Merry Christmas..Take That!

Grace over at Scriptoids points us to a post by Doug Giles whining about the persecution of Christians over the wishing of Merry Christmas to non-Christians. While I dutifully posted a comment, the more I thought about it the more irritated I became. Therefore, I will re-post the bulk of my comment here. (Of course, I have amplified and corrected my spelling.)

Thankfully, Grace seems to be of a stronger constitution than I and regularly alerts us to the rantings over at Townhall.

Here is a snippet of Doug's whine:

The Christmasphobia seems to have seeped outside of the Pubic Fool System and has also hit the streets. It’s gotten to the point where I’ve got to think for 30 to 40 seconds about how I am to wish one well during the Christmas season for fear that the ACLU will send some soulless lawyer to my house to sue me because of an insensitive greeting.

Before, I just used to say, “Merry Christmas.” Now, I have to do CIA-like profiling trying to figure out what religion said person is before I launch a holiday howdy. Are they Christian? Muslim? Satanist? Atheist? Do they look like they have enough money to take legal action against me if I get the greeting wrong and they become deeply wounded by my well wish? It’s madness. To remedy the situation, now I just blow off saying anything aside from, “Wassup?”

I must be missing all of the reports about individuals being sued for wishing some non-christian Merry Christmas. You'd think it would be all over the news.

The truth is that Doug is so insecure in his own beliefs and maybe even ashamed of them that he is afraid to wish someone Merry Christmas and possibly being confronted by someone not of his own obviously shallow faith. I can see where the rare possibility of someone, say of the Jewish faith, might smile and respond "Thank you for the well wishes and a Happy Hannukah in return." and poor Doug would be mortified and devastated by the awful truth of his faux pas. It is truly something to avoid at all costs.

What does he think I will do if he wishes me a Merry Christmas? I am not a Christian per se but, then again, I don't wear my faith on my sleeve. Would I lash out with a terrible and cutting diatribe accusing him of persecution and disrespect for my beliefs? Of course not. I would respect his apparent beliefs and wish him a Merry Christmas right back.

I have celebrated Christmas since I was a baby,being raised in a Christian family, and it was only in later years that I grew spiritually beyond the need for a desperate, fearful belief in Jesus. That doesn't, however, mean I don't like Christmas in spirit and it doesn't hurt me at all to wish another human Merry Christmas. I do it all the time to all kinds of people and don't ever remember hesitating, fearful of insulting their beliefs. Since when did wishing someone a Merry Christmas equate to religious persecution?

The reality is that Doug is just a wimp and I imagine that if he sincerely wished another person Merry Christmas and truly implied the good wishes meant by the holiday greeting that, regardless of faith, the other person would respond in kind and not be offended. If someone was offended by such a sincere greeting then they have some issues and some insecurities around their beliefs as well.