What "Merry Christmas" Really Is To All Of America

Merry Christmas! It seems like a fairly innocuous greeting. Right? I'm sharing now last year's Christmas blog, for a reason, in these our such divisive times.

Do you find this offensive? Some do.

It has inherent goodwill intended. Which confuses some.

Because we live in a diverse world, a diverse multicultural, multitheistic country and environment, we merely need to be aware of that in our thoughts, speech, and actions.

No, it's not asking that much of us. For myself, I was raised Catholic, old Slovak Catholic. I went through stages of seeking God and found how humankind invented all this thousands upon thousands of years ago.

I have in my search for what is truth in religion, or "God" in a supreme intelligence, or whatever you wish to refer to it as been through many stages. I see using the gender of "Him" (or "Her") as questionable in ascribing a kind of anthropomorphism to an entity far beyond our understanding and why ethereal beings need gender is quite beyond us, though not really).

From my childhood and deep into my 20s, I have experienced being a "born again Christian" in my late teens. Then in my research and studies to "find God", an agnostic, an atheist, an agnostic again and finally a follower of reality as best it can be defined, through science, through the Buddha Dharma when lent itself to the Christian form of restructuring Judaism, and also Aikido, "the Art of Peace".

I was surprised to find how much "Buddhist" beliefs fit into Christianity and general psychology orientations during my university years of study toward my degree in psychology, and in Phenomenology, and physics.

That being said, I don't just have a problem with Christmas and below I'll explain why.

IF one cannot function appropriately and positively in that kind of life, one in America's "tossed salad" citizenry and community, one of diversity, of inclusion, of acceptance and fellowship, then one is of limited mental, emotional and cultural capacities.

Do you find this offensive? Some do.

So before you start ranting about the ludicrous immature belief in a "war on Christmas", of which there is none, but is rather an opening of awareness of others besides one's self or one's culture or religion, or in some cases, one's "bubble", do consider you are merely extending that well-intentioned greeting to other to whom it may have no meaning to them.

Not everything is as we believe. 

• December 25th is understood to not be the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth. 
• The song Jingle Bells was originally intended for Thanksgiving, and was titled, "One Horse Open Sleigh" 
• December 25th was originally a pagan festival day but the Catholic church absorbed it in order to compromise and assimilate pagan cultures when they were moving into.their region. 
• Christmas now has transcended the Christian faith and spread out in a secular fashion to those of other cultures and religions. How is that a bad thing? The underlying principles are still there and if Jesus were alive to see this, he just might be okay with it. Because what he preached was the reality and not the dogma, not the diction, not the rules. But the people. And compassion for one another. 
• The Golden Rule is based on the principle Jesus Christ taught in Matthew 7:12: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them,” adding, “for this is the Law and the Prophets.” The significance of Jesus "Christ’s" statement here is huge. What we call the Golden Rule is the summation of God’s entire view on the way of life.

So much of Christmas is about peace and love, make it so!

What we believe to be is different originally than we thought to begin with. So there is really no need to be zero tolerant, or uncompromising, or to believe in a war on something merely because of a call for greater awareness and understanding of other's different cultures or religions. Essentially...

It's Okay! We need either greater awareness and compassion for one another or have more wars and cultural friction and misunderstanding of one another. Especially during a season that calls out for greater compassion and caring, help and sacrifice for others, it truly is, okay.

So why would you offer it to them? It is obviously out of ignorance either in an understanding of our country or specifically in another person, you do not know very well and perhaps should take the time to consider and address them appropriately in a way they can understand what you mean and intend.

To wish them goodwill and happiness this season. Christians, many of them, like to point out the original intent and meaning of "Christmas" is all about Jesus. But as was pointed out above, that is at very least disingenuous and even, ignorant.

It really just means we have to give some thought to something we may never have given much thought TO. Which is actually the original intent of that greeting. to wit, if you are NOT giving it enough though, in the first place. You are actually, in the bigger picture of things, going counter to what you are trying to do and say. In trying to point out to others that there is or was a war on Christmas, you are the one missing the point in coming from Christians who cannot actually give the greeting enough thought and feeling, in order to share it in the most appropriate and productive ways.

Even if that means using another greeting.

This really isn't all about you after all.

What we all really need more than anything else in this world, is simply to all get along.

Because that is in the end, the Thought...that is in the end, what counts. Isn't it?

So with all that being said, I really have to end here with this...

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays, whatever you believe and practice!

War on American Religious Freedoms or Fundamentalists' Misapprehensions?

People seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of what religious freedom means in America.

I'm just going to go ahead and address Christians here because they seem to be the ones most confused, deluded or disingenuous on this topic here in the US.

This country was set up originally for freedom. NOT for Christian freedom, though there was an overwhelming number of them. Then concept however in the wisdom of the Founding Fathers was to center upon any one religious group was to remove that freedom eventually for either those or others. Only a secular government can protect freedom for all.

That freedom came out of a need to see that we do not ever have to deal with the nightmare of having an abusive king or queen, o some potentate who rules in any way they deem necessary, possibly with complete disregard for the feelings and condition of the citizens of the country, at the burden of the citizenry or parts thereof.

From that came all other things and the desire to have a free country where people could pursue their potential for happiness and advancement in their station regardless of their location of birth, environment or any consideration beyond their desire to achieve happiness and their own intrinsic individual potential to succeed.

This is not a country where you are guaranteed happiness or success, but the systemically equal potential opportunity to achieve those things. That is to say, you will not be disqualified because of birth, or things outside your personal potential as in belonging to caste of "untouchables" in India or a lower class in Britain in the old days.

That includes who your caste, family, country of origin, religion, race, color, etc.

Christians seem to forget in their recent railing against how they feel they are being mistreated, how they have actually historically been prejudicial against other groups, all because of their religion in how it was all interpreted.

Christians were slave owners after all. Christians have been prejudiced and bigoted against gays and other races. And religions. Have you ever heard a Christian say that "Jews killed savior"? What has that really got to do with us today? Absolutely nothing. And if it does, then you can know you're a bigot.

Now Christians are merely starting to feel what those groups felt for hundreds or thousands of years in the playing ground finally becoming equal for all...and it stings.

So what does religious freedom actually mean in a mixed salad country like America?

Once you have the consideration of a mixture of people with various races, cultures, religions, viewpoints, ethnic orientations and so on you have  to view things in a different way not only through one religion or viewpoint.

You have to set up a country that can handle and allow all those groups the freedom to live their lives and at least within the context of their private existences to live how they see fit in order to enjoy their beliefs and to be happy.

That does not mean that once they leave the confines of their home, compound or church, they can dictate how life should be in public.

Most religions in the US have freedom WITHIN reason. After all a group of serial murders in a religion or part of one, who is devoted to serial murder really needs to be shut down for the good of the nation. Think ISIS I suppose in Islam or Sharia Law. Even within that group\system we cannot allow things like honor killings, a very archaic and juvenile practice and belief system.

If this were the Middle Ages, Christians and Muslims all over America would be trying to kill one another. And that goes against the foundation of our nation where all people can live together in peace and tranquility, if not political discussion and debate.

Certainly from their perspective it may appear they are being discriminated against, but that is not the case as the public areas in a country need to be amenable to all people. Leave your differences, as much as possible at home for the common areas where you can intermingle. A religions that preaches separatism in order to practice their faith I find personally sad butt then we have those groups. he Amish. Some Mormons (even though some break laws in those communities in doing so). Some types of monasteries and so on.

If you are going to have a country, for the most part you need to be willing to serve others, not just those who share your beliefs. That means if you are going to go out in public you will see things that you disagree with within your religion but to live in this country you will need to find a way to deal with that and maintain your religion within yourself and YOUR community.

IF you religion cannot handle seeing reality and maintaining you beliefs, your faith, that would seem to me to be a pretty poo religion in the first place. But in the core of religious practices for the most pat, rather than fix what is wrong, believers double down and irritate or rail against, rather than find ways to live in harmony.

Not all religions are like that however. Buddhism comes to mind and from what I've seen, where that isn't' true in those practicing the Buddha Dharma, they are the ones who have lost the way, not their system, but the flavor of that system they have over generations, chosen to subvert and practice. And that is on them, not their religion overall, not necessarily anyway. Though perhaps in some cases it should be. It really depends on the structure of the religion to be amenable to such changes and controls.

What is expected of you as a Christian is for you to keep your beliefs to yourself and be happy.

Not to push those out into the public eye to affect others in their religions, or even those who are atheists who deny the existence of any deity and who do now share your beliefs in a divine overruling entity.

The thing is, we all have to live together.

Even though your beliefs dictate to you that you have to follow this or that rule, that is not the same for everyone. We all have to live together in this contained country. If you don't like that, move. That is the form and structure of this country. Deal with it.

Either you are a good American citizen and share this country with others, or you are not. Right now there are a lot of Christians who are trying very hard not to be good Citizens, who try to push their religion into state and national politics. Some churches too are trying to do this. Churches who do not pay taxes and are getting into national politics., I agree with the many now who are saying if churches want to become political then they too need to pay taxes in order to have that right.

It would  all work far better if we could all just try to get along and not expect so very much from a nation where very different types of people are all trying to live together and get a long. Because in that is our strength, not in all of us practicing whatever you think is best for us.Or you neighbor. Because if we all do what you want, then one day we may all just decide to do what your neighbor wants, and that my friend, you may come to find a very unsatisfying experience.

Let's get along and support having the secular government we have before it is too late and you find you have gotten what you want, and it has cost us all so very dearly.

Fears of Immigrants and Religious AntiDiversity

During WWI America interred over 2,000 German citizens in country. Among the notable internees were geneticist Richard Goldschmidt and 29 players from the Boston Symphony Orchestra (Wikipedia). On top of that we required a quarter of a million Germans to register.

During WWII America placed over 100,000 Japanese American's in internment camps on our homelands and over 11,000 Germans. What made them internment rather than concentration camps? Spin? Locally to me on Bainbridge Island, just a few miles from where I live there was an internment camp.

During Vietnam many soldiers referred to Vietnamese by racial slurs, which is pretty normal during war time, dehumanizing the enemy to make it easier to deal with the thought that humans are trying to kill you and that you have to kill other humans. Then if you survive the war, you one day have to return to civilian life and not kill again.

War is hell. After war can be its own kind of hell.

During the Middle Eastern wars going back to the 1980s, many called the enemy as well as the civilians, by racial slurs. Because of Islamic terrorism we have begun to turn our attention and anger toward the Islamic religion rather than those who are actually attacking us as well as and actually mostly, other Muslims.

What does all this have in common? American exceptionalism at its worst?

Certainly a lower mental state of being, of compassion, of understanding, of comprehension, of essentially being human.

During the Bush Administration and the Iraq war after the attack on 9/11, even president Bush said that we were at war with terrorism and not Islam. Recently, President Obama has said the exact same thing.

It's interesting to note that some Republicans and conservatives have called Mr. Obama names, questioning his loyalties, picking and picking at his efforts rather than diving in and trying to help get things done, all merely because he has the higher mental state, the understanding, the comprehension to note that Muslims are really not our enemy (and thanks for that because there' a lot of them!), but the terrorists are.

Religion in general is a problem across all religions however, but really that is another issue entirely that we may well need to address sooner than later. One that we need sooner than later, evolve out of.

It's getting even scarier in the Middle East because the line between who are terrorists and who are citizens, is murky. This current trend of terrorist activities has also been very attractive to younger and younger people. They wisely cut the issues of their odd religious beliefs, supplanting them with more rational issues of camaraderie and adventure.

It's a mind worm overall, an addiction of concept, a call to action, to honor and other bullshit beliefs that are far more effective to draw people to the Middle East to fight in a stupid war against the people of the Middle East by lowlifes, criminals, murderers, terrorists, basically just the sad and disaffected.

Nations of the world need to get a handle on this quickly.

They are a cancer that is doing damage in many and varied ways, not the least of which are American citizens treating the Muslim community like second rate citizens, if not treating them as traitors to a country that for many of them is their's through and through.

The Muslim woman born in Brooklyn, is an American.

The Muslim man born in Montana, is an American.

Just as much as the Japanese Americans caged in America during WWII. As the Germans in WWs I and II who may not have even been American (yet) but were still loyal and very happy to be here.

We have to stop this kind of thing before it gets any more dangerous than it already is.

There are also Christian groups and people who are reacting against the Muslim community.

They are calling them names, interrupting their public (and peaceful) gatherings where the only non-peaceful people ARE Christians attending a gathering that they are not even invited to or welcome at.

They are saying we cannot abide or accept non-Christians, how the Islamic God is not the "real God", as if there were one to fight over which only makes them even more sad than they are to begin with.

Granted, many Muslims believe that about the Christian God, too, but many do not as there are actually very close ties between the three predominant desert religions of Judaism, Christian and Islamic.

But here's my point.

The issue here is not that Islam is the wrong religion, or that Christianity is, or Judaism is. Religion is wrong anyway and that is much of what is causing all this nonsense.

So in Christians making all this noise over how horrible Muslims are, it is on so many levels they who are the bad people. It's not that we don't need Islam in America, but we really don't need any religions here. We don't need their lack of paying taxes, their judgmental attitudes, their treating other religions who are not their religion, as something bad. What are you, two people, two years old?

American Christians need to stop acting like childish cretins, immature haters. Drop all this nonsense about religion and your favorite magic Dude in the sky.

That however is not the point here. It is not what this is all about and it is really, beside the point.

May who or what ever the God of your choice is, love you and help you in like kind to learn to love all others who are like and unlike you.

For those of you whose God wants you to do otherwise, may you and your God receive a deservedly long enduring and painful demise that wipes you both from human history for all of time, like so many other losers calling themselves either humanlike or Godlike.

It all doesn't have to be that way though.

This, is America. Remember? America.

"Land of the free, home of the brave."

Did you all fail your Civics class in high school?
Did any of you even finish high school?
Why are so many of you concentrated in the south?
In groups so frequently conservative and Republican?

You are an American too and though you may think you are a Christian first, you are still an American. You live here and here has given you the right to practice your silly religion in peace and safety. Why can't others do that too? What don't you get about let other's enjoy their silliness just as you do?

In America we have the right to live a peaceful life, to pursue happiness and pal, you're damaging people's calm for absolutely no reason whatsoever. You're ruining good citizens' pursuit to their happiness in their own ridiculous religion and ways which honestly, are no more ridiculous than your own.

So knock it off! Grow up. Be a good citizen yourself, first. Voice your opinion, but at least have an intelligent one and voice it at the right time in the right places and let others have their meetings as people aren't invading your meetings; and if they did, you would disingenuously cry, "Religious Persecution", when you seem to be the ones doing this the most.

Practice your silliness but let's get back to practicing our ridiculous beliefs in private where we can be less ashamed of our silly beliefs (because that's part of what this is about, in others having their ridiculous beliefs, it really shines the light on just how ridiculous your beliefs are that that always angers people).

Think your American Christianity is oh so different from Islamic Terrorists Islam? Really? ISIS bans teaching evolution in schools, just like so many Christians are pushing for in American schools. Isn't it interesting that both religions stem from the Middle East. So it really is just another middle eastern desert religion, after all.

Remember that common areas are for everyone, and not just you, not just the vocal minorities, not just the deluded and brain damaged ones.  Just let them practice their own silliness.

Otherwise, you may soon find out that we will all wake up to this nonsense overall, rid ourselves of religion altogether as we should, and you will find you have a very different kind of life than you wanted or intended. And none of you wants that. Right?

The more you push the differences between religion, the more you point out how different religion is from the direction humanity is headed, and the quicker you will bring about the demise of magical thinking as a "thing".

Although... a life, a nation, a world without religion, sure would solve a lot of our problems.

Either way, we don't need no American bigots here.

If you really don't like us being free for everyone, teaching science in schools, ISIL will surely welcome you with open arms, with a knife behind their back and one soon to be in yours too I'm sure.

So feel free to visit them soon, anytime....

Update April 22, 2015 - Earth Day.
From Salon magazine - 6 reasons religion may do more harm than good

Whether you're religious or not, is your choice, obviously.
But it's not a bad thing to review this list just to be sure this has no bearing on you and yours.

Religion properly handled, can be rewarding for many, as long as it doesn't get out of control. That is my primary argument with it. Those who allow it to become more than it should be, negative in nature, or abusing others. Think Middle East in ISIS or locally with religion getting into politics and how it has been affecting non religious citizen's rights.

This is America where we're all supposed to be protected for those things being perpetrated upon us, by way of another's belief system that disagrees with our own. And vice versa. Pushing an agenda, can backfire and does, and has.

So protect your beliefs, allow other's beliefs to also remain protected.

Also as this update is on Earth Day, here's my blog for this year's Earth Day.

#terrorist #religion #atheist #christian #islam #muslim #isis #isil