Only a theocracy would make Jesus' birthday a national holiday

[bomberfox]

I have a Buddhist Temple in my neighborhood - they are all lit up with Christmas lights on their building!

Makes me wonder if there are any Shinto shrines in the US lit up.

 

[NewfieMom]

My husband went to public school in Italy and there was no school on many Saints' days. When I saw how many days he got off for Saints' days I couldn't beleve it. It was about one each week. (This was in the 1950's and 1960's.) I don't think Italy is considered a theocracy, but my husband is Jewish. There was one other Jewish student and one Protestant student in his school and they were excused from religious education. We looked into getting married in Italy. I don't recall if a couple had to get married in a civil ceremony prior to a religious ceremony the way you do in France. (We were living in France so we had looked into getting married there, too.)

 

[weaver2]

I can't be the only person who thinks this. It's time for atheists and secularists to step up and demand an end to this clear violation of the separation of church and state clause of the constitution.

Celebrate the original festival of December 25, the Roman Saturnalia if Christmas makes you uneasy. It has all the same traditions as Christmas: wreaths, lights, gifts, feasting, parties, decorations, drinking minus Jesus, wise men, and evangelicals whining that atheists are taking Christ out of Christmas because they can't cay Merry Christmas and set up their crosses on city property.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

@AtlantaAdonis, you better hope to God MAGA doesn't win or you will find out what living in a theocracy really IS like.

 

[BabyAugustine]

I can't be the only person who thinks this. It's time for atheists and secularists to step up and demand an end to this clear violation of the separation of church and state clause of the constitution.

Look, you are dumb and uneducated. Jesus is celebrated in US because most of our founding pinciples come from Jesus

'In a now-famous study published in the American Political Science Review on the influence of European writers on the political literature of the founding, Donald S. Lutz reported that the Bible was cited more frequently than any European writer or even any European school of thought. The Bible, he found, accounted for approximately one-third of the citations in the literature he surveyed. The book of Deuteronomy alone was the most frequently cited work, followed by Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, the most cited secular source. In fact, Deuteronomy was referenced nearly twice as often as Locke’s writings, and the Apostle Paul was mentioned about as frequently as Montesquieu."

Get an education and quit being the smell of immaturity at every discussion

 

[BabyAugustine]

@AtlantaAdonis, you better hope to God MAGA doesn't win or you will find out what living in a theocracy really IS like.

Who cares what you've always felt ? Really, you could count them on one hand
You are not that important

 

[reinaert]

Meh. Christmas to New Years is still just Saturnalia, including the regular inversion of the social order. Not quite up to snuff with the glorious Lords of Misrule, but better than whatever choral singing and shame sermons actual theocrats have planned for the wet months.

 

[ataraxia]

Look, you are dumb and uneducated. Jesus is celebrated in US because most of our founding pinciples come from Jesus

'In a now-famous study published in the American Political Science Review on the influence of European writers on the political literature of the founding, Donald S. Lutz reported that the Bible was cited more frequently than any European writer or even any European school of thought. The Bible, he found, accounted for approximately one-third of the citations in the literature he surveyed. The book of Deuteronomy alone was the most frequently cited work, followed by Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws, the most cited secular source. In fact, Deuteronomy was referenced nearly twice as often as Locke’s writings, and the Apostle Paul was mentioned about as frequently as Montesquieu."

Get an education and quit being the smell of immaturity at every discussion

From the framers of the constitution:

“It was the general opinion of ancient nations, that the divinity alone was adequate to the important office of giving laws to men... and modern nations, in the consecrations of kings, and in several superstitious chimeras of divine rights in princes and nobles, are nearly unanimous in preserving remnants of it... The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature: and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history... [T]he detail of the formation of the American governments... may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had any interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of heaven... it will for ever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses... Thirteen governments thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favour of the rights of mankind.”
― John Adams, The Political Writings of John Adams, A Defence of the Constitutions of the United States of America, 1787




“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution..What influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not.”
-James Madison

 

[OlNate]

Yeah.... I'm probably not going to rail against a big chunk of time off during flu season, no matter which direction I pray or do not pray in...lol

The Christian manifesto involves oppressing people in the month of December with TIME OFF... mwa-hahahahaha... or something... lol Wtf

 

[jpevans]

12.25 is not a birthday celebration, but I take your point. In my own self interest I'm not trying to get rid of a paid day off.

It's been said that the Nazarene hall of records burned to the ground many. many years ago.

 

[jpevans]

Open your horizons, it's not an american only tradition.

As an atheist my favorite holidays are Marti Gras, Halloween & Christmas. There are no atheist holidays, per se.

 

[Lycanthrope]

As an atheist my favorite holidays are Marti Gras, Halloween & Christmas. There are no atheist holidays, per se.

Mardi Gras, huh? Interesting.

Did you grow up/live in Louisiana? Halloween has always been my favorite - must be the Celt in me.

 

[neo publius]

Mardi Gras, huh? Interesting.

Did you grow up/live in Louisiana? Halloween has always been my favorite - must be the Celt in me.

All 3 are Christian based celebrations.