patrickumsted.com

The thinly-veiled, Evangelical Christian twist on the burgeoning American victim culture known as the “War on Christmas” has its own Yelp knockoff site.  At Stand for Christmas, anyone with a computer, Internet connection, and penchant for moral indignation can rate stores based on their level of Christmas spirit.  In reality, it is nothing more than ranting and raving based on stores having the audacity to recognize that not everyone of there patrons are Christian.  To really get the full effect of the nuttiness you really need to read the comments.  They would be laughable if not for the seething anger oozing from their keyboard to your screen due to the slightest of PERCEIVED slights.  Some of favorites below:

GAP-(some really whoppers)

…Don’t you guys understand that taking Christmas out of your store is discriminating against most Americans?

I agree that the ads, in the interest of being “inclusive” are actually offensive to people of faith. …

WTF!!!!!

…offensive that they would compare the BIRTH of our SAVIOR to other “holidays”….

How dare they!!!

Just heard about Gap deciding against Christmas. They are comparing Christmas to cults and witchcraft and encouraging folks to celebrate the “holiday” in whatever manner they see fit. Come on, Gap, take a stand for what is RIGHT – you benefit from our Christmas dollars for Christmas gifts. Because of their stand on Christmas, I won’t be buying anything from Gap this year. Come on Gap! Celebrate Christmas! Jesus died for EVERYONE!

Their adds(sic) offend me – Christmas is lumped into all of the other “winter celebrations” like Kwanza, Hanukkah, winter solstice…

The horror of having to be compared to cultish holidays like……Hanukkah.  The horror.  The absolute horror.  How will they ever survive?

Best Buy (Muslims beware)

At a Cairo or Bagdahd Best Buy, I would understand a recognition of a Muslim holiday of sacrifice. However, in AMERICA, it is Pilgrims and Christians who sacrificed for THIS country …

Because no Muslim, or Jew, or Hindu, or Atheist has ever sacrificed for this nation. FYI, the Pilgrims were Christian.

As a USMC vet and college professor my wife and I have been excited to go to Best Buy and purchase a new sound system for our home. Now that I have reviewed the Christmas and Christian offensive language they use to draw in customers they have lost our business now and in the future. I hope more people will begin to see the real light and spend their money where Christmas is honored. Dr.T.

Christian offensive language? Best Buy acknowledged the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha which celebrates the horrific act of Abraham sacrificing his son on orders from the man in the sky. Isn’t that story in the Christian Bible as well?

Best Buy included the Muslim greeting for their day of sacrifice with their Thanksgiving flyer. I wrote and told them it was offensive to Christians and plain old Americans. They responded that their customers and employees represent a variety of faiths and denominations and they choose to greet customers and employees in ways that reflect their traditions.

Do these people not realize or accept that we live in a pluralistic society where people of many faiths(or none), ethnicities, races, and mindsets live. Not everyone chooses to live the way they live and there is nothing they can do about it. You can lash out like a child–which seems to be these people’s response– or act like an adult and get over it.

My advice….Get over it.

From the LOG:

That aside, the yearly outrage over the “war on Christmas” reminds me of one of the things that really bothers me about contemporary conservative evangelicalism, namely, it’s tremendous hostility to religious pluralism.  “Happy Holidays” is a fundamentally inclusive greeting. It’s a way of respecting non-Christian Americans and acknowledging the fact Christmas coincides with other religious holidays equally worthy of respect (like Hanukkah, for instance).  When someone wishes you “Happy Holidays,” they are saying something roughly the same as this: “I’m not sure what your religious beliefs are, but whatever they are, I hope you enjoy the holiday season as much as possible.”

This is the furthest thing from “offensive” that I can imagine, and yet, there are many Christians who are apoplectic about the change.  From what I can gather, the offense comes from the fact that they have to share the holiday.  It’s not enough that Christmas and Christianity are in every other way privileged above other religious celebrations, no, we have to actively avoid acknowledging the existence of other religions.  “Religious freedom” for them isn’t the right to practice as they see fit, it’s the “right” to banish every other religion from the public square, or something to that effect. It probably isn’t my place to say this (since I’m not the ultimate arbiter of right belief, or something), but the stunning lack of charity and understanding inherent in this approach to other religions and other people strikes me as a pretty clear-cut example of what Jesus specifically asked us not to do.

Emphasis mine.