***Very OT*** CHRISTMAS ***OT***

Happy Christmas to you too!

We are even more apalled over here, as we no longer have "Christmas" lights but "Winter" lights in the streets - for fear of offending the ethnic religions!

None of us ever objected to them celebrating THEIR festivals, after all! Political correctness gone completely mad!

Pat P

A small town about an hour's drive from Halifax, named Oxford, rose up and objected. They put the 'Christmas' back in Christmas for the week. While they did not enact legislation, it was a formal statement and I guess there have been changes.

I am waiting to see the fall out after Christmas because I have some reservations about the why this was done.

Christmas will always be Christmas to me - no matter what some butt-kissing politicians say. This political correctness thing has gone too far ... celebrate what you want, but leave MY Christmas alone. My opinion only. Merry Christmas to all.

Sharon (N.B.) ..................................................................

I agree whole heartily with what Sharon said! "Celebrate what you want, but leave MY Christmas alone"! I've heard the same opinion expressed by leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities. They don't want the Christmas celebration to be renamed the Holiday season any more than they want the names of their religious celebrations changed.

The annual Christmas tree that is sent to Boston from Nova Scotia (in appreciation for the help Boston gave to the Province following the Halifax explosion in 1917) this year was renamed the Holiday tree by the mayor of Boston. This caused such a furor, lead by the grower of the tree, it reverted back to Christmas tree. I watched the televised lighting of the tree and it was definitely a *Christmas* tree! :)......and the songs was definitely *Christmas* songs!

Mavia

OK, that's really lame. BUT: as much as some people might like it to be so, there is no state sponsored or sanctioned religion in the US. For those of us who are not Christian, this time of year can be a royal PITA. Xmas (and that is a legitimate abbreviation) is Everywhere and takes over Everything. Bowdlerizing carols is not the way to make us feel more included. I would love to put the Christ back in Christmas and put it back in church where it belongs.

Pax in terra, Sara

LOL!!! I think that all this "Political Correctness" has shot itself in the foot - it causes far more resentment than it cures! If the ethnic minorities don`t like our "Christmas" festival which is OUR tradition in OUR country - they know the answer!

Pat P

I think that the whole commercial Christmas celebration has gotten so far away from what Christmas is really about (to me) - i.e., the birth of Christ - that the secular holiday shows very little relationship to the religious one. I think it's a church/state issue now. There's the church holiday, about Christ's birth, and the social/political/economic celebration of "warm fuzzies/good will toward man." The two have very little relation to each other.

And is this necessarily a bad thing? (This is a serious question; I'm thinking out loud, so to speak, and not trying to jerk anyone's chain.) Society benefits in many ways from the celebration, no matter the basis. And perhaps for Christians, it's not a bad thing to have to "tell the story" to reclaim for themselves the original meaning of Christmas?

Then again, it could be just what happens when holidays become institutionalized and celebrated beyond the original population. Weren't some of us making the same complaints about Veterans Day and Memorial Day - that they've lost their original meaning as the population is farther and farther removed from the events and experiences that precipitated the celebration? Didn't Halloween start out as something altogether different, and now it's merely a day to dress up and have fun?

And a thought that just popped into my head: how come nobody complains at Easter that they're not greeted in stores with "Christ is Risen!" "He is risen indeed!"

Sue

I feel very much the way Sara does. As a non-Christian, I rather enjoyed seeing, and even participating in, Christmas celebrations with friends over the years but now it's become one big money making, commercial venture that starts too many months in advance of the holiday.

I would like to see everyone celebrate whatever they want, however they want and wherever they want, but leave me out of it and stop trying to cover all bases just to be politically correct. There will always be someone who thinks it's not enough and calling it a holiday celebration simply won't change that fact.

Lucille

When you think about it, the state had nothing to do with that. All it does is give everybody the day off with pay.

If it upsets people that it's too big and commercialized, they should blame Retail USA--also not something the state gets involved in.

I'm with you. Those are both right up there on the "stupid ideas" list along with the whole inclusive language thing my church did back when I was in college.

A very bright and well-churched young lady sat next to me > Just out of curiosity -- I really wondered what everyone thinks about

As a Christian, I agree entirely with Sara and Lucille. All that stuff in the mall has nothing to do with the festival of Christmas. Christmas does belong in church, and it belongs in hearts. Gather with people, share a meal. Raise a glass. Make some music. Tell stories. Give to those in need. Make peace. (hey...sounds like---Christmas, and Yule, and Hannukah, and....what any good people do when they want to celebrate). I'll celebrate any holiday with anybody, and hope you will do the same. The world needs a lot more celebrations. All the other stuff hurts people. Too much hype, too many expectations--and people who are disappointed, exhausted, indebted, and angry because something about their Christmas did not measure up to the ones on TV. Dawne

This reminds me of another old joke. There was a Jewish family who were storekeepers. When they were asked what they did on Christmas Day, they replied, "We go down to our store, look at all the empty shelves, and

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sing 'What a friend we have in Jesus'"

"Brenda Lewis" wrote ..

We use inclusive language--who would we want to exclude??? Dawne

"Brenda Lewis" wrote

That stuff does confuse people (although.... how hard is it to count back 4 from Christmas and find the nearest Sunday??). I was reading through some material from a course on Anglican fundamentals offered by a Diocese in Wisconsin, and one of the benefits it stated was "you will never ever again not know how to figure out when Easter is." Dawne

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

i heard a man on fox news say yesterday that this whole brou-ha-ha over "Xmas-is verboten" is the radical right's knee-jerk reaction to to the radical left's persistant "politically correct" nonsense!!! they both seem to need to "one-up" each other on every, single issue!!!

makes sense to me......

btw-

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!!

You are right, inclusive language about God is tricky. The pronouns about God in the lectionary we use are masculine, although, as a not particularly ultra feminist, I try and avoid the pronouns and say God wherever possible. (The first chapter of John, which I get to read Christmas Day, is a tad challenging!!) Sometimes moving to language that is clearly metaphoric helps, because, as you say, who really knows what God is, we can only compare God to things we know. "God cares for us like a father" rather than "is our father". After all, one of my favourite images is God gathering us like a mother hen gathers chicks under her wing, and no one (so far--but I may be being speciesist) has claimed this means God is a large chicken. Our most recent hymn book changed some language both for inclusive reasons and to eliminate some outdated views of the world---and with mixed results. Some works e.g. "the eyes of sinful men" becomes "our sinful human eyes". But it does require considerable care and respect for how the lines scan. Dawne

Brenda Lewis wrote: > A very bright and well-churched young lady sat next to me in church

Well, actually, she was close...it IS because Christmas is on a Sunday this year. This year is the longest possible Advent.

And when you think of Advent calendars, the ones you buy generally start on December 1st and count down until the 25th. Even the ones in church stores! They're not liturgically accurate most of the time.

Sue