[b]The Fraudulent "War" On Christmas[/b]

It's the placing of the symbolism of ONE FAITH SYSTEM ONLY [b]on public property[/b] which is the problem I'm having. The annual celebration whereby the local Christian or Christianist groups flaunt their long-cherished  and unconstitutional special rights of exclusive access to, and influence over, the halls of government, and the bias to be held in the carrying out of the official duties of the public officials paid for by the taxes of ALL CITIZENS, not just those Christians.

When the government agencies (at whatever level) will not permit the symbols of holy days of any other religions on the same public property with a Christian nativity creche, even when the officials do not come right out saying it in so many words, they are making a very public declaration that all local non-Christians are officially Second-Class Citizens, that they are not welcome in the community, and that they should not expect to be treated either fairly, or equally under any laws which are administered by that particular government. It is a clear declaration of bias in favor of one segment of the local population, and against all the other religious communities resident there.

Far too many of the members of our local Christian communities, who are not overly concerned about the issue, see the news that the Jews or the Pagans or whoever else it was, have been denied permission to put up a display alongside a creche, and without bothering to think about what that denial means to the whole community, feels vindicated in the message they've been indoctrinated with all their lives that only the Christians have a religion. It's the kind of idiocy I have heard out of the mouths of unthinking people more and more often in recent years. Such things have become for these people, a basic assumption of how the world really is.

Just because the other religious groups living in our country are no longer as fearful as once they were about being noticed publicly, and wish to take part in their community's public forums of the season, does not make it a "war on Christmas." What we really are fighting for is to retain "E Pluribus Unum" (out of many, one people), which is the once-central American Public concept these types of "Christians" are waging war against.

If you read the rhetoric of many of the Christianist groups farthest to the right, they clearly state that their objectives are to eliminate all non-Christians from the territories of the United States of America. Many groups not so vocal, or quite so far to the right, are also in favor of such religious cleansing of America. Thus the "Christian Exodus" movement to turn South Carolina into what sounds like a Protestant Police Theocracy (I hear the Libertarians have something similar going on with Vermont, but ??).

If I'm a Pagan in a courtroom in which one of the Christian versions of the "Ten Commandments" (I thought there were 618 commandments in their bible to be obeyed -- well, proof-texting in action again) is on display as a statement of the official position of that Court, why should I expect that I will be treated honorably, fairly, or equally in that place?

Or as one guy put it, the only real difference between the KKK and other right-wing Protestant denominations, is that the KKK isn't bashful about being out-front with what their aims happen to be.

That is what I am objecting to.

Churches (or zealot families) can put up creches on their own property all they wish to and I won't be bothered. I also have no Desire to disturb such scenery (though I may protest blatantly bigoted tableau, and not just ones which may denigrate things Pagan), and I do not expect others to vandalize any decorations I may chose to put up on my own place.

I have no problem with people wishing me "merry Christmas," or "happy Chanukah," or "happy Saturnalia," or whatever the midwinter holiday they personally celebrate is. As long as they're actually wishing me well, and it isn't being said as a litmus test to determine whether they'll need to smile back at me, or to begin a public stoning of the infidels.

So don't you go objecting when I cheerfully shoot back a "happy Yule!" to you. Just because I don't celebrate your holy day doesn't mean I hate it, it just means that I celebrate my own holy day, which has its own messages of good will and hopes for the future. Equal rights means FOR ALL citizens, of ALL RELIGIONS, not just for all flavors of Christianity.

Otherwise, these Christian-only displays on public property, whether merely governmentally-allowed, or allowed-and-publicly-funded, are examples of a very ANTI-American exercise in exclusivity and bigotry.

As to those Pagans who are so fearful that they wish to play in traffic while wearing a blindfold, don't expect me to join you in such a fantasy world. Proof-texting reality in order to avoid knowing about the things which are endangering everybody (not just Pagans), is pretty much a "fluffy-bunny" exercise, and serves only those who are out to use humanities' cultural differences as a means to their own gaining of power.

Just because I do not begrudge others the celebration of their own holy days, does not mean that I am going to sit quietly while they revise public policy to define my own holy days as being nonexistent, and thereby so-too making my very religion nonexistent in their eyes. Another tool in the arsenal of those who wish to dehumanize those they intend to eliminate.