Religious Farce or Tragedy?
I am not a Christian; I am Jewish. In the past, the one thing I loved most about the Christmas season was the wonderful message about peace and goodwill you found almost everywhere. It made me feel good, accepted and warm. Today, the self-proclaimed devout, the religious right extremists, don't talk of peace and goodwill, but spout messages of war and hatred. They have taken their war against the "war on Christmas" to such ridiculous lengths that they are criticizing President Bush's Christmas greeting cards. What a farce!
Years back, during Christmas time, I saw everywhere this beautiful message:
"Peace on earth, goodwill toward all men."
Where is this message now? Do we not want peace? Are we no longer concerned with goodwill toward other people on earth? Evidently not. Things have gotten so bad that the holy individuals of the religious right are complaining about the Christmas card that President Bush sent out to over a million individuals.
What are they upset about? Bush wished his friends and supporters a happy "holiday season." Can anything be worse than this? Evidently, not, according to these religious extremists:
William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights:
"This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture."
Joseph Farah, editor of the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com:
Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one. I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it."
Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association:
"It bothers me that the White House card leaves off any reference to Jesus, while we've got Ramadan celebrations in the White House. What's going on there?"
A farce? Maybe it's a tragedy.
No more peace, harmony, goodwill, understanding, love. War and hate are the order of the day. And all this was imposed on our society by those who claim to be the most religious in the country. These religious extremists want to get rid of science, are eager to administer capital punishment, want to impose their religious values upon everybody else, and now they are waging a war on people and companies who talk of the "holiday season" rather than say "merry Christmas."
The president, the retailers and others want to be inclusive, so they talk of the "holiday season." The religious extremists don't believe in inclusivity. They want to be exclusive and they want to dominate.
The message today seems to be:
"War on earth, hatred to infidels."
We're faced with not a farce but a tragedy.
How I long to get back to the days when we heard the original Christian message:
"Peace on earth, goodwill toward all men."
