Why is it that only the majority has to be tolerant?

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Particularly this year in the US, there has been a real concerted effort to eliminate Christmas from the American vocabulary and from American tradition.

Children can’t sing XMAS carols at school, even secular ones like White Christmas or Frosty the Snowman. Schools aren’t having Christmas Break; instead they are having Winter Break. Stores are barring traditional salvation army volunteers from hanging their Christmas donation boxes out and ringing their XMAS bells. You can’t wish someone a “Merry Christmas” and still be politically correct. For sure, no evidence of Nativity scenes can be exposed to public view.

Clearly, XMAS can be and has been celebrated as both a religious and a secular event. One man’s Jesus is another man’s Santa.

It seems as if the only group that ever is required to be tolerant of other people’s beliefs is the majority. God forbid that the one would be required to be tolerant of the many.

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Re: Why is it that only the majority has to be tolerant?

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by myvoice: *
Stores are barring traditional salvation army volunteers from hanging their Christmas donation boxes out and ringing their XMAS bells.
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I thought Salvation Army was stopped, because to allow them meant the stores had to allow anyone who wanted to collect money from in front of the store. But may be you are right, and it had to do with Christmas.

I think its all a liberal conspiracy. Bad bad people. They want to secularize America, so that all people in the country feel inclusive. On the other hand, it may just be jews. No other religion gets upset about christmas, you know.

On the flip side, if I am in Pakistan and someone in their good natured way, wishes me "Happy Diwali", good for them. I don't think thats a reason for me to be upset. American psyche must be a bit different.

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Re: Re: Why is it that only the majority has to be tolerant?

:k:

You are slowly getting wit of your fav Jon Stewart.

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Re: Re: Why is it that only the majority has to be tolerant?

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
I thought Salvation Army was stopped, because to allow them meant the stores had to allow anyone who wanted to collect money from in front of the store. But may be you are right, and it had to do with Christmas.

I think its all a liberal conspiracy. Bad bad people. They want to secularize America, so that all people in the country feel inclusive. On the other hand, it may just be jews. No other religion gets upset about christmas, you know.

On the flip side, if I am in Pakistan and someone in their good natured way, wishes me "Happy Diwali", good for them. I don't think thats a reason for me to be upset. American psyche must be a bit different.
[/QUOTE]

hahaha
Bara khoobsorat jawab hai...:)

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Re: Re: Why is it that only the majority has to be tolerant?

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
I thought Salvation Army was stopped, because to allow them meant the stores had to allow anyone who wanted to collect money from in front of the store. But may be you are right, and it had to do with Christmas.
[/QUOTE]

I'm pretty sure it was because of the religious concept of "Salvation" and the relationship of that concept/organization with Christmas.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Faisal: *
I think its all a liberal conspiracy. Bad bad people. They want to secularize America, so that all people in the country feel inclusive. On the other hand, it may just be jews. No other religion gets upset about christmas, you know.
[/QUOTE]

Maybe it's part of UTD's war "against hateful and intolerable conservatives" who some believe want to convert liberals to Christ via Rudolph's red nose.

I'm all in favor of letting Muslims celebrate their holidays proudly and openly. I'm in favor of letting Jews celebrate Hannukah, Yom Kippur and Passover proudly and openly. In fact, I think our public schools ought to teach about each of these holidays as they arise firmly belieivng that kids who understand the symbols and celebrations of others will learn to respect the religions and religious practices of others. And when about 85% or more of our population celebrates Christmas in some fashion, the other 15% ought to keep quiet and be a little tolerant. If a group of kids singing Christmas carols in the street upsets them, screw them. If they don't want to see a parade of lights with christmas songs being played and a whole bunch of people just enjoying life and being happy, let them sit at home watching Desperate Housewives or something.

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myvoice bhaijaan, merry Christmas! :flower1:

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There’s a neat little prep-article in today’s Times on this topic:

The war on Christmas is being waged across Christendom. In Italy, a school replaced the Nativity play with Little Red Riding Hood, while another replaced the word “Jesus” in carols with “virtue”. The Mayor of Sydney caused outrage by reducing the city’s Christmas decorations to a single secular illuminated tree with the sign “Season’s greetings”. The US now has a national “holiday tree” and schools take “ winter holidays”. Christianity has gone back to its origins, and become the world’s most widely persecuted religion, finally prompting the Vatican to hit back with a campaign against “Christianophobia”.

So who are the modern-day Scrooges, Grinches, Cromwells and Castros, and what motivates them? In most cases, the Chistophobes use the excuse of multiculturalism, insisting that celebrating Christmas is offensive to non-Christian minorities, often citing Muslims. But the truth is that it is done in the name of Muslims, rather than at the request of Muslims, who accept the existence of Christ. Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists don’t mind Christmas celebrations any more than Christians object to Diwali, Eid or Chanukkah. As Trevor Phillips, the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, said: “It’s not offensive to minority communities to celebrate the festival of Christmas.”

No, the real Christophobes are the self-loathing, guilt-ridden politically-correct liberal elite, driven by anti-Christian bigotry and a ruthless determination to destroy their own heritage and replace it with “the other”. It is the American Civil Liberties Union that is threatening lawsuits against any schools that allow the singing of carols…

Videos - Post your find
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Jesus wasn't born on December 25th (almost all of Christian clergy is in agreement on this). So why celebrate a Roman Empire celebration in a religious manner?. And all this Rudolhp, Santa and the stockings came way way after Jesus anyway.

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Happy Xmas to everybody.

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Yaum-e-Wilaadat-e-Maseeh/Eid Milad al-Maseeh Mubarak. :dixsi:

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In some places over here they have decided calling Christmas "Winter Festivities" instead, I can see where they are coming from because they claim to be secularists but it's unnecessary, , each to his own, they should be politically correct where they need to, we have our religion-culture purposely maligned and ridculed in the media everyday they ought to stop that if they want everyone to be in harmony.

Christmas doesn't offend us as long as we're not compelled to participate, I've made it very clear to my non-Muslim acquaintances that I don’t celebrate Christmas so they don’t need to give me any cards because I’m a Muslim and would like to keep it that way, in a polite way of course and they respect that, no hard feelings either side.. :)

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Thank YOU. I think I’m going to cry. Oh heck… :hug:

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yeah merry christmas to you myvoice.

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Those bell rings are really annoying outside the stores, kudos to those stores that kicked them out.

Everyone should be and is allowed to freely celebrate (or not celebrate) any religious/culture Holidays they want as long as they abide by the laws and don't waste my tax money doing so. If you don’t like that move to a country with an official religion you’re wanting the government to spend money on celebrating.

Happy Holidays :)

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
Those bell rings are really annoying outside the stores, kudos to those stores that kicked them out.

Everyone should be and is allowed to freely celebrate (or not celebrate) any religious/culture Holidays they want as long as they abide by the laws and don't waste my tax money doing so. If you don’t like that move to a country with an official religion you’re wanting the government to spend money on celebrating.

Happy Holidays :)
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Since the US Congress officially recognized Christmas as a Federal Holiday in 1870 [see 5 USC 6103], I guess it's you who ought to move UTD. Imagine how much of your $100 in yearly income taxes goes to pay salaries for those federal workers getting an official day off.

You should pay heed to the federal judge who dismissed a lawsuit by some secular nut job trying to declare the legal national holiday unconstitutional.

** "The court has found legitimate secular purposes for establishing Christmas as a legal public holiday." "When the government decides to recognize Christmas Day as a public holiday, it does no more than accommodate the calendar of public activities to the plain fact that many Americans will expect on that day to spend time visiting with their families, attending religious services, and perhaps enjoying some respite from pre-holiday activities."

"Ganulin and his family have the freedom to celebrate, or not celebrate, the religious and secular aspects of the holiday as they see fit." "The court simply does not believe that declaring Christmas to be a legal public holiday impermissibly imposes Christian beliefs on non-adherents in a way that violates the right to freedom of association." **

UTD: If you demand freedom ** from ** religion, move to some despotic communist regime that has erased God from all vestiges of society. If you want free exercise of religion, be a good boy, pipe down, have some egg nog, chill and demonstrate a little tolerance for the 85% of us who want to celebrate. As much as you don't want to see Christian nativity scenes, did you ever think that a fair number of whacked out christians might not want to see Hassidic Jews walking the public streets flaunting their religion in public by the clothes they wear and their appearance? What if I'm offended by guys wearing those little yamulkas in our courthouses?

** Atlanta: Thanks. And a very Merry one to you as well. If you're not inclined to celebrate it, accept my best wishes for you and your family during this very special time of year for me. **

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Merry Christmas to everyone

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Myvoice it's clear that you don't respect a persons right to have freedom from religion and I do. I see a slippery slop if you allow schools, court houses, governmental institutions ect to erect nativity scenes/the ten commandments as if you allow that then you must allow other religious organizations to erect their own religious symbols as well and where does it stop, do you allow witchcraft symbols on governmental intuitional grounds?

Put up the Jesus scenes on your own private grounds, I enjoy the lights quite much.

I'll pass on the eggnog, it makes one fat, you might want to do the same.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
Myvoice it's clear that you don't respect a persons right to have freedom from religion and I do.

[/QUOTE]

You are correct. I have no respect for a person's right to be free from religion because no such right exists. Not in our country anyway and not in our Constitution.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
I see a slippery slop if you allow schools, court houses, governmental institutions ect to erect nativity scenes/the ten commandments as if you allow that then you must allow other religious organizations to erect their own religious symbols as well and where does it stop, do you allow witchcraft symbols on governmental intuitional grounds?

[/QUOTE]

Ahhhh.... the old slippery slope argument typically used by people when the position they are advancing makes no sense whatsoever. Certainly, you can't let people cut off their finger nails because eventually they'll cut off their heads.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
Put up the Jesus scenes on your own private grounds, I enjoy the lights quite much.

[/QUOTE]

Not my bag. But even though I'm not into that, I'm tolerant enough to respect other's rights to do so. Even if they wanted to decorate a public park. It's OK with you for the park to be littered with homeless and drug abusers. But, no way, no how can we put a statue of the baby Jesus there.

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by underthedome: *
I'll pass on the eggnog, it makes one fat, you might want to do the same.
[/QUOTE]

I'm losing that battle with or without egg nog.

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[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by myvoice: *

Ahhhh.... the old slippery slope argument typically used by people when the position they are advancing makes no sense whatsoever. Certainly, you can't let people cut off their finger nails because eventually they'll cut off their heads.

[/QUOTE]

I'm not making sense? Christianity today, Islam tomorrow, Greekology 2 days later, and witchcraft the next. how do you draw the line, honestly explain to me how you justify some displays of groups but not of others?

If it is open for all, then yes displays should be allowed, but I don't think that's a good idea.

And yes myvoice, people do have a right to be free of Religion, the U.S. does not require people to have faith in any God(s). The money which reads "In God we trust" isn't a contract witht hose who use it.

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The question is do you want to create a secular society? If you are, then by elminating christainity from Christmas you are infact discriminating against a religion and its followers.

Its like saying that hannukah can be celebrate but eliminate judaism from it. Eid is cool, but no religious traditions.

That is not a secular society. It is a facist one.