Good Grief!

Mr. Webster defines Christmas as “the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts.”  Evidently a number of people in the United States of the Offended (aka the United States of America) aren’t aware that Christmas is a Christian holiday and are offended that some would insert religion into Christmas.

The Arkansas Society of Freethinkers (ASF) fought against plans to send elementary school children to see a production of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” at a local church.  One of the school’s teachers is part of the production.  The school principle sent home a letter to parents giving them an opportunity to opt out of sending their child to the production.  ASF stated that their beef had nothing to do with the cartoon, but with the “violation” of church and state.  An ASF vice president stated, “We’re not saying anything bad about Charlie Brown. The problem is that it’s got religious content and it’s being performed in a religious venue and that doesn’t just blur the line between church and state, it over steps it entirely.”  Maybe the clear choices to attend or not to attend didn’t give the supporters of ASF the freedom of choice they desired.

A group of parents in Missoula, Montana, are upset that the song selection for their school’s holiday program is “unfair, unconstitutional, and is a form of bullying.” An anonymous letter sent to the Missoula County Public Schools district superintendent stated, “We have no problem with it being called a Christmas concert, it’s just the fact the material should be secular.”  The letter went on to state that, “several of the students were uncomfortable.”  It is always interesting to me how an anonymous collective can state factually how others felt in a situation without a tinge of hearsay.  To fit the description offered by the parents, I’d wonder if the students were restrained or forced to cower for their part in the program.    

Good grief! Are the opportunities to attend Christmas concerts or to participate in Christmas plays unconstitutional or a form of bullying?  Amendment One to the US Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.  It says nothing about separation of church and state and it says nothing about freedom from religion.  As always, these individuals have the freedom not to participate.

In 1789, while debating the proposed Bill of Rights in the US House of Representatives, James Madison said, he “apprehended the meaning of the words to be, that Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any manner contrary to their conscience.”  This is a notable interpretation, since Mr. Madison drafted the original Bill of Rights.

I’ll save the arguments about separation of church and state for another post. But, I believe that the framers of the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights realized that, although religion plays a big role in the US both then and now, in order to be fair to all it was best to prevent government from establishing an national religion or force citizens to worship God in any way but one of their own choosing.  I also believe that, by choosing the language as it exists in the Bill of Rights, they were striving for religious tolerance.

I’ll offer up the argument that the people in Arkansas and Montana are intolerant of Christianity.  But that’s not the point I want to make.  My point is the US Constitution and its amendments were put into place, among other reasons, to protect our rights and freedoms as citizens; nowhere are we guaranteed the freedom from offense.   The birth of Jesus Christ is why the Christians celebrate Christmas.  For the rest, if you choose to celebrate December 25 like any other day of the year we won’t be offended.

Christians have been celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25^th since at least the 4^th century.  Whether people like it or not, it is a Christian holiday. If that offends you, suck it up, rub some dirt on it, and get over it. And, to everyone, have a Merry Christmas.