This is why I do my best not to get into political or religious discussions on the PG forums. I'm fairly sure that my views on both differ a lot from many folks here. But that has nothing to do with how we can enjoy each other's music, and help each other with the software, and be online friends together.

I will say this on the attempts to remove "In God We Trust" from the money, from courthouses, schools, etc. -- The United States of America is indeed mostly populated by members of one flavor or another of the Christian faith. However, it is not a religious state. By that, I simply mean that the Constitution -- the backbone of our legal system -- very specifically exempts favoring, or discriminating against, any particular religion. That would be the First Amendment, in case you're wondering.

We are not a theocracy. We are a republic, a representative democracy (or we would be if our current representatives actually cared about their constituents, which sure doesn't seem to be the case from my p.o.v.)

And, bluntly, the entire "war on Christmas/Christians" thing is blown up by Fox News, and supported by other news outlets who want viewers and aren't afraid to use sensationalistic button-pushing stories to get 'em.
  • We're Day Five into our first official Pre-Black Friday Christmas retail feeding frenzy. Christmas decorations have been available in most major chains since at least the last week of October, and in some places much earlier.
  • We're about to have a month of holiday specials on TV, nearly all of them to do with Christmas.
  • Everything shuts down for the Christmas holiday itself except churches and Chinese restaurants, and as far as I can tell the only reason the latter don't shut down is they know some people will want to eat carry-out, even on Christmas day.
  • Every city in the country has, or will have, Christmas decorations. Even the "secular" variety, e.g., Santa and Reindeer and candy canes and elves and wrapped presents. How many of those cities put up similar decorations for Ramadan, Passover, or Kwaanzaa? Heck, more decorations are put up for Talk Like A Pirate Day than for those three.
  • Bill O'Reilly has already started his annual War On Christmas riff, deriding any place that refers to the end-of-year holidays as, y'know, holidays rather than Christmas -- except, of course, his own online store. (Haven't confirmed it for this year, but every year for the past several he's had "Happy Holidays" ornaments, in direct violation of his own screed.)
  • I drive all over the Eastern half of the country to gigs. Trying to find a classical music station -- or even a decent rock oldies station -- is a heck of a lot harder than finding either country stations or religious stations, and sometimes I find more of the latter. AM Radio? All religious or right-wing political, all the time.
  • Final, small, tiny little point -- NOBODY IS TRYING TO GET RID OF CHRISTMAS. It's all in the minds of people who are being jacked around by people who want to keep them scared and malleable.
Whew. Sorry to go on for so long, but I've been kinda holding it in for a few years now. If you haven't guessed, I'll come right out and say it: Politically, I'm a progressive/liberal; I'm also an atheist, and came to that decision a long time ago for reasons which have stood the test of time and reexamination for me. Because my mom sings in her church a few times a week and her church community has done wonders for her, I do my best not to be militant about religious matters these days, unless (as is unfortunately often the case) someone is trying to jam through some legislation that would affect me or my friends because of what that someone declares their God demands.

That said, I was raised Christian. (My lame joke is that, since I was raised first Lutheran, then Methodist, I worship ways to kill Superman.) I love celebrating Christmas with friends, I love Christmas music and sing a lot of carols, I always reread Dickens' A Christmas Carol from a big annotated hardcover edition I got twenty years ago.

And I do my best to clam up about this stuff in here because I don't want to offend anybody. You are my friends, and I'd like to keep it that way. If you all want to talk about it, fine. Just... I very well might not join in.

And now, back to the clamming up part.

Hugs and Happy Holidays to you all.

Rant off.

Best,
Tom Smith
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