. The bounds of offendeditis seem limitless, particularly for those revisionists who truly believe our country had no Christian grounding in its formation.
By the way, Isreal's founders weren't all really Jews. Some were atheists and pagans. So just like America's Christianity or Turkey's Islam, Isreal is dumb to be a Jewish state.
Why do you gotta go and knock on "all things dark"?! Don't you like me? =P
I appreciate the irony of a culture that celebrates tolerance, but only when it's things the culture wishes to tolerate. =)
I used to work at an "ethnically diverse" (we won a United Way award for it even) secular non-profit with both Christian and Jewish people. We had to say Happy Holidays, no Jesus stuff, blah blah blah, too. For the first couple of Christmas's I was there, it irked me like nothing else. But I finally convienced my boss that just like the Jewish co-workers wanted the freedom to celebrate Hannakuh, I wanted the freedom to celebrate Christmas. So then we started doing both, which actually ended up being an awesome experience. I learned so much from my jewish co-workers and they would explain their traditions, but I got to share my faith too. It sucks not to be able to say Merry Christmas, but being the smart cookie that you are, I'm sure you'll find a way around it. :)
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