December 14, 2009
We Make Jesus Sad
by Dyran

So I'm driving around town trying to stay awake and I run across an interesting billboard about Christmas. It said, “Jesus misses hearing you say Merry Christmas,” and this got me thinking. Who is this actually for? I mean, you can't stop Christians saying Merry Christmas about a thousand times a day so it can't be for them. Maybe it's for our circumcised friends with the strange hats. How about Muslims? Maybe even us atheists? Do they really expect this to have an affect on us?

I think this is a response to the supposed “War on Christmas” I hear about every year. A war where the phrase “Happy Holidays” is thought of as a weapon of mass destruction, tearing society to shreds with it's nonspecific sentiment. Everyone run for the hills! Last holiday season I overheard a group of ladies discussing how they refused to say “Happy Holidays” and that everyone needed to realize that it was Christmas. I could tell by their tone of voice that they really thought they were taking a stand for something important.

Time and again it seems that the Christians in this country think their's is the only religion anyone follows. Any push back against their beliefs is seen as a major affront and is accompanied with cries of persecution. If Christians really want their own time of year then move Christmas to June. Jesus wasn't really born on Dec 25, 0001 so why can't they just change the date again. That way it wouldn't be competing with all those other pesky holidays like Hanukkah, winter solstice and New Years. By the way, I still wouldn't say it. I'm under no obligation to since I don't believe in it.

The other amusing thing about the billboard was how it turned Jesus into a sock puppet for the person or organization that paid for it. I thought a lot of Christians believe we're supposed to fear god. I hear it all the time. I was at a wedding over the summer where the preacher drilled in how we were all supposed to be good god fearing Christians. Generally, when you fear someone you don't put words into their mouths. Nothing shortens a life like trying to speak for a dictator without his consent(or is blessing the right word here).

Of course, as Russ pointed out when we were discussing this, they've put every word ever attributed to god into his mouth. A growing number of us has realized this, we're just waiting on the rest to figure it out. I might start randomly wishing people Happy Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or HumanLight just to confuse them. I may even throw in Happy Festivus just for fun. I encourage everyone else to do it as well. Just to watch them squirm.