I grow tired of Christians thinking that everyone is out to get them.  Christians are not a persecuted minority in this country.  If anything, Christians are the persecuting majority.  Our country was not founded on Christian principles to provide a place for Christians to worship and promulgate their faith.  Many of the colonies were founded by people fleeing from State sponsored religion persecuting them.  They came here for tolerance, not to establish more State sponsored religions.  The Constitution provides for freedom from the government forcing it’s citizens to worship in a manner prescribed by law.

If there is a war on Christmas, it is one waged by Christians against those who don’t want to be forced into following the dominant religion’s views of the Winter Solstice celebrations.  We hold up the Pilgrims as our ideal of why the Colonies were settled when in reality, they were rebels running from the Church of England.  They would probably be appalled at the way the church has co-opted them into poster children for religious intolerance.

If you want to get a rise from almost any Christian in the US, just start your statement with the words “Did you hear what the Muslims are trying to do?”  We should be as tolerant of their right to worship peacefully as we wish for them to be of the Christians “right” to worship in Iraq or Iran or Syria.  Our nation was formed to protect the minority expression of Faith, not the majority.  The Constitution is all about protecting individuals from the central government intruding where they have no business.  The Pilgrim’s Colony was formed to keep the British Government from forcing them to adhere to the Church of England’s system of beliefs.  They founded their colony based on their religious beliefs but did not force everyone else to conform to their system.  If you chose to live in their colony, you adhered to their system, otherwise, you left.

I just wonder how many of the Muslims that are in our country came here for the same kinds of freedoms we hold dear?   I think we have been brainwashed a little to believe everyone from a Muslim country came to the U.S. to overthrow our government.  Really!  How did we become a nation of conspiracy theorists and paranoia freaks?  We want to be left alone in our safe little Christian enclave and not have anyone live here who disagrees with us.  That is contrary to the Founding Fathers’ ideals.  A “free” country applies to everyone, not just the majority.

I’m not fond of how Christmas has evolved.  I can only speak for myself about what I have observed in the United States.  We act crazy at Christmas time.  Our Christmas movies are so syrupy sweet and all of them have “happy” endings.  Almost all have some sort of “magic” device or event that transports someone into a different time or forces them to relive the same day until they “get it right”.  A few are just about “normal” people doing “normal” things, but even they resort to the “happy” endings so prevalent during the Holidays.  Life just isn’t so neat.  We make everyone who isn’t with a family or who has no money feel inferior to the majority who have both.

I’m not being a Grinch or Scrooge.  I’m just making observations about life.  When my Dad was little, they got just a small gift for Christmas, just one.  Their stockings held an orange and a bag of candy.  They were the lucky ones because his Dad owned a store.  Christmas should be a celebration of the possibilities of life, not about “getting” stuff.  Just saying.