From our friends at AU:
The Rev. Jerry Falwell and his Religious Right cohorts have been complaining for weeks now about government agencies and store clerks saying ?Happy Holidays? instead of ?Merry Christmas? but it looks like Falwell forgot to tell President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and the Republican National Committee about the preferred religiously correct greeting.The White House?s 2005 holiday card is just out, and it doesn?t mention the word ?Christmas? once.The card, mailed under the auspices of the Republican National Committee and signed by the president and his wife, reads, ?With best wishes for a holiday season of hope and happiness 2005.? It also includes a passage from the Old Testament Book of Psalms.The front cover is an artist?s rendition of the White House and grounds covered with snow while the presidential pets, two dogs and a cat, frolic on the lawn. It contains no religious symbolism.
There will be a lot of talk about Xmas this year, but now we have GW on our side, doing the ungodly — saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Xmas”. Fallwell must hate that.So must Hannity and O’Reilly. We at American Atheists get a lot of calls from conservative talk shows during this season, mostly complaining about Xmas vs Holiday, completely ignoring the bigger issues. Sometimes, the issues are so silly we turn down the interview.I remember last year I did Hannity and Colmes about some mall in Florida calling their Easter Bunny the “Garden Bunny”. Not my idea, not our issue, but it certainly seemed like it on the show!I understand the need to remain topical, but come on folks, we need to worry about important things. Xmas v. Holiday is a small symptom of a major problem — the forced Christianization of America. Let’s work the cause, not the symptom.
