Merry Christmas and Christianity

No sooner do I finish the last Christmas post, explaining how fundamental Christmas and the birth of Christ is to Christianity, than I sign in to my favorite news source and see a link there to this story.

Long story short? The employee wanted to say Merry Christmas since she doesn't recognize Hannukah or Ramadan or Kwanzaa. After all, Jews don't recognize Christmas as a legitimate holiday, nor do Muslims recognize Christmas or Passover during their holy month of Ramadan. Do they realize that there are people out there who celebrate other holidays? Yes. But by professing faith in one religion, we profess that we do not hold other faiths and their observances as valid. Observant Jews do not believe in or celebrate Christmas. Why? Because Jesus is not the Messiah to a Jew. That is their particular choice in faith, and they are welcome to it. In America we have a freedom of religion, a freedom of religion that apparently, certain employers, even as deep south as the state of Florida, do not recognize. What does freedom of religion entail? It entails that any person in the United States is entitled to practice their faith openly without fear of repercussions, without fear of persecution, and without fear of being oppressed.

So why then are Christians everywhere forced to say "Happy Holidays" and in a small way, betray their faith by recognizing the legitimacy of other viewpoints? Do not mistake my question for one of intolerance and saying that Christianity or any religion is entitled to deny other people their right to worship. Only that Christians do not have to accept the doctrine of Islam that requires them to recognize Ramadan, just as Jews do not have to accept that Christ is the Messiah. Yet every year around Christmas more and more companies force their employees to be 'politically correct' by telling them that Christmas is not allowed, effectively suppressing an employee's religious freedom. It isn't just Christianity that suffers though, it's every religion who suffers because someone out there in left field believes that someone else will be offended by it.

In the above mentioned story, we have a woman who refused to say Happy Holidays. She doesn't believe in those other 'holidays' because she is not of the faith that those holidays derive their doctrine from. She's not Muslim, so Ramadan to her? Is something for someone else. Hannukah? Again, something for someone else, but it's not a holiday to her and her faith. She opted, instead of saying Merry Christmas, which apparently the company would not allow her to say, and instead of saying Happy Holidays, which went against her belief, to use the non-Holiday telephone greeting that her company uses the other 330 days a year.

This was apparently unacceptable to her supposedly 'Christian' employers. "We are a Christian company and we celebrate Christmas," said Andy Phillips, the company's president. Really? Then why is it such a big deal? Why is it big enough to fire her over? She's not violating company policy by answering the phone the way she does for most of the year. And no company. No government. No person on this Earth has the right to force their beliefs and values on any person.

A response to this news, was written by one G. Thomas Harper, a Jacksonville based attorney who works in employment and labor law. "I wouldn't think an employee has the right to insist (on saying Merry Christmas) unless that really is a tenet of their faith. She would have to make a strong case that was part of her beliefs, if not, it becomes insubordination," he said.

One would think that Christmas, being a Christian holiday, would be considered a tenet of the faith as much as Easter and the rising of Christ from the dead. The two most talked about things in the Bible, from the Old Testament Prophets such as Isaiah, to the Gospels and the Epistles of Paul and other Saints, are Christ's birth and Christ's death, with Christ's death being the subject of the most importance.

Apparently the courts have to decide on this one as the employee's lawsuit goes to trial. Hammurabi's law codes are fine to be displayed in a court. But the law codes of the Hebrews are not. It's fine to say "Happy Holidays" but to wish someone a Merry Christmas is not. It's all right to have a moment of silence in a school, but it's not ok to say 'Under God' in the pledge of allegiance or allow students to pray.

Our society has become so obsessed with political correctness and the fear of offending someone that it has offended time and again the majority of people in that society. When atheists comprise less than 3% of society in the world, why are we concerned with their feelings at the expense of the other 97%? Perhaps it is in the religious, Christian, Judaic, and yes even at times Muslim teachings, not to mention the Eastern religions which teach profound respect for the sanctity of other people, that we set ourselves up for failure. But it is time to stop. Sadly? This woman is forced into an inferior job because one supposedly Christian company attempted to circumvent the Constitution. It's a shame really. And what will be more of a shame? Is if the court denies this claim. The law is made to protect individuals from persecution. We have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in America. As well as the right to freedom of religion. Yet companies like Counts-Oakes Resorts Properties Inc. apparently don't feel the same way as the Founding Fathers of this great nation (all of whom were religious).