LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

Happy Holidays Raises Hackles

The e-mail came from a well-meaning and locally respected physician. His concern? The use of the word "holiday" in place of Christmas.

"I have talked to many people about this, and have UNIFORMLY found them to be irritated about the anti-Christian, defamatory use of holiday instead of Christmas," he wrote. "I talked to my ham radio friends at coffee, my wine drinking buddies at our weekly Wednesday noon lunch, to a Best-Buy Store manager (they shun `Christmas,' but he said `many people are upset about it.')." In an attempt to be educational, I suggested that retailers started using the phrase "Happy Holidays" in their advertising as a way to save money. Since the "holiday" season runs from the day after Halloween to Jan. 1, they were looking for a phrase that captured Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year's, Kwanzaa and Diwali - every conceivable celebration during this time of year - so they didn't have to go to the expense of remaking their ads.

"There's nothing anti-Christian about it. It is purely a business decision," my e-mail said. "As a Christian, it does not bother me one bit whether someone wishes me Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Don't you think our Lord and Savior would want us to concentrate more on following His great commandment to love one another - than on something as trivial as this?"

The use of "trivial" hit a nerve.

Read the rest. It's worth the time. The author seems to really have a good grasp on reality.