Just got this crap from a distant relative

She's SUCH a distant relative that I had to look at the recipient list to figure out that she's a distant cousin of my Dad's whom I probably have never met. But she somehow got my email address and is now blocked.

I can't believe this "War on Christmas" garbage- and I'm a Christian! WHAT AN OUTRAGE it is that the retailers aren't slamming MY religion down other shoppers' throats. (eye roll)

She never sent me a personal email- just 2 copies of this:

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Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends!
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Great News! Walgreens Says "Next Year Will Be Different"
Send A Polite Letter To Kmart/Sears Asking Them To Do The Same
Dear Karen,
Because of your efforts, Walgreens has released the following response: "Next year, you can be assured our advertising will better incorporate 'Christmas,' and our holiday trees will be called Christmas trees. Unfortunately, all of this year’s December ads are already printed, so it's too late to make changes for this season."
In addition, Lowe's has released a statement saying they now refer to all trees as "Christmas Trees" and have removed all signs that previously calling them "Holiday Trees."
Your actions are bringing good results! We are hearing that many retailers are re-thinking their banning Christmas. Keep up the good work!
Would you please send the enclosed polite letter to Kmart/Sears asking them to make Christmas an integral part of their promotions and advertising next year? We feel there is good reason to believe Kmart/Sears might honor your request. We will keep you informed as to their response.
Additionally, and this is very important, please forward this to your family and friends. We need as much support as we can get in this effort.
Click Here To Send Your Letter Now!

Thanks for caring enough to get involved.
Sincerely,
Don
Donald E. Wildmon, Founder and Chairman
American Family Association
P.S. Please forward this e-mail message to your family and friends!

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I'm a Christian, too, and celebrating X-mas is against my religion. Christmas marketing makes me want to puke, and I'm sick of these people using Jesus's name to create bogus wars.

... people like this cared half as much about their fellow human beings at this time of year as they do about crap like this. Now THAT would be in the spirit of the 'Christmas' season, wouldn't it?

sentiment - and these groups have never followed any golden rule except their goal to assert theocratic power over the nation for their televangelist masters.

...Savior for a cheap profit.

NGU.

An excerpt from my previously-posted rant:

The fact that some merchants choose "Happy Holidays" over the "Merry Christmas" merely reflects a business decision to encourage all of their customers, not only those who celebrate Christmas, to shop at their establishments. While it is true that a substantial majority of Americans do celebrate Christmas, there is also a significant minority who do not – and those people do not simply disappear during the months of November and December. They continue to shop for things they need and want, and maybe some retailers have figured out that their businesses will actually benefit by the simple, inoffensive courtesy of including non-Christians in their good wishes. That’s fine old American capitalism, isn’t it?

And just exactly where did the absurd notion that Christmas is being suppressed come from? How did 80% of the American population suddenly turn into oppressed victims? Where are all the coliseums and the lions? I certainly see no evidence of anti-Christmasism or anti-Christianity in the retail world. On the contrary, we are besieged with Christmas decorations, music and advertising beginning immediately after Halloween and continuing without respite until December 25, and even after. Perhaps the greatest irony arising from the fatuous claim that the celebration of Christmas is being suppressed is that for years many Christians have complained that Christmas has become too commercialized, and that we think too much about gift-buying and giving and not enough about that day’s true meaning. And yet now comes the complaint that some stores’ employees, by failing to say “Merry Christmas” every time somebody buys a pair of socks or a screwdriver, aren’t pimping Christmas enough.

But you know what? I don’t care if the kid who works part-time at Target greets me with Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas -- or just Have a Nice Day -- when I go there this afternoon to pick up a sack of cat litter. I will decorate my house with Christmas lights and put up a Christmas tree and enjoy listening to Christmas music and maybe go to church on Christmas Eve, just like I’ve always done. Nobody is stopping anybody from doing any of those things. My celebration of Christmas is not affected in the least by what somebody says at the mall or by whether some other people don’t celebrate it at all. Is the objectors' belief in the meaning of Christmas so feeble that such trivial things can take something away from their celebration? If it is, I can only feel sorry for them...

What's wrong with people who are so defensive, so angry, so just plain stupid that their faith in their religion can be shaken by the words of some sales clerk at a variety store? That's just pathetic.

Specifically targeting retailers, monitoring their use of this or that in advertising, salutations, stocks...it sounds like economic fear of low sales in what is supposed to be the cash-cow time o' the year.

I think that their noise really masks a two-pronged problem:

a. some retailers' very unrealistic expectations of sales, losing them money if they've over-staffed, over-stocked, and over-decorated.
and
b. maybe some stores (and the public) don't want so much rah-rah about retail shopping right now. Houses cost more, cars, gas...lots of economic grey times for people. Maybe citizens are feeling a little more somber when contemplating lavish "Holiday" spending in the midst of everything else going on. Sacrifices.

This I think is a demographic's (retail owners&workers) interests serving as political cover for other (read Executive Branch) problems. It's supposed to divide people and take our attention away from the big picture. The WH has convinced some that division works to their advantage, so they jump on these things when it singes their interests.

Just thinking "out loud."

all of us....should tell the stores (whether we are christians or not) that we are sorry we can't shop during the month of December because they have reserved their stores exclusively for the religious Right.

is ask clerks if I'm allowed to buy something on sale, since it says it's a Christmas sale and clearly reserved for those religionists of a particular faith.

and ask for a holiday tree, or holiday decorations. if it says Christmas, say "no, I want holiday decorations, I bought them here last year"

If Walgreen's is this malleable, then who cares what they do? they can have a International Talk Like a Pirate Day sale, for all I care, it is their store.

I'm sick of this sh*t.

And let's do it right. No gifts, no big gluttonous meals, no drinking! Just stay in church all day and think about Jesus.

That's a real knee slapper.

Damned if they do damned if they don't.

If retailers were smart, they would tell Fox News to straighten out their act or no more advertising dollars.

From post #4 above: Perhaps the greatest irony arising from the fatuous claim that the celebration of Christmas is being suppressed is that for years many Christians have complained that Christmas has become too commercialized, and that we think too much about gift-buying and giving and not enough about that day’s true meaning.

I remember when this was the meme, now after retailers counter this by generalizing the holiday season, the complaint shifts a full 180 degrees.

On edit: thanks Ocelot for a very insightful post #4.

She doesn't know me, so she would have no idea what my politics are- I think it was just an error. But still not a nice thing to find in my inbox.

when people try to engage in this. Saying you don't know where this stuff is coming from takes away its pretended validity as discussion...the best defense--I believe--against faux issues like this.

Though, personally, I think the W o C is just media crap meant to be noisier than the thorny issues confronting our government at home and abroad.

Nevertheless...good luck to all of us in resisting and rejecting the ploys, whatever the situation demands.

In truth, Holiday is the correct term for a birthday celebration that was conveniently selected to coincide with much older ongoing festivities. Try as I might, I cannot find any New Testament references to “decking the halls” or “trimming the tree.”

This religious outrage over some presumed entitlement to marketing is pathetic.

bizarre. . .and a very good reason to send some letters of our own. I should have known this wacko was one of the treasonous jerks behind this hijacking of the holiday season, trying to promote divisiveness and demanding that all retailers recognize his interpretation of religion as the only one allowed to celebrate the season.

I'm glad to see who they've targetted - just more to remove from my list. If we, as a nation, are to be forced to adhere to the Christmas season as a homage to fundamentalist bigots and every retailer and business is forced to market exclusively to them, then this is tantamount to telling everyone that all businesses must adhere to the politically correct religious holiday.

Frankly, if these wingnuts push this much more, they are going to see a backlash. . .already, I'm surprised at several of my acquaintances who have told me they aren't going to bother with the tree and trimmings routine this year. While they considered it a chore anyway, most said that all the manufactured drama over this holiday on the news has horrified them and they don't feel comfortable about participating.

I am increasingly getting the feeling that the purpose of this assault is to attack all those who aren't religiously correct and demand that they bow to the fundies every season and pay homage to their definition of how the holiday must be celebrated or face social pressures just to purchase a pair of underwear at the department store.

Luckily, I went to Penney's tonight to pick up some towels to send overseas to troops in a package, and the clerk neither mentioned Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Perhaps that is precisely the approach stores should take - just run their fundie-supportive ads and not offer any kind of greeting to shoppers.

Leave it to the religious Right to try to spoil the one unifying holiday we have left in this country.

And when Halloween comes around next year, I think our response to their demands better be a little stronger than just online complaints - we should demand that our children should not be prevented from enjoying a long American tradition of costumes at school simply because some fringe religious groups choose not to participate.

We should also protest churches who attempt to use Independence Day to incorporate religiously correct symbolism into their sermons or inject religion into the nation's celebrations. . .it our birthday, AND the birthday of separation of church and state.

This whole ridiculous game just tees me off.

It's a Christmas tree.

I don't really think that Jesus cares what kind of a greeting people give each other.

This "war on Christmas" is a bogus thing to sell John Gibson's book and create a wedge issue where none exists.

is the fact that it's one of those mindless mass-mailings that she forwarded to everyone in her address book. I bet it contains a gazillion email addresses of all those who were on the various email lists of all the previous senders.

Personally, I usually do some kind of reply all to these kinds of things. Especially if it's some kind of urban legend crap, which unfortunately this is not.

It's absolute, gold! . . . Oh, and uh, frankincense and myrrh too. Yes, absolutely!

of Tupelo MS is an AMerican Taliban. He and his supporters are too ignorant to reazlize this. I think he once took on Mickey Mouse, claiming the "rat" and "Minnie" were living in sin and they call me Dances with Cats.

And that's not good enough for them?

I suppose not. Could be SATAN's Holy Day or somethig worse to the RWingNuts.

Like World Peace Day.

God forbid. :sarcasm:

Nothing says Xmas quite like a cowering company caving in to pressure from the zealot wing of the GOP.

Ho ...

Ho ...

Whatta buncha Ho's.

will they never shut up?