Holidays

Lessons on How to be Obnoxious With Your Christmas Cheer

134 Comments

I AM ON A “MERRY CHRISTMAS” MISSION
 

By Debbie Daniel
I’m on a “Merry Christmas” mission and I’m in full throttle. My little yellow VW Beetle has turned into a Christmas billboard with Merry Christmas written across the back window. Yes, I’ve decided to trek off to work everyday on the public highways with a message that seems to offend people.

At stop lights, I even turn my music up a little louder, and to top it off, I sing along with it. Don’t I know that stopping at a red light to roll my windows down only to share the joy of Christmas carols on public streets is a No-No? Don’t I fear the Christmas Gestapo and those who would have me remove the written message from my car?

I’m sorry folks, but the only person I’m concerned about “offending” during this Christmas season is the Lord himself. LEAVE THAT MANGER ALONE! We’ve allowed the Baby Jesus to be kicked out of His lowly manger, and those offended by Christmas are still not happy. I refuse to let this happen. I’m going to do my part to make sure “Merry Christmas” doesn’t become extinct. Because like it or not, if the believers in Christmas don’t take a stand now, it’s gone forever.

Listen folks, the Christian community has been underestimated before; we will have to show ourselves again.

I walked into a Wendy’s Restaurant the other day and was rather exuberant with my “Merry Christmas” greeting to the manager. He didn’t have much of a response and I said, “Where’s your Christmas spirit?” He said, “We’re not allowed to use the words “Merry Christmas” when greeting customers. We can only say “Happy Holiday.”

This morning I grabbed a quick breakfast at a Whataburger Restaurant. I noticed there wasn’t a single decoration in the store. I asked the manager why they weren’t decorated for Christmas. He told me the corporate headquarters decided not to send any decorations to any of their stores, and he didn’t know why.
After I heard about all the Macy’s and Federated Stores taking down their Merry Christmas signs, the Target stores not allowing the Salvation Army to “Ring the Christmas bells,” and the many incidents of children, choirs, and bands not allowed to play or sing Christmas carols, I realized it was happening right here in my own little Texas town.

How can this be? Not Texas!

You can read the rest of it over at The Flaming Torch.

This whole sad piece somehow reminds me of this:

134 thoughts on “Lessons on How to be Obnoxious With Your Christmas Cheer”

    1. *sigh* actually, the author isn’t a lady. It’s a geriatric evangelist named Don. I went to him homepage.

      *breaks down in tears at the horrors*

      1. OOPS! The (purported) author is in fact a lady; the guy who archived the article is the geriatric evangelical.

        d’oh! 😳

  5. We decorated the church for Christmas last Sunday. While arranging the creche, we realized that someone had misplaced the baby-jesus-ina-manger. We searched for a while in vain. I suppose we are all going to hell.

    1. We don’t put the baby in the manger until Christmas Eve. He hasn’t been born yet, it’s advent.

        1. So THAT’S why the world’s going to end tomorrow! Jesus was so upset about you losing the manger he’s coming back early!

  6. “I noticed a few years ago that we changed the name of Abraham Lincoln’s and George Washington’s birthday so as to be all inclusive regarding the Presidents”. According to History.com “…the holiday became popularly known as Presidents’ Day after it was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers.” Sounds like a great reason to change it! Also 1971 was 41 years ago, and that’s not necessarily “a few years ago.”

    2. My favorite President is Rutherford B. Hayes. I figured “President’s Day” covers them all. 😀

  8. I do think it’s ridiculous if store employees are instructed that they can’t even RESPOND to a customer saying “Merry Christmas!” Pffffft. The generic holiday greeting is supposed to be because you don’t know what holiday that customer is celebrating. If the customer is OBVIOUSLY celebrating Christmas, to refuse to respond to one’s greeting sounds purposefully alienating.

    That said, however, this woman is being purposefully obnoxious. Her passive-aggressive approach does not exemplify the true peace and goodwill of the season. Her forced cheerfulness is just a cover for an angry determination to turn everyone into bit players in her own personal scene from “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

    Would I like to go through a town filled with beautiful decoration and happy people joyfully wishing me “Merry Christmas!”? Yes, I would, and I’d throw in some Dickensian-costumed carolers on the corner too. But that’s not the world I live in right now and cursing the darkness (or beating it over the head with a red and green Christmas bat) is not the way to recapture an idyllic December 25th.

    I want to love from the inside out, genuinely care for those I meet, and bless people I meet, not shame them because they’re not surrounding me with the exact holiday environment to which I feel entitled.

    1. Here’s the thing about the store workers, though, have they truly been told not to say it back to someone who says it first? I kind of find that hard to believe. They may have been told that a more generic greeting is the appropriate choice (we heard “Happy Holiday” at a grocery store with three aisles of kosher food that is across the street from the Jewish Community Center last week and thought it best to not be offended, btw–because there is context people and we don’t know where that Wendy’s was at), but are they truly told never to say anything else?

      I also am so sick of the getting angry over the phrase “happy holidays”. How on earth are we being loving Christians if we are running around pissed off at people who wish us a “happy” anything? Jesus didn’t say “love the people who agree with you”. That “love one another” command had no exceptions. Also…”holiday” is derived from Old English for “holy day”. Christmas, in my church, is a holy day. So that greeting is more than appropriate.

      1. Sad thing is, there are always one or two really thin-skinned people around ready to sue a company at the drop of a hat (and they always have a friend with them to drop said hat), 😡 “Merry Christmas?! How DARE you tell me to celebrate a holiday I don’t believe in! I’ll have you know I am a proud Atheist/Buddhist/Jew/Muslim/Pagan and I am sick and tired of my beliefs being slandered like this!!!” and then off we go into the civil court to tie things up arguing over religious freedom and Separation of Church & State, and the ACLU 👿 gets involved and… It’s just sad.
        Me, I do prefer “Merry Christmas” at this time of year, but have no trouble with “Happy Holidays”. As stated elsewhere, we do have Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice, so might as well cover them all.

        1. No one would be able to successfully sue a private business over a benign phrase related to a holiday. There is nothing slanderous or threatening about that and the separation of church and state does not extend to private business. So, no, the ACLU would not get involved and nothing would happen. Unfortunately, the “war on Christmas” crowd has convinced people that it could. They are wrong.

        2. I’ve never heard of one case of a private business being sued over a “Merry Christmas” (or other religious holiday, like “Happy Easter”) greeting.

          If you know of such a case, please tell me the name of the lawsuit, or when and where it happened, and I will stop saying it’s just an urban legend.

          There are cases where people sued over overtly religious displays being publicly funded and/or set up on public property, but that’s quite a different issue from saying private people or businesses can’t say any religious thing they want (see First Amendment, Bill of Rights).

        3. alwr, Big Gary, sorry to offend. It’s just these days some people can get upset over ANYTHING the least bit confrontive, and everyone knows someone like that, whether Fundy or Anti-Fundy. I just worry that sooner or later that’s going to happen. 😳

        4. At the public library I worked at, we really WERE told not to respond to “Merry Christmas” with “Merry Christmas.” We were told to say, “And you have a happy holiday.”

          I understand the whole business with “Happy Holidays”, because we really don’t know if the other person is celebrating Christmas or not. But if the person says “Merry Christmas”, I don’t have a problem with a public worker saying “Merry Christmas” back.

        5. Tina, I agree.

          To me, the library’s rule about responding with “happy holidays” sounds like the attitude as Debbie Daniel’s above only the opposite extreme. It sounds like one is “correcting” the one who extended good wishes.

    2. I find it strange that we have the debate at all. Is “Merry Christmas” that offensive that you have to instruct someone not to say it? Are we truly that bored and useless (not refering to you PW) that we have to get offended by or take a stand upon how someone greets us or says good-bye? This is just another one of those things that makes me feel like I’m from a different planet.

      1. Is attempting to be inclusive that offensive that we can’t do it? My Jewish friends (shockingly, I know) do not celebrate Christmas. “Merry Christmas” is not offensive to them, it is just meaningless. And for their children, just one more reminder that they don’t quite fit and are being left out of something that is apparently a really big deal. Our culture has not lost Christmas. If you really think so, I don’t know what cave you spend all of November and December hiding in. And being just slightly sensitive to the fact that there are Americans who do not celebrate it should be a matter of kindness not controversy.

        1. No, I don’t care. That’s my point. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, whatever. Thanks for the well wishes. Do we really need to instruct people not to say one or another version? It’s a stupid debate. That’s my point. Who cares????? Why are you all bent out of shape?

    3. Just cause a store employee tells a “Merry Christmas hole” that the store tells them they can’t say it, doesn’t mean that’s true. Sometimes the “hole” hears what they want to hear, often times the clerk is just trying to move on.

  9. Bah! This woman is not a TRUE Fundie! If she was, she’d be informing us about how “Christmas” is just a pagan festival, and every holly ring you bring in your house brings demons in with it!

    “Merry Christmas” is not a code phrase for “The Theocracy Is Coming And You Will Convert At Swordpoint or DIE!”

    “Happy Holidays” is not a code phrase for “Hail Lord Lucifer, We Will Be Opening The Concentration Camps Jack Chick Told You About Any Day Now.”

      1. Whenever I see AnabaptistGirl I want to break into song and with great gusto sing: “An a partridge in a pear tree.”

  11. Hey-Men! Praise Gid, let’s make sure we shackle Christ to this bless-ed Holiday event! We have to make sure that during the commercialized sales season all those pagan practicing heathens keep Christ in Christmas! He’s the reason we have “Black Friday” and Cyber Monday” sales events doncha know! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, with peace on earth and goodwill to men, dammit!

    We should take a moment to remember a lesson from Jack Hyles Pamplet/Sermon on “How to Boost your Church Attendance”, under the Chapter titled: “How to Win a Soul to Jesus”, Jack says to “Be Nice.” http://www.jackhyles.com/boost.htm

    And remember to take a breath mint with you as you go.
    http://persifler.wordpress.com/2010/03/28/hyles-helps-halt-halitosis-from-hindering-hope-for-hundreds-headed-for-hell-anyone-have-a-breath-mint/

    Now, merry C-H-R-I-S-T-mas! (dammit!)

    1. I cannot get over the absurdity of asserting that secular organizations use the name of Christ to describe their over-indulgent, materialistic activity. I got an email from the American Family Association (I only subscribe to see what kind of craziness they’re up to) blathering on about how Sam’s Club and LL Bean didn’t refer to their sales as “Christmas” ones. The worst part was that I got another email a week later saying that the companies had revised their ads after receiving angry letters from AFA members.

      Honestly? Children accross the world starve in part because we are so greedy and wasteful, and Christians are concerned about whether an HD television is called a Christmas present or a holiday present by people who aren’t even Christians? It makes me sick.

      1. This. I seriously upset someone last year when I responded to her impassioned whine about stores not using the word “Christmas” by saying that yes, we certainly must be sure that our orgy of consumerism is done in the name of Jesus because he was all about material wealth and acquiring more stuff. I think the truth of the statement hit her a bit too hard.

      2. Wow. You subscribe to the AFA emails for the same reason I do. I wonder what percentage of their mailing list is made up of people just keeping tabs on them.

  12. So much vitriol thrown at this Christian lady celebrating the birth of our Lord! It just reminds me of what Jesus said.

    “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”

    3. I would posit (similarly to Phil Ray below) that her primary aim here is not celebration. She is not primarily interested in spreading joy. She is primarily interested in being made joyful by the world around her. Secondarily, she is afraid. She is afraid that if she doesn’t shove “Merry Christmas” in everybody’s face (and let it be noted that I have no problem with either giving or receiving “Merry Christmas”), she is contributed to a time coming when she won’t be allowed to call herself a Christian without fearing persecution. She can celebrate her heart out for all I care, but what she’s spreading with doing some of this isn’t joy.

    4. The vitriol is not necessarily for Debbie herself but rather her behavior.

      Blaring music in public is rude. Taking offense at someone not responding enthusiastically to your greeting is being oversensitive. Writing on other people’s cars is illegal (and also rude.) Claiming, “I’m offended that you’re offended” is childish. Claiming that pretty soon calling one’s self a Christian won’t be allowed is exaggeration, which is a form of lying, and lying is a sin.

      So you see, we’re not hating the sinner. We’re hating the sin.

    5. Crazy me, I thought we might extend our over-enthusiastic sister abit of grace during this season of love and giving, but…….guess not!

  13. She’s not celebrating; she’s purposely making things louder and more confrontational for everyone around her.

    If you are in your car sitting quietly at a stop light (or, heck, listening quietly to your own car’s radio), and another car pulls up next to you blasting music at high volume with the windows down, do you view that as “celebration”, or do you look forward to the light turning green?

  14. OK, I’m calling BS (bodacious silliness) on all this.

    Nobody is offended when you say “Merry Christmas.” People may be offended when you blast loud music at street corners, but that has nothing to do with it being Christmas music.

    I was in a Target store this week, and there was plenty of stuff in there that said “Merry Christmas.” There was even a good deal of religious-themed Christmas merchandise.

    Many Whatabuger restaurants are privately-owned franchises, so the decorations will be whatever the local owner wants. Even if the corporate office doesn’t send any decorations, they can still put them up.

    What business that wanted to make money would tell employees never to say “Merry Christmas” to Christian customers? I just don’t believe it.

    My Texas town has a lot of publicly-funded Christmas decor along the major streets (including snowflakes, something we never see in reality in our climate). It’s true that there’s no nativity scene in the decorations, but hanging Baby Jesus over a street would be kind of weird, wouldn’t it?

    The War on the War on Christmas is about as successful as the War on Zombies, and for the same reason– nonexistent enemies are pretty easy to defeat.

    1. Thank you! Isn’t all of this just an extension of the Fundy persecution complex? To hear them talk, someone is always out to get these people. They may refer to it as the “war on Christmas,” but it’s really a (almost completely imagined) war on them as individuals. 🙄

    3. “It’s true that there’s no nativity scene in the decorations, but hanging Baby Jesus over a street would be kind of weird, wouldn’t it?” I never thought of that. Thanks BG.

    4. Also . . . I tried to find this “Splendid Holiday” version of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” mentioned in the article. The only reference I could find of it was this article.

      Hmmm . . . .

  16. I love Christmas, more than most adults seem to, and I think that getting aggravated because some people want it to be Happy Holidays is much ado about nothing! There’s only 2 things that I have seen happening recently that have gotten me upset. One is Target removing the bell ringers, and this gets me upset because of what the Salvation Army is and what it does. The other is the taking down of Christmas decorations in a town that had a Nativity Scene for like 60 years because last year it had become a “Christmas decoration war” with the Nativity scene and right next to it a sign saying Jesus is a myth (along with Santa and the Easter Bunny.)

    1. Christmas is a holiday. Even the fighters in the War on the War on Christmas admit this.
      Therefore, saying “Happy Holidays” during December means “Happy Christmas and other Holidays.”

  17. It was in Santa Monica that Nativity Scenes were banned – not all decorations – on public property. And they now have those same Nativity Scenes in front of churches – as well as some live Nativity Scenes. So I’m not upset about it anymore after doing some research about it. Seems like the Santa Monica has gotten more Nativity Sets and more widespread than before the ban! :mrgreen:

    1. As I said up above, the issue was whether the Nativity scenes could be on public land, not whether or not people could display them anywhere. We don’t really want the government prescribing our religious practices to us, do we?

  18. In contrast to Texas apparently, my liberal granola crunching effete town has Christmas with some to spare. Caroling in the town square, lights everywhere, neighborhoods competing with decorations, Christmas parade etc etc.

    My favorite decoration is a huge sign in front of the mosque wishing the whole town a Merry Christmas or Channukah. The synagogue has a similar sign.

    Today at Target an employee wished me a Merry Christmas. I really don’t understand what this woman is complaining about.

    1. It’s the same in Texas towns (I say this having made a 1000-mile round trip through Texas a few days ago).
      Don’t believe everything the Fundies and Tea Partiers say about Texas.

      1. Big Gary, I suppose we should all be hunkerin’ down and getting to business fighting the War On Women instead?

  19. An attack on Christmas, an originally pagan holiday, is not an attack on Christianity. Christianity can survive just fine without a December celebration of Jesus’ birth. Besides, isn’t Easter a more important holiday anyway? Christ’s resurrection is way more important than His birth. So why all the big stink about the “war on Christmas”? The very same people who think that Christmas is the very soul of our religion don’t even bat an eye at the way Easter is presented by secular entities. It’s like they actually realize that Easter began as a pagan holiday so it doesn’t infuriate them so much when people make it all about bunnies, etc. But CHRISTmas? That’s different! Christmas is so very vital to our faith that we can’t allow anyone to NOT be as enthusiastic about it as we are! Because if Christmas isn’t important to you, Christianity will die out, secularism will run rampant, and the terrorists win.

    Could it POSSIBLY be that fundies enjoy their Things-mas so much that they put Christ’s birth on a higher level of importance than Christ’s resurrection?

  21. Just stopped by a Dollar General. The lady at the register was wishing everyone a merry Christmas. I’ll let y’all know if she gets arrested later today.

  22. At my work, I say whatever pops out of my mouth. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Have a Good Day. Because, it’s not a big deal. I’ve yet to have someone get offended.

  23. “I’ll buy gifts at a place that understands my joy.”

    Sword of the Lord subscriptions for everyone!

  24. That’s the exact facial expression my cat would make if I tried that nonsense on her, lol.

  25. I think people like this secretly love ginning up the war on Christmas and revel in non-existent persecution. Look how happy being this obnoxious has made her! So merry Christmas to her, happy Hanukkah to my Jewish pals and happy solstice to everyone…..unless of course the Mayans were right and the world ends tomorrow. In which case I’m kinda sad I got the extended warranty on my husband’s new fish finder.

    Merry Christmas, y’all!

  26. “All authority in heaven and on earth have been given unto me. Go therefore into all nations and get offended at everything they do and scream songs into their faces on my pretend birthday that you put next to their holiday so as to trick yourselves into believing that the unbelievers are really worshiping me.”

  29. Fundies seem to be the master at the phoney chain-mail nonsense. Other than the explicitly religious stuff on public property, everything else she is saying is bullshit.

    In all my years in and out of retail, I have never been told that I could not say ‘Merry Christmas’. Not at Pollo Tropical, Crab House, Whole Foods, Bloomingdales, FAO Schwartz, or Macy’s. In fact, Macy’s instructed to say whatever made us feel comfortable and this store was smack-dab in the middle of an extremely large Jewish community.

    As for Federated not using the Christmas phrase, their decorations are pretty wordless these days, but you can bet that the major stores are decked out to the 9s with Christmas decor.

  31. I’m offended by the name of the website on which the woman’s rant was posted. I mean really The Flaming Torch?! If that isn’t a homosexual reference, what is? 😉

        2. Well…what is the saying about the stuck hog squealing first? I think this is another Don anyway. 😉

    2. In the good ol’ American town of Fundystan, on Fundy Street, just down the road from the local IFB cult–I mean church and IFB pastor’s summer home (next door to his winter home and his spring home and his fall home and his forty-seven brand-new Cadillacs), HAYMEN.

  33. Personally I think we should all say “Happy Hanukkah”. After all didn’t the Jews have Hanukkah before Christians had Christmas? Just saying.

    1. Alas, it’s already over. Happy Winter Solstice,everybody (unless you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, then it’s Summer)! Or unless the world ends tomorrow–then it probably won’t be all that happy.

  34. I was convinced this was a poe. In my naivete, I honestly didn’t think anyone could write such overboard things and mean them. So I went to the website.

    . . . Debbie Daniel may be a poe, but Don-who-archived-her-article certainly isn’t! *weeps for humanity*

    My self-imposed rules are these: 1) I will never initiate any kind of holiday greeting or dismissal, 2) I will always respond politely when given a holiday greeting/dismssal, and 3) my standard reply is, “thanks, you too!” Makes life much simpler and more pleasant.

    Although, IF (and that’s a big “if”) I should ever feel the need to break rule #1, I would use “Happy Holidays.” Not only does it encompass all religious festivals, it also encompasses secular ones like Boxing Day and New Year’s. If you don’t like my “Happy Holidays,” that’s fine. I will wish you a Rotten Holidays instead since you can’t accept a greeting in the spirit it was offered.

  35. I just got my annual Christmas card from a Conservative (denomination) Jewish couple I know. The wife puts a lot of creativity into handmaking the cards. Just doing her non-Christian duty to quash Christmas I guess.

  36. Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Happy Kwanza, Happy winter solstice; there! Did I leave any out? 😆

    1. You skipped Yule (for the Pagans) and New Year’s Eve & Day. BTW, the word is kwanza, but the holiday is spelled Kwanzaa. 😉

      Which is why I prefer Happy Holidays. 😎 It covers everything & I don’t have to get into a religious debate unless somebody like Debbie Downer is around.

  37. Our local shopping centre goes all out to celebrate christmas and easter and Eid after ramadan – they have just added to their decorations and signs and just put up whatever lot is appropriate for the time of year. If someone wishs me merry christmas i return it – i’m not against others enjoying their religious celebrations – i also believe in Jesus and i do love a birthday party!!

  38. I have never understood all this stuff either. My kids grade school is very diverse and there is a tree in every room. The high school chorus winter concert had secular pieces, but also had religious carols and ended with those that wanted from the audience going to the stage to sing the Hallejuah Chorus.

    The middle school winter concert also had the strings playing Joy to the World. The older choir sang a song about lighting a candle and ended with different kids giving their winter holiday greeting.

    I don’t get freaked out by Happy Holidays.

    2. Jesus gave explicit commands to His disciples to remember His death, but I don’t recall anything about celebrating His birth. The big Christian celebration should be His death and resurrection (commonly called Easter), not His birth.

  40. Actually Darrell, the cat named “Angry” describes a lot of commenters on Stuff Fundies Like. “Angry”, by the way, is related to “Mr. Grinch”.

      1. Actually Beth, I have nothing but love for you all. It breaks my heart, but more so God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit’ heart to see you and others on this site have so much hatred in your hearts for others because you cannot let go of your pain. Beth, it takes more energy and effort to hate than to love.

        2. What’s inappropriate, that I love my neighbour? You all are my neighbours , and I have nothing but love for each of you even if none of you have any love for me nor for yourselves. God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit commands for us to love our neighbour if we are of HIM. If we have no love for each other, how can we say that we love God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit? Furthermore, if we have no love for each other, who is our neighbour, how can we say that we are saved? Hate is not of God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit. Hate is of satan.

        4. BTW, if you are a POE, you’re doing an excellent job of portraying a fundy pretending his own rage is love for others.

        5. NIT Clique, I’m with you, by and large. Unlike many of the radical leftists on this site, I believe in freedom of speech and don’t have a problem with a diversity of viewpoints. The main problem I have with this site is that it’s true agenda is covert. One would think that the purpose of this site is to make fun of all things IFB. It’s a free country. If people want to wallow in their misery and become mockers they are free to do so. I just wish that the name of this site was something like “Stuff Christians Like” or some moniker such as that. True, there is definitely an anti-IFB ethos to this site, but from so many of the comments on here there seems to be an overall anti-Christian ethos and not simply an anti-IFB theme.

        8. Mr. Jenkins, there is another website already called Stuff Christians Like.

          As for SFL, I guess you find what you’re looking for. There are a few anti-Christian folk on here, there are several non-conservative evangelical Christians on here, but there are many many of us who are passionate believers in Christ and are tired of the man-made religiosity and legalism that obscured the beauty of the Gospel from us for so many years.

        9. Dear Not In The Clique:

          Your ‘angry cat/Mr._Grinch’ analogy isn’t particularly compelling. A Biblical case might be made that you are committing the sins of slander and lying.

          It is because love is professed easily that the early church had this saying:

          ‘…let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth’ 1Jo 3:18.

          Do not err by equating word and deed; John taught us to NOT love with word or tongue. If you love, you are to practice it by deed, which demonstrates the truth.

          To that end, I suggest you communicate with Darrell re: opportunities to deed-love children in Sri Lanka, which some here have done.

          As you say, ‘if we have no “love” [deeds] for each other, how can we say that we are saved?’

          Christian Socialist

    3. People who believe that someone is trying to kill Christmas remind me of Santa’s tenth reindeer, Paranoid.

      Or was that Snow White’s eighth dwarf?

  41. Also, “Angry” and “Mr. Grinch” are of no relation to “Love your neighbour”.

    1. Most, if not all, cats would probably get angry if such a costume was put on them. Cats don’t usually cotton too much to being dressed up.

        1. I’m wearing a costume?!? I thought I was wearing a pair of jeans and a western shirt. I know, I’m dressed up as a ‘Zonie! 😆

          Or are you calling me a cat? Should I be offended or meow? =^^=

        2. It is one thing to dress up and call yourself a Christian when it suits your purpose, but it is another to be a Christian when your love for God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit is greater than the fear of the fallout that comes from the world for it. I stand no gain in this world for it, but my gain is in heaven. Can you all say the same for yourselves?

          God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit loves each and every one of you. HE is waiting for you all to come back to HIM. Just like in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, everyday his dad looked for him to see if he was coming over the hill, and it broke his heart when he didn’t. Then one day his heart rejoiced to see his son coming in the distance. All the years of his debaucherous living had taken a toll on the boy so he didn’t look like years earlier, but dad still knew him as his son. That is how God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit views us. HE is looking for us to come back to HIM, but HE sees we are nowhere near to returning……..and it breaks HIS heart. In our dirty rags HE loves us and wants to bless us, but until we return repentent, HE cannot replace those dirty rags with a beautiful robe of blessings.

          Beth D. and all fellow Fundies/Ex-Fundies, God Jesus Christ Holy Spirit is waiting for you. There is nothing that is more important than your soul and your eternal future.

        3. There’s very little in life as entertaining as a raging fundamentalist do what raging fundamentalist are wont to do.

        5. The Prodigal Son, by the way, is as much a parable about the prodigal boy’s older brother as anything.

        6. True. There are many lessons we all can get from this parable, BUT, taking all the attention off your sin and putting it on something else is not going to change/ cover/ cleanse the sin you are still drenched in.

          As a matter of fact, one lesson I get from the older brother is that he refused to be his brothers keeper by being a positive role model. You cannot be a positive role model and be your brothers keeper if you don’t even care what happens to your brother………

          Yep, it always comes back to “Love your neighbour”.

        7. Why is it that if someone critiques a man and his viewpoints of religion it’s considered sin? As I recall, Roman Catholics did the same when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses.

          Honestly, the only problem with the older brother is that he got angry that his dad spoiled the younger brother. Scripture states that the older brother served his father, was always obedient. So what, the guy pitched a “hissy fit” one time. According to Scripture he was obedient, and honoring to his dad the rest of the time.

          My issue with the IFB and fundamentalists in general is the judgmental attitude. If I do one action that a man disagrees with, I am judged as being in sin or “drenched in” sin.

          There is no hatred (at least on my part) for those in the IFB. There is intense sadness that Christians feel like they have to obey the doctrines of man in order to feel better about themselves.

          I love my neighbor. I suppose I just want people to be free from the chains of the law (man-made or otherwise) and free to love Christ according to Scripture not according to the whims of a fallen man.

      2. If cats could speak, they’d immediately report this ridiculous getup as Cruelty To Animals. Hey, a cat has his dignity, after all. 😎

  43. You can’t steal a holiday. You can’t steal happiness. These things are inside us and we hold them to our hearts and enjoy them, not just now but all through the year. The only way they can be stolen is if you toss them aside in favor of fear and ignorance, just like this lot has been doing for years. I don’t care how you greet me this time of year as long as the message behind your words is one of love and kindness.
    On that note, Happy Holiday du Jour, Everyone! Sending big zen hugs to all my friends.

    1. *hic* I tide that, and ever-bodee shuushed me!~ s-s-shh-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-shh! den the sher…sher.. s-h-e-r-i.. The po-lease came by and they even sayd “chussssssssh!” I’llstopsinginnowokay? OKAY! o.k. 😉

  45. Read the post and the responses.

    I really think the post is just a form of protest against the perception (real or not) that American society was predominantly Christian, and is moving from those roots in modern times.

    I’m not young, but I’m not terribly old — I don’t ever recall any issues with saying “Merry Christmas”, and towns had Christmas things up and no one was bothered by it – or if they were, they kept it to themselves because the majority liked it.

    The worst student behavior was doing drugs (high school) or talking back to a teacher (grade school). No one ever thought about anyone shooting up a school full of kids.

    I remember singing songs in public school about the birth of Jesus Christ, and no one had any fit.

    Such days are long gone; I don’t know that it is for the better, but I don’t begrudge someone like “Debbie” for bemoaning the changes.

    I’m not going to do what she does; I think being turning up music, good or bad, is impolite.

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