Up on my Soapbox…Again….

I am continually puzzled by people’s need to shove religion down my throat.  I’m also continually puzzled by how people can assume that their religion is the only correct religion and everyone who does not believe as they do are at best, raving idiots and complete heretics and at worse going directly to whatever hell their religion mandates.

 

I was forwarded an email from our (crazy) Administrative Assistant today about how the USPS is planning on releasing a holiday stamp that has some kind of holiday greeting written in, what I assume to be Arabic.  The whole email was a diatribe about not letting the Muslims take over Christmas and how we, as Americans, should not allow Muslims to….actually, I’m still not sure what it is we’re not supposed to let Muslims do, because once I see the words “God, Our Country, America, Christianity and Terrorists” in the same email; I stop reading.

 

Crazy Ass Admin then went on into a frenzy about how “This is our country and we should be able to practice OUR religion without the Muslims trying to interfere” and “If they want to practice their religion, they need to do it quietly and stop trying to ruin Christmas for the rest of us by making everyone say ‘Happy Holidays’ because it’s not a holiday, it’s Christmas and I should be allowed to say Merry Christmas if I want to”.  This was followed by my personal favorite statement of “I just get really upset when someone stomps on my Lord and I can understand how people would blow up a Mosque”!

 

First of all….What the Fuck?!?!  Why is it that people who profess to be “Good Christians” (however the hell that is defined – since I have yet to get a good definition or even a consistent one for that matter) are some of the first people to advocate violence towards someone whose beliefs differ from their own?  Why is it okay for you to say that blowing up a Mosque is acceptable when you would be the first one leading the villagers with their torches and pitchforks through the town square if anyone, be they Muslim, Jewish, Wiccian, whatever dared to even question your Christianity let alone make a threat of violence towards one of your churches?!?!

 

Secondly, how exactly are the Muslims “stealing Christmas” from you?  Let me let you in on a little secret…Most respected biblical archeologists generally agree that the birth of Jesus took place sometime in mid April and not on December 25^th as you so blindly accept.  So why do we celebrate Christmas on December 25^th?  Because the Romans celebrated the birth of the god Mithras on that date, the Druids celebrated the winter solstice around that time and it was easier for the early Christians to use that date to assist in their “conversions” than try and get people to embrace an entirely new holiday (and don’t even get me started on how violent those ‘conversions’ were).  Hell, some of our most commonplace Christmas traditions are Pagan in origin…Christmas trees, yule logs, mistletoe, etc.  Yeah…the Muslims are not stealing anything….your beloved church stole “Christmas” from the Pagans!

 

Third…do I really need to get into how this country was founded by people who were fleeing religions persecution?  You claim to be a “proud American”, so why is it that you cannot embrace what your country was founded on and allow people the respect to practice their faith, whatever faith that may be, without having to hide?  What next?  Are we going to start burning people as witches and heretics in the parking lot of the mall right next to the live nativity scene all in the name of the one religion you deem acceptable?

 

I’m not knocking Christianity, if that is something that you are comfortable with and take comfort from those beliefs, then by all means, go for it,  but don’t take away someone else’s right to do the same thing just because they are worshiping Buddha, Allah, Mother Nature, or whatever rather than worshipping Christ.  Not all Muslims are terrorists, not all Pagans are devil worshipers…just like not all Christians are narrow minded idiots.

 

I could go on for hours about this (I haven’t even gotten into how inappropriate that entire comment is in a workplace environment), but I need to get back to work, so I’ll get off my soapbox now.