Now wait a minute…
Sen. Chris Buttars wants Utah’s Legislature to declare its opposition to the “war on Christmas.”
The West Jordan Republican is sponsoring a resolution encouraging retailers to embrace Christmas in their promotions rather than the generic “holidays.”
“It would encourage the use of ‘Merry Christmas,'” Buttars said of the non-binding statement that is still being drafted. “I’m sick of the Christmas wars — we’re a Christian nation and ought to use the word.”
Now I could have sworn it was the Buttars’s side of the “culture wars” that was always complaining about being made to use certain words. Remember the evil “P.C.” police? Who (supposedly, but not really) take away your freedom to call a spade a spade by pointing out that it’s inconsiderate to call a Native American an Injun? Well apparently (at least in Buttars’s case) it’s not a question of being opposed in principle to regulating other people’s terminology.
Personally, I’m very happy to wish you all a Merry Christmas! I love celebrating Christmas myself. And yet I find myself agreeing with this Newbold guy (from the same article):
“We may be primarily Christian but that doesn’t mean that you force your language or beliefs on anybody,” Newbold added.
Is the US primarily a Christian nation?
I think many historians would argue with this.
Now, deist/theist/believers in God, I can definitely agree with (considering the history of the founders). Even majority belief in the ten commandments I can understand the argument for – or even belief in prayer. But primarily Christian I’m not so sure about. There are quite a few people who are other religions in the U.S. – anywhere from Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish or Islam. The Pew Religious data (CUNY) shows this.
I wonder (at times) if there are more people who are devoted sports fans or devoted guitar hero players than professed Christians.
Aerin — Good point. I’d agree if he said “majority Christian” nation, but “primarily Christian” isn’t quite the same thing, nor is it accurate. Actually, the Jesus character in that movie got it right when he said the nation was founded on separation of church and state. Also, you’re probably right about more Americans being devoted to playing Guitar Hero than to Christianity. 😉
My point is just that it’s so weird that the same people who are whining about the (supposed) P.C. police making them say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” are the only ones who are actually trying to police other people’s terminology. You see all of these Christian groups organizing to pressure people (merchants especially) not to say “Happy Holidays” (because it offends their Christian sentiments), yet somehow they’ve warped this around to claim that it’s the other side who is policing people’s speech. In reality universe, the “naughty” shops (who use the generic word “Holiday” in their promotions) aren’t being forced (or even influenced) by any kind of big brother government regulation — they’re primarily motivated by market forces (wanting to sell things even to people who celebrate other winter holidays), which the Republicans are (supposedly) fond of.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by this — the Religious Right’s strategic guiding principle seems to involve making sure that their accusations against others are as far removed from reality as possible…