About 'Merry Christmas'
G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News
"Never argue politics and religion among friends or strangers." That advice was given me at a young age and under most conditions that is wise consul. Most of us have friends with whom we can discuss those two topics and others we cannot; however, there are aspects which are publicly discussed and I feel free to do likewise.
Have written on those subjects in columns over the years. Now … prompting me to discuss the no-nos again is something which confuses me. That is a seemingly "busy body" offshoot of political correctness that suggests we take the "Christ" out of Christmas. Don't know for sure who is behind that thinking, but feel sorry for them. Some stores are allegedly telling clerks to use "Happy Holidays' instead of "Merry Christmas." Have read of instances where some government workers, including school teachers, as well as a percentage of private employees, were asked to avoid the C——— word.
Here is how I feel about that. Our founding fathers went to great lengths to base the ideals of freedom and responsibilities that go with those ideals upon Christian teachings. There was and is a very intelligent reason for such thinking. "All successful peoples and their leaders need logical guidelines, moral codes, in the conduct of their public and personal affairs." Ancient and modern history is replete with proof, "Any country without such guidelines becomes an anarchy." In the case of the United States and many other nations, elemental concepts within the Christian religion proved to be an available and thoughtful guide; however, nothing in our chosen basis for leading a "good life" suggests non-Christians are not welcomed here and allowed to share in our law of freedom to follow a different religion.
"When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind require that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
The above quote from the Declaration of Independence is what John Hancock wrote with help from other representatives of the 13 colonies and they all signed July 4, 1776. It seems to me that any individuals, whether they be atheists, pantheists, agnostics, Jewish, Muslims, Buddhists, or whatever, SHOULD NOT and CAN NOT find anything in our national founding documents which in the wildest of imaginations constitutes a threat to their own personal religious beliefs. Absolutely to the contrary, those documents clearly spell out every citizen's right to freedom of religion.
If I was one of the non-Christian folks, I would still enjoy the season, probably even decorate a tree, and exchange greetings and gifts because an opportunity to openly share joyous times with fellow humans has never been a thing to avoid … let alone fear. There is a saying about that philosophy, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
Relative and vital to all this is an event we should not forget, 389 years ago on December 21, 1620, 41 suffering and religiously persecuted humans left their ship, the Mayflower, after a perilous winter voyage across the Atlantic Ocean and landed on Plymouth Rock … to courageously start their lives anew.
— MERRY CHRISTMAS —
G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.