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4play See other 4play Articles Title: WAYNE MADSEN: Christmas crusade is a heap of humbug WASHINGTON - Only America's religious right is able to find controversy where it does not exist. There is nothing more anti-Christmas than forcing American businesses and employees to say, "Merry Christmas." And only in consumerism-run-amok America is it important to force retail workers who make minimum wage to wish every shopper, "Merry Christmas." Humbug to those phony Christians who think Christmas is all about minimum-wage employees uttering vapid niceties to gluttonous shoppers in mega-store foyers and checkout lanes! If the religious righteous want to demonstrate their commitment to the Christmas spirit, let them start by boycotting the big-box retailers who refuse to pay their workers a living wage and family-sustainable benefits. The religious right, in its zeal to make every American conform to a specified form of speech during Christmas, is not much different from the Roman Empire, which required its citizens to say, "Hail Caesar!" Grinch-like conservatives take the meaning and spirit of "merry" and "Christmas" out of "Merry Christmas" by making its use mandatory and branding those who refuse to conform as "anti-American" and "anti-Christian." But hang a wreath on your home in the shape of a peace symbol, as one woman recently did in Loma Linda, Colo., and the Christmas zeal soon disappears among the religious right. The Colorado subdivision resident was threatened with a huge fine by her homeowners association for displaying what they considered to be an "anti-American" and "Satanic" wreath. After the case was reported around the world, the crusaders for Christian subdivision covenants backed down. Much of the phony debate about the phony "War on Christmas" is led by broadcasting right-wing inciters such as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck. Last year, the Catholic League -- the heirs of Father Charles Coughlin, the suburban Detroit radio-ranter in the 1930s -- threatened boycotts of Target, Wal-Mart, Macy's and other stores unless they put up "Merry Christmas" banners. America's home-grown Fascists now have commandeered that term; they call their enemies "Islamo-fascists" and "cultural fascists." It is all part of the neoconservative Newspeak. Confused? Of course you are -- that is part of the right wing's program of dividing and conquering our nation. The religious right is combining its own jaded brand of Christianity with a perverted notion of American patriotism to create a dangerous religious-political mutation that transforms the U.S. flag, a unitary presidency, Jesus and Christmas into right-wing political symbols. When the Founders created the United States of America two and a half centuries ago, Christmas was not a major holiday. Only rampant commercialization turned it into the consumerist monstrosity that it is today. Like the Pledge of Allegiance and American flag lapel pins, Christmas has been co-opted by the right for its nefarious purposes. Companies should allow their employees the latitude to say,. "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" or "Allahu Akbar" or "Happy Kwanzaa." After all, we are -- and always have been -- "a nation of nations" rather than a religious state. Those who celebrate Christmas should have a very merry Yuletide without the pressure to have one from a nasty group of political opportunists and rabble-rousers who know nothing about the true meaning of Christmas. Allowing a movement that does not believe in free speech to censor the rest of us in the name of religion is not what America is all about. The Founding Fathers would have been appalled. And they certainly would have agreed with William Shakespeare's observation in The Tempest: "O brave new world,/That has such people in't!"
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#1. To: Morgana le Fay (#0)
If someone wants my business, why shouldn't they cater to my sensibilities? Isn't the customer always right? OTOH, Target, Wal-Mart, et. al., if they find those sensibilites onerous, would be perfectly within their rights to forego that business, or even refuse to sell to Christians.
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