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As a person, I usually say Merry Christmas (I was raised Jewish) unless I know otherwise. Never once (not EVER) have I had a bad reaction from it. Nobody's ever gotten mad at me. I may have had a few people say "I celebrate XXX but thanks for the sentiment".
As for stores and businesses. They get to say whatever they want. If they decide it is in their best interest to say Happy Holidays, that is a business choice, almost certainly driven by what they think will be least offensive to THEIR clientele.
So I've never seen a law about individuals wishing Merry Christmas, I've never had a bad response when I do it, and I've never seen businesses restricted (or forced) to have their employees say whatever the business wants them to say.
Where is this imaginairy issue coming from?
Coming from a three year old thread started by me - the drama queen.
I say happy holidays because there are a lot of holidays around this time, then I say Merry Christmas for the two or three days before Christmas and Christmas day.
Well, it is almost that time of the year again. People working in departments stores are instructed to say “Happy Holidays” instead of "Merry Christmas."
Well, yeah, Christmas is a religious holiday, but these days many people that are from other religions celebrate Christmas as well more as a holiday since its a large tradition in this country.
I wonder do you feel pressured or obligated to say "Happy Holiday" instead of "Merry Christmas"?
If someone says Happy Hanukkah to me, I wish them the same. If someone says happy holidays, I wish them a merry Christmas. After all the odds are that they celebrate Christmas. If they said happy Kwansa, I would just stare at them quizzically because those who are offended by Christmas made up this holiday.
It's time that we stand up to these people who are offended by Christmas. We have bowed to what amounts to their intolerance for too long. I am offended by people who will stop an entire school from celebrating Christmas and by situations where a single individual will threaten a lawsuit if a decorated tree is put up on public land.
It's no wonder that you can now look forward to at least four years of Donald Trump as President. Liberals like me are alienated by some elements of the Democratic party.
This claim is common, but it rests on a misunderstanding of what real freedom of religion entails. The most important thing to remember is that freedom of religion, if it is going to apply to everyone, also requires freedom from religion. Why is that? You do not truly have the freedom to practice your religious beliefs if you are also required to adhere to any of the religious beliefs or rules of other religions.
As an obvious example, could we really say that Jews and Muslims would have freedom of religion if they were required to show same respect to images of Jesus that Christians have? Would Christians and Muslims really have freedom of their religion if they were required to wear yarmulkes? Would Christians and Jews have freedom of religion if they were required to adhere to Muslim dietary restrictions?
Simply pointing out that people have the freedom to pray however they wish is not enough. Forcing people to accept some particular idea or adhere to behavioral standards from someone else’s religion means that their religious freedom is being infringed upon.
Freedom from religion does not mean, as some mistakenly seem to claim, being free from seeing religion in society. No one has the right not to see churches, religious expression, and other examples of religious belief in our nation — and those who advocate freedom of religion do not claim otherwise.
In the 1994 case Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, Supreme Court Justice David Souter wrote in the opinion for the Court that: "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion". Everson v. Board of Education established that "neither a state nor the Federal Government can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another". This applies the Establishment Clause to the states as well as the federal government. However, several state constitutions make the protection of persons from religious discrimination conditional on their acknowledgment of the existence of a deity, making freedom of religion in those states inapplicable to atheists.These state constitutional clauses have not been tested. Civil rights cases are typically brought in federal courts, so such state provisions are mainly of symbolic importance.
More recently, in Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), Justice John Paul Stevens explained, "Just as the right to speak and the right to refrain from speaking are complementary components of a broader concept of individual freedom of mind, so also the individual's freedom to choose his own creed is the counterpart of his right to refrain from accepting the creed established by the majority. At one time it was thought that this right merely proscribed the preference of one Christian sect over another, but would not require equal respect for the conscience of the infidel, the atheist, or the adherent of a non-Christian faith such as Islam or Judaism. But when the underlying principle has been examined in the crucible of litigation, the Court has unambiguously concluded that the individual freedom of conscience protected by the First Amendment embraces the right to select any religious faith or none at all. This conclusion derives support not only from the interest in respecting the individual's freedom of conscience, but also from the conviction that religious beliefs worthy of respect are the product of free and voluntary choice by the faithful, and from recognition of the fact that the political interest in forestalling intolerance extends beyond intolerance among Christian sects - or even intolerance among 'religions' - to encompass intolerance of the disbeliever and the uncertain.
Even the current Supreme Court, the most reactionary since before World War II, has refused to back down on the court's protection of "freedom from religion." Just this year, in Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the court ruled that a public high school cannot allow "voluntary" student prayers over its loudspeaker system at football games.
That said, I feel no obligation to use either but generally use Merry Christmas - having been brought up with Christian principles and in a predominantly Christian environment. Of course, when I find myself in areas that are not predominantly Christian (say, NYC, for example), I use the more universally applicable Happy Holidays.
Someone says Merry Christmas and you bring in the Supreme Court. No one is stopping you from saying nothing in response. I didn't like what Judge Bork would bring to the Supreme Court, but he is right. There is a chattering class and you are a member.
Liberals want to obscure the religious nature of Christmas because they represent thw Democrat Party and such socialist oriented groups oppose religion because bel.
Ief in a higher power is a threat to there god-the state.
It IS kinda funny to commemorate the Pilgrims at Thanksgiving, yet completely ignore their attitude towards Christmas a few weeks later. Because the proper Pilgrim response to "Merry Christmas" would have been "Bailiff! Arrest this blasphemer and fine him five shillings!" (Perhaps not "Bailiff", but I am not going to look it up. So deal.)
Fun Fact: When the British governor held a Christmas service in 1686, he had to be guarded by redcoats. The New Englanders hated Christmas.
As in atheist, I get really pissed off when somebody tells me happy holidays.
We in the Western world grow up with Christmas as a holiday. As far as I'm concerned it's Merry Christmas and if someone doesn't like it or doesn't think it's politically correct then they can go p*$$ up a rope.
Let's worry about real things were religion gets in our face.
Getting upset about being greeted with "Happy Holidays" is every bit as thin-skinned as those who get upset by being greeted with "Merry Christmas" if they don't happen to celebrate Christmas.
There are dozens of religious holidays celebrated by the world's major religions in the months of Nov/Dec/Jan. If the salutation appears to be sincere, that's good enough for me, regardless of what holiday they reference.
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