The framers have been framed once again, it seems. Of course there is no prohibition against "mentioning" religion, but there sure as Madison is one against promoting one religion over another and establishing support for any belief or ceremony or symbol is as prohibited as Jefferson could make it -- the ignorant passion of the lawless Republican denialists notwithstanding.Whereas Christmas is a national holiday celebrated on December 25; and
Whereas the Framers intended that the First Amendment of the Constitution, in prohibiting the establishment of religion, would not prohibit any mention of religion or reference to God in civic dialog: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;
(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and
(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions by those who celebrate Christmas.
No I'm not going into the open hostility the Constitution writers had toward organized religion and it's influence on Government, or the largely fraudulent claims that "liberals" hate Christmas and Christians and want to take away your Christmas tree. You either already know or you're one of the hairy palmed lycanthropoids, too demented to listen. For my part however, any party that harbors such Visigoths (yes they were Christian) is illegitimate to the core, an enemy of religious freedom and unworthy to participate in government on any level.
Is it humorous that the only real effort to stamp out Christmas and its various and ever changing "traditions" was by the "pilgrim fathers" we just finished pretending were the founders of American democracy. It would almost be laughable if these worms weren't eating the heart out of liberty by trying to restore exactly the sort of government we fought a revolution to rid ourselves of.
We've got 15 more days of raging Republicans who are going to make up stories about stores not having Christmas trees, towns banning lights or private business owners not having the right to call Christmas a holiday -- or private citizens not having the right to celebrate it or not celebrate it when and how they please. We have at least two more weeks of support for tyranny and attacks on our freedom of speech, press and religion. It's more than just some Scrooge, more than just some Grinch stealing everyone's good time, it's the ancient evil of religious authority stealing our birthright and for me, the holiday I used to love is hardly worth it any more.
They make a huge mistake by turning Christmas into a weapon. Not content with politicizing their religion, the transition of Christmas from annual holiday to annual culture war is going to devalue it. If you hated Christmas, you could not do a worse thing to it.
ReplyDeleteI am totally amazed that these people who scream 'Freedom of this" and "Freedom of that" are so hell-bent on depriving everyone else of theirs. They are turning this country into exactly the one our forefathers departed. I was under the assumption that freedom of ALL religions and all their particular celebrations was a right in this country. Silly me!
ReplyDeleteIt's not just Christmas. The other day a couple of acquaintances started in on the practice of historians writing BCE and CE for before Christian era, etc. instead of BC and AD.
ReplyDeleteThe usual straw man is "political correctness" but it never occurred to these fellows (one is a preacher) that the world is not only not Christian, but has a right not to be Christian and not to be forced to acknowledge the Christian God if they don't want to.
"I can't say Anno Domini?" he said, twisting around the fact that he's trying to tell me I have to say it. How can you argue with such nonsense?
I believe the reason we are seeing and hearing so much more of this religious argumentativeness is simply because the world IS changing and moving toward a more all inclusive mind set.
ReplyDeleteThese ones that feel threatened because they are losing their strangle hold are taking their last gasps. At least I hope so.
Fact is, a more secular public will not detract from people's religious beliefs and practices. As long as we defend the right of all people to freely practice or not no matter our own beliefs.
A secular country is far more likely to protect individual religious rights, in my opinion. No theocracy or would-be theocracy is interested in individual rights or Democracy for that matter, the largest resistance to which over the centuries has been the Churches.
ReplyDeleteThey really don't want freedom of religion, they want the power to dominate. Look at the example of the Netherlands - a long history of tolerance being abused by a minority of religious fanatics who want to dictate to everyone.