[3504] in Depressing_Thoughts
Re: It's started again...
sdcfred@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (sdcfred@ATHENA.MIT.EDU)
Fri Dec 11 22:03:48 1992
>> Of course you don't "complain" when other religions have their
>> holidays. You probably don't even notice.
I resent that.
I happen to have many friends who are Jewish, pagan (should that be
capitalized). I will admit I don't know many muslims. But the fact
is, I consider myself to be somewhat aware of the sub-cultures around me.
I happen to like my earlier point, which got glossed over. Some of the
theoretical "message" of Christmas (be kind to those around you, go out
of your way to be nice) transcend religion. They are basic human beliefs.
I like the "spirit" of Christmas. I don't even mind some of the
commercialization of it (although I find pre-Halloween permeation disgusting).
I also think that all non-Christians who are annoyed at having Christmas
rammed down their throats have a valid gripe. Richard, I challenge you to
go live in Israel or Saudi Arabia for a year. I guarantee you that you'll
have a somewhat different attitude.
But I also have a little question for all the complaining non-Christians
out there: do you celebrate Thanksgiving? In many ways, it is a similar
holiday, just with a smaller offended population.
Maybe my problem is I still have the young, naive value system which says
"can't we all just live together and be nice to each other". I don't think
that secularizing an already secular holiday will hurt Christianity at all.
Catholics have nothing to say about it. We are probably one of the most
hypocritical bunches around. Our priests enjoy having mafioso in their
parishes because it is big money (definitely an overstatement, but I'm
making a point). Historically, we haven't practiced what we preached.
I know that it is reasonable old history, but the fact that we persecuted
(officially) Jews and Muslims for over 400 years (the Inquisition) is a
reputation that is just a little bit hard to live down.
You know, religion is soooo annoying! It seems like such a great concept,
but boy has it hurt a LOT of people.
I don't think this should move to napalm because I refuse to read napalm
because it will just become an argument between leb and sethf and I refuse
to listen to their drivel/noise.
