That's one BIG difference I noticed when I returned to the south after YEARS in pagan New England. No snow down here, but PLENTY of nativity scenes!
Posted on 11/19/2002 6:17:05 PM PST by mlmr
The Christmas stock is out in the stores. There are scads of snowmen, Santas, reindeer and other items craving for your dollar. But interestingly enough, when one asks for religious Christmas items, at most stores, which serve a public that is conservatively estimated to be about 67% practicing Christian, there is nothing for sale.
No Christian based ornaments, hardly any Nativity scenes, and Christmas card... “Well Lady, I have robins, joke cards, Santas, dressed and nude, as well as lovely winter scenes and smart looking graphics.” Nativity scene? Magnificent reproductions of famous religious Nativities painted by the Masters? Ummm...no.
Some clerks make a weak smile and point out their extensive angel ornaments...others are belligerent and say firmly: "No we don't carry that sort of thing here." One owner said she did not carry religious Christmas items because people would be offended.
Guess what? I am offended. Every time I walk into a store decked out in its Christmas finest and cannot find any religious Christian items, I am offended. Every time I walk through huge displays of Christmas knickknacks and have to hunt to a bottom shelf of dark aisle to find a small nativity or Christian Advent calendar, I am offended. Every time a walk into a store with a brimming Menorah display, but no equally brimming nativity display, I am offended. (I have nothing against Hanukkah, I just want my religious tradition upheld with respect too. After all we are talking about 2% of the US population versus 67%.)
It is odd. When I talk to clerks about the availability of religious items in their stores, most also tell me that many people ask for them, but there just isn't anything available. Funny, that there is a need and no will to fill it.
I am equally offended by the Christians who are oblivious. Who no longer expect their tradition will be honored by having its items made available through retailers. Christian who don't want to rock the boat. Christians who don't want to seems too pushy or too religious.
I recommend that all thinking Christians go into retailers and ask where the Christian religious objects are located. If there are no religious objects available, perhaps it is time to tell the retailer how disappointed and offended that your religious tradition is being dismissed.
So I have decided to be offended...and to let people know...that true plurality honors even the faith of the majority and dominant culture. I encourage you to do the same...it confuses 'em when we use their words and phrases against 'em.
No I dont think you are crazy. We have Orthodox friends. Wonderful denomination! Ohhhh. All that standing though!!
Gratful thanks!
I prefer that to be my witness as opposed to going into secular stores and demanding to see nativities.
That's one BIG difference I noticed when I returned to the south after YEARS in pagan New England. No snow down here, but PLENTY of nativity scenes!
It is affecting government, education, all aspects of the media -- entertainment and news propaganda. How do you see it not happening in retail? You just described it at the head. What do you think those minerets are? The globalist Allah-worshipping puppet masters behind the retailers (MAMMON!) are bowing to the satanic agenda to destroy Jews and Christians. This is just a warm up. Read the Holocaust I timeline or ask a Jew. They know.
(Please remember who posted this good news!)
So, why not be offended? Good heavens. You certainly don't expect the retail world to pick up and advertise the true meaning of Christmas, do you?
I have never heard that story, but I do know that at the psych hospital I work in the unit is permitted to light and electic menorah and have yoga courses but not prayer vigils or nativities. A patient colored a nativity and taped it to the wall. There was a debate by the staff whether it would remain or whether it would offend. It was only when I said how offended I would be if it was taken down ...that the debate ended. The poor tattered picture remained.
I don't understand why you find it amusing that a Christian saint appears in the same yard as a nativity scene. Santa Claus is, after all, simply Saint Nicolas. His name has been translated into many languages through the centuries. Santa Claus in Dutch, I think.
This is a job for all of us who believe.
Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong place. Someone very close to me calls me a Displaced Midwesterner.
That hardly seems right, considering that when I was growing up in the 70's, I remember my family complaining about Christmas getting too commercialized (ads starting up right after Halloween, etc.)
It's one thing to prefer nativity scenes and traditional things to all of the Santa stuff stores trumpet, but Christmas isn't about buying stuff in the first place. I'd be happy to shop at stores that don't take advantage of a religious holiday to make a profit.
And the street displays really are quite spectacular! Just like the dueling departments stores in New York of yesteryear!
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