Happy Holidays (or the Separation of Church and Sam's)

Chaos ensued yesterday in the wholesale side of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Sam's Club, in an attempt to respect their ever-changing and ever-growing member base, sent out an announcement about their upcoming "Holiday" catalog. Well, the Jerry Falwell-types of the world freaked-the-heck out. Clearly, or so the ultra-Religious Right would like us to believe, not saying Merry Christmas is directly offensive to Christians. Now, even though Happy Holidays is an all-inclusive season's greeting for the five holidays occuring from late November to the beginning of January (Thanksgiving, Chanakkuh, Kwanzaa, New Year's, and of course Christmas), it is offensive to not solely represent the viewpoints of Christians on the catalog of a large wholesale company that sell to people of all races and creeds.

As an employee of the Sam's Club Member Services Call Center, I got to hear all about these "Christian's" points-of-view. Apparently, it is not offensive to completely disregard holidays celebrated by our Jewish and native African members. Not to mention, according to one shining example of Christ's love that I spoke with, that "those people" represent a tiny minority that we shouldn't be trying to please. That's a simply beautiful picture of Christ's love.

God forbid that we listen to the minority. Afterall, Christians have never been a minority seeking a voice. Oh wait, Christians all over the world are a minority that would like a voice. Until the reign of Constantine in Rome, there was no such thing as a Christian majority.

It pisses me off that these type of Christians think that spreading the gospel means having Merry-freaking-Christmas on a Sam's Club catalog. Answer me this, did the 12 Apostles celebrate Christmas in the Bible? What about Paul? Is there any mention of December 25th at all? NO?!?! The early church must have been a bunch of heretics (read as sarcasm).


Here's what pisses me off the absolute most. These people will get all worked when they see the words "Happy Holidays." They'll threaten to boycott Sam's. When's the last time these people got offended at the treatment of the poor? When's the last time these people picked up a phone to complain that the United States wasn't doing enough to help the poor in this country or the world? Why aren't they out there boycotting companies that don't fairly trade or that make products in sweat shops? What about the least of these? I think Christ dealt with people similar to this. They were called Pharisees.

It's my prayer that my view of Christ never becomes like these people's view of Christ. When I start getting worked up over the mistreatment of greetings of man-made holidays, I'll know I've lost touch with Jesus. I want to spend my life getting worked up over the mistreatment and neglect of people, whom God made in their mother's wombs. That's something worth getting worked up about. I have a hard time believing that my God is preoccupied with Sam's Club's choice of a season's greeting. I do believe his heart breaks at the preocccuopation American Christian's have with it while many of his other children are starving and dying of disease.