Originally Posted By Dave I can't beleive you guys missed this one! ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ebenezer Scrooge's pre-transformation attitude toward Christmas: "Bah, humbug!" This year Wal-mart's attitude was the same. Until the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, led by William Donohue, pointed out, with Christmas coming, that a boycott would be bad for Wal-mart's bottom line. Bravo, Bill Donohue! Three Catholic League press releases over three consecutive days tell the strange story nicely and concisely: November 9, 2005 WAL-MART BANS CHRISTMAS: BOYCOTT LAUNCHED A woman who recently complained to Wal-Mart that the store was replacing “Merry Christmas†with “Happy Holidays†received an e-mail response from Customer Service. It appears below in its exact form: “Walmart is a world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the world still has different practices other than ‘christmas’ which is an ancient tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with ‘christmas’ red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world.†<a href="http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_10322.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.michnews.com/artman /publish/article_10322.shtml</a> ------------ Okay... have at it!
Originally Posted By Elderp who cares I don't even shop at Wallmart anymore. The last time I went there was because I had to return a gift. I rather shop at Kmart or Target.
Originally Posted By SuperDry They still have Kmarts where you are? I realize that Target is kind of in a different category, but it seemed to me in recent years that Kmart is just a poorly-executed Walmart. As for me, I love going to Walmart, as much for the spectale as the selection and low prices. Everytime I go back to my local grocery store, I get mad when I see that one or two items that they don't think I'll notice costs 3 times what it does at Walmart.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Looking for Christ at Walmart is completely missing the point. Walmart is the antithesis of everything Christ was all about. Walmart (or any other retailer) doesn't have a religion or even a morality. It has a profit margin.
Originally Posted By Elderp They closed the Kmart closest to my house but there is one by my work. I like it. They have changed a lot since they went down in number They are carrying a lot of nice stuff these days.
Originally Posted By pacomama ^^ That's probably the Sears influence. I noticed that the Kmart by me seems to have cleaned up a lot. I still prefer Target though.
Originally Posted By crapshoot <<Looking for Christ at Walmart is completely missing the point. Walmart is the antithesis of everything Christ was all about.>> Really? The main roots of this "holiday" had nothing to do with Jesus Christ in the first place. Christianity simply put its name on a Pagan celebtation and adapted its customs and added the face of Jesus to it. "The first mention of December 25 as the birth date of Jesus occurred in A.D. 336 in an early Roman calendar. The celebration of this day as Jesus's birth date was probably influenced by pagan (unchristian) festivals held at that time. The ancient Romans held year-end celebrations to honor Saturn, their harvest god; and Mithras, the god of light. Various peoples in northern Europe held festivals in mid-December to celebrate the end of the harvest season. As part of all these celebrations, the people prepared special foods, decorated their homes with greenery, and joined in singing and gift giving. These customs gradually became part of the Christmas celebration. In the late 300's, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. By 1100, Christmas had become the most important religious festival in Europe, and Saint Nicholas was a symbol of gift giving in many European countries. During the 1400's and 1500's, many artists painted scenes of the Nativity, the birth of Jesus. The popularity of Christmas grew until the Reformation, a religious movement of the 1500's. This movement gave birth to Protestantism. During the Reformation, many Christians began to consider Christmas a pagan celebration because it included nonreligious customs. During the 1600's, because of these feelings, Christmas was outlawed in England and in parts of the English colonies in America. The old customs of feasting and decorating, however, soon reappeared and blended with the more Christian aspects of the celebration." Funny, but I don't see any retailer celebrating the "Birth" of Christ. That has never been the message in commercials for any company making a buck in the name of Christmas. That includes Disneyland. Linus said it best: "Crass Commercialisim!" Happy Holidays Everybody !!!!!
Originally Posted By TomSawyer All the more reason that this outrage from the religious right is so much posturing and poo-flinging, crapshoot.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy Oh stop it. Without CHRIST, there would be no CHRISTmas in America today. Fact is, 10 years ago Christmas was said proudly. Today, thanks to socialist God hating liberals, we now play a PC game of not saying the word Christmas. I'm still trying to figure out how liberals help America in any way whatsoever. If they want America to be like Stalinist Russia or France then they should move there.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer It's business that is driving Christ out of Christmas, not liberals. They've been doing it for 150 years.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy I admit Christmas has become very secular and the focus has been on presents and egg nog. But even that was fine as long as you could say Christmas, have a Nativity scene in a public park, and be able to sing "Away in a Manger" in school like I used to do. These things have all been under attack from a certain group of people in this country who speak for about 5% of the population.
Originally Posted By patrickegan Don’t worry as soon as the gay’s get to marry Christianity and Christmas will be making a big comeback.
Originally Posted By cmpaley Christianity is NOT a popularity thing. According to St. Paul, the Gospel is a foolishness to nonbelievers and Christ spoke about taking up your cross daily and following Him. Stop trying to make the Gospel a political football. It's not. Some right wingers and some left wingers are awesome Christians. They live out their faith quietly, yet their lives shout out their Christianity and they are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. They talk about Him and can explain what they believe and why. Their faith in Christ is so solid that they don't need the secular world to confirm their beliefs. These are the people who become great saints. The ones who make a big deal about it and talk about pride (one of the seven deadly sins) and such are the ones who don't get it. They're NOT awesome Christians. They're the Pharisees who are all talk but their lives don't reflect the gospel in any way. They NEED the secular world to confirm that they are good Christians. They're so concerned with the cares of this world that there is little to no spiritual fruit in their lives.
Originally Posted By friendofdd I think you may be right, CMP. I've been an active, involved Christian since I was a teen, but I find I have a hard time determining which kind of Christians are which. So I tend to just take them at their word and will leave it to God to sort out in the end.
Originally Posted By crapshoot <<I've been an active, involved Christian since I was a teen, but I find I have a hard time determining which kind of Christians are which.>> Some Christians are better Christians than other Christians. But it isn't up to real Christians to judge other Christians or anyone else for that matter. Try and tell that to a real Christian and see where it gets you. Trust me, the real Christian will judge you harsher than anyone.
Originally Posted By woody "Some Christians are better Christians than other Christians. But it isn't up to real Christians to judge other Christians or anyone else for that matter." A really bizarre statement. There is no one best Christian. Who is real? Whoever professes faith in Jesus as the savior is a Christian. You can't take that away. As for judgement, everyone is capable of judgement.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy I still don't see how you can be a liberal democrat and a Christian at the same time without haveing major conflict in your life.
Originally Posted By crapshoot <<Some right wingers and some left wingers are awesome Christians.>> <<The ones who make a big deal about it and talk about pride (one of the seven deadly sins) and such are the ones who don't get it. They're NOT awesome Christians.>> I rest my case.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I still don't see how you can be a liberal democrat and a Christian at the same time without haveing major conflict in your life.>> I know you can't Beau. Someday if we meet I will explain it to you.
