Replies to post #140426 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[yayaa]

Organizations Aim to put Christ Back in Christmas

Several pro-family groups have launched campaigns to identify retailers who plan to benefit extensively from Christmas shopping, but who are not including the word “Christmas” in their advertisements.

As noted in the CNSNews.com story Retailers Urged to Remember the ‘Reason for the Season’, the American Family Association recently reviewed newspaper ads from 11 major retailers. Of the 11, only McRae’s/Belks used the word Christmas in its advertising for Christmas shopping.


The other 10 companies did not mention “Christmas” a single time, but the term “holiday” was used by those 10 companies a total of 59 times.

The companies that failed to mention Christmas a single time in their 260 pages of insert promotions were Target, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreens, Sears, Staples, Lowe’s, J.C. Penney, Dell and Best Buy, AFA said.

In related news, but on a more positive note, the Washington Times is reporting that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) “has told federal officials that the lighted, decorated tree on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol — known in recent years as the ‘Holiday Tree’ — should be renamed the ‘Capitol Christmas Tree,’ as it was called until the late 1990s.”

“The speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree, and it is as simple as that,” said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for the Illinois Republican.

As the Washington Times notes, the issue of calling a Christmas tree a Christmas tree has become more controversial in recent years. More and more agencies, retailers, and governments want to celebrate Christmas without acknowledging Christ — the sole reason that the holiday exists in the first place.

“It’s a growing problem,” said Jared N. Leland, spokesman and legal counsel for the Becket Fund, a District-based legal and educational institute. “Celebrating the season with Christmas trees … and leaving them named ‘Christmas’ is simply recognizing the religious nature of people. Christmas should be able to be called Christmas.”

In particular, the notion of calling a Christmas tree something supposedly benign like a “holiday” tree is simply ridiculous as there is no other official tree (Hanukkah tree or Kwanzaa tree) to be grouped with the Christmas tree in order for such a new label to even make sense. There is just one tree, and it is the Christmas tree.