Thursday, December 15, 2005

The War on Christmas

76.5% of the United States is Christian. 3.7% are other religious groups (Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc.). 14.1% are members of no religious group, which I assume means they are not involved with organized religion (of that 14.1% .5% are agnostic, and .4% are atheists.). What the remaining 5.7% believe is anyone’s guess, but I assume they’re either “don’t know” respondents, or simply couldn’t figure out the questionnaire.

I recently saw an online editorial railing against the White House for sending out a Happy Holidays card rather than one that said Merry Christmas. They suggested that 96% of all Americans celebrate Christmas, and that a majority so vast shouldn’t have to bow to PC pressures. Where they came up with their 96% figure is beyond me, but I have to assume they’re referring to the 96% that take the day off from work, you know... since it's a national holiday.

Claiming there’s an anti-Christmas movement is simply bizarre, and seems to me more of a shrewd fundraising/ratings ploy than anything else. You want donations/viewership from the majority of the country, then plant the idea that there are forces trying to take away thier most joyous, festive holiday.

Do we really believe there are people striving to keep Christians from celebrating Christmas? If atheists and non-Christians only constitute 4.1% of all citizens, are they really so powerful that they’re on the verge of eliminating the second most important Christian holiday? I do think that group has a right to say, “Please, go ahead, celebrate Christmas, but don’t make our kids sing Silent Night in their elementary school, and every year re-learn the story of the birth of Jesus.”

Christmas is a national holiday because if it weren’t, an overwhelming majority of the population would take the day off anyway, just as members of every other religion take time off from work during their own high holy days. Do the math, and you realize that the United States would have a frighteningly difficult time functioning on Christmas with 76.5% of the country opting out of work. The intelligent thing to do was make Christmas a day off for everyone. And what do the non-Christians do on Christmas? They go out for Chinese and take in a movie. Everybody wins.

And speaking of which, if the religious right wants to blame anyone for diminishing Christmas, why aren’t they going after the$159,388,918 in ticket sales that were taken in by movies during last year’s Christmas weekend. Odds are that 76.5% of all holiday tickets purchased were purchased by Christians, so maybe that's the real problem.

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