Happy Holidays!
Food for thought,
Walmart, Target, Belk, Macy’s, etc.
These are all retail stores that carry neither the label of secular nor sacred. They cater to the world. Their market is the world. We are consumers. Whether we are in the secular sector, or the sacred sector, we are their customers. Many people are up in arms this holiday season because a large swath of these companies have chosen to change their normal year ending “Merry Christmas” to a new, more all inclusive “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings.”
Let’s role play for a minute,
You’re a devout Jew, and you’ve been walking into one of these stores for years. Every year they say “Merry Christmas” and you cringe as you walk through the store looking at all of the pictures of bright stars that resemble the Star of Bethlehem.
Or perhaps you’re of Muslim heritage. None of these things mean anything to you. Some of them are even obscene to you.
I don’t know about everyone else but, when they say “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays,” I know that I am included in that group. I am not offended. They aren’t EXCLUDING Christians. It’s not like they are saying “Season’s Greetings, Screw Christians.” They are in the business to make money by serving the world. Not just us Christians. And if it WERE a Christian organization, they wouldn’t want to be catering to Christian’s. They would be wanting to shoot slogans and greetings out there that would attract the ones who DON’T KNOW in. Attracting Christian’s into the place should be the last thing on the list.
Not only that, but regardless of what holiday they may or may not celebrate this time of year, would you really wish they would have a BAD holiday? “You don’t celebrate Christmas, hope your holiday SUCKS!!!” Somehow I don’t think that would be appropriate.
The point I’m trying to make is this: We, as Christians, as a nation founded on Freedom of Religion, really have no right to get angry because a business no longer chooses to use a phrase that caters to an exclusive group of people. They are merely doing what we should all be doing, and that is recognizing people’s right and freedom to believe whatever it is they wish to believe. It’s not taking anything away from what we, as Christians, know to be true and eternal.
Pownce.com