Focus on the Family wants shoppers to know which retailers are naughty and which ones are nice – at least when it comes to holiday lingo. On Thursday the Colorado Springs-based ministry’s political action arm launched its second-annual holiday campaign by posting an online shoppers guide with three categories: “Christmas-friendly” retailers, “Christmas-negligent” retailers and “Christmas-offensive” retailers.
The “friendly” retailers are so designated because they prominently use “Merry Christmas” and other Christmas-specific references in their catalogs and in-store promotions. Those on the Christmas-offensive list use secular phrases such as “happy holidays” and have “apparently abandoned” the use of the word “Christmas,” Focus said. Christmas-negligent companies “marginalize” their message by using “Christmas” in some cases and “holidays” in others.
The ministry – which made its determinations based mostly on an examination of retailers’ print and online holiday catalogs – encourages shoppers to patronize the Christmas-friendly stores, but does not tell them to avoid the other retailers. “It is not a boycott,” said Sonja Swiatkiewicz, Focus’ director of issues response. “Consumers can do what they wish with the information.”
Even so, the online guide includes an electronic petition shoppers can sign that tells retailers “I plan to consult Focus on the Family Action’s Shopping Guide … while making my Christmas purchases this year.” The Focus shopping guide is another weapon in the growing battle against what social conservatives several years ago labeled the “War on Christmas” – the notion that Christmas is being secularized, in part by retailers trying not to offend non-Christians by using terms like “holiday season,” “winter season,” “shopping season” and “holiday trees.” Some of the tactics have paid off.
In 2005, Sears, Kmart, Walmart and Target received threats of a boycott from Christian groups for their “holiday season” advertising. The companies soon adopted the Christmas-friendly language.
I’m guessing they won’t like my headline much.
#25 – EvPol
>>So why is there uproar here about FOTF? It’s
>>a PC thing.
No, it’s not. It’s a backlash against the same old, same old from the ultra-right and the holy rollers, who are satisfied living their lives the way they want, they want EVERYBODY ELSE to live their lives in just the same way.
Homos want to get married? Nope. Teenage rape victim wants to get an abortion? Nope. Some woman is a vegetable for 15 years and her husband wants to let her die with dignity? Nope. Stores want to attract a diverse group of shoppers, not just the Jerry Falwells, Jimmy Swaggarts, and Ted Haggards of the world? Nope.
Nope, nope, nope. “We know the right way to live our lives, and you’re going to live yours the same fucking way, goddamnit!!“
#31 – Mustard
>>who are satisfied living their lives
>>the way they want
Woops, I shoulda said “who are not satisfied living their lives the way they want…”
#31. Damn Mustard….you going atheist on us?
#33 – McC
>>Damn Mustard….you going atheist on us?
Heck no, McC! Bite your tongue! I love and worship my Lord same as I ever did. That’s my own personal business, that I share with my family and people at my place of worship.
However, I find those dim-witted, holier-rolling-than-thou reactionary wingnut fucktards who can’t keep their sebum-covered snouts out of other people’s assholes every bit as despicable as does e.g. M. Scott.
They do for the public’s perception of Christianity what suicide bombers do for Islam. The temptation is great to think that anyone who says he or she is a Christian must be a gay-bashing, anti-choice, anti-science, pro-Creationism hatemonger, railing against the evil sinners of the world while taking it up the ass from male courtesans, and who smoke crystal meth and jerk off in front of toothless prostitutes at the nearest Motel 6.
If that’s their MISSION, it’s ACCOMPLISHED.
It amuses me that these clueless Christians celebrate a holiday that was basically hijacked from the pagans… in the marketplace of religions they wanted to compete with the winter solstice celebration. Hey, the pagans have a winter holiday, we gotta have one too! And voila, Christmas. Complete with a hijacked pagan symbol, the Christmas tree. And another hijacked pagan custom, gift giving. As others have pointed out, Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas.
I have more respect for the few Christians who realize how bogus Christmas is from a Christian perspective and don’t celebrate it.
#35. And, of course, the fundamentalist Christians who founded this country (well, the New England part of it, anyway) did not celebrate Christmas because it was a Papist saint’s day.
(If the Puritans were running a retail outlet, would they be boycotted by FOF? they would probably be open on Christmas, with not a sprig of holly in sight.)
All real Christians should say, “Merry Christmas!” in honor of Saturnalia / Feast of St. Nicholas and place the gifts (they bought at FOF-approved stores, of course) around their pagan Yule tree.
all in honor of the True Meaning of Christmas.
#35- Phydeau
>>I have more respect for the few Christians
>>who realize how bogus Christmas is from a
>>Christian perspective and don’t celebrate it.
Some Christians (not a lot, I’ll grant you) celebrate Christmas in ways other than asking Santa for a 60″ plasma TV with Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound or a 2009 Humper. Or by going to Wal*Mart the week before Halloween and reveling in the battery-powered booty-shaking Santas that are all out on display. It can be a time for introspection and personal meditation.
As far as Solstic vs. Christmas, is Christmas any more bogus than picking the longest day of the year and worshiping trees and snow?
There’s nothing new on God’s green earth. The pagans got ideas from those who came before, the Christians got ideas from the Pagans and the Jews, the Scientologists got ideas from the Christians and the Pagans and the Jews, the Wiccans and other neo-Pagans got ideas from the Pagans of old, and so on and so on.
Eh, Mister Mustard, I’m not a Christian so I don’t know much about it… I just thought that Christmas was supposed to be celebrating the birth of Jesus, so what’s with all the presents and trees and decorations and stuff?
I understand the power of the symbolism of the shortest day of the year… I guess all religions have some way of making meaning of that.
#38 – Phydeau
Woops, yeah, I meant the shortest day of the year. Not sure I see the spiritual significance of that, any more than the summer solstice. It’s just another day, like Christmas.
As to the gifts, trees, booty-shaking Santas, etc., beats me. It seems there are two Christmases; the one that Christians celebrate quietly, with friends and family, and the secular one, celebrated at Wal*Mart and Best Buy and Nieman Marcus and Sak’s Fifth Avenue. Many people (notably including the dim-witted, holier-rolling-than-thou reactionary wingnut fucktards who can’t keep their sebum-covered snouts out of other people’s assholes) seem to have confused the two.
The former is the one I celebrate. The latter, I can do without. In fact, if it just went the fuck away, I couldn’t be more pleased.
Although I DO have a certain fondness for Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters singing “Mele Kalikimaka”, and some of the other more traditional Christmas carols.
OK. It is our traditional religious holiday. Without the birth of Our Lord, what would you guys be doing on 12/25? You would be beginning the New Years drinking week.
You don’t have to subscribe to our beliefs. You are free to ignore the whole Christmas thing. We, OTOH, are free to promote our holyday. We can even freely choose how and where we spend our money. And we can communicate our preferences to those who agree with us.
What is your problem with this?
Ha ha. This story is more proof of the Christian Taliban’s struggle to regain influence. Dividing retailers into ‘levels of worship’ friendliness is a dead end in a capitalist society. Sorry, CT but MONEY trumps.
Although the CT has infiltrated government they are losing ground and this effort is an act of separation. The outcome will be the same as with Disney where teh CT was told to STFU and get a life.
This latest taliban effort will be a shot in the foot. If forced, retailers will further shy away from what they want. How many mangers do you see at Macy’s? I thought so. Think of all the unemployed Santa Clauses. The last thing we need is thousands of fat, unemployed, republican child molesters.
#41, Dallas,
Think of all the unemployed Santa Clauses. The last thing we need is thousands of fat, unemployed, republican child molesters.
HEY !!! I do the Santa thing every year and love it. For some, I bring such wonderment to those innocent eyes. Others are scared poopless of me and scream the most horrid sound (but I usually wear earplugs).
Now, I can handle being called a child molester. That is low, but people that know me know better. And fat? Well, I admit I don’t stand twice to make a shadow. Unemployed? Well, how about semi-retired.
But Republican ??? WTF ??? C’mon, now that is low. Real low. That is almost as bad as hiring illegal Mexicans and giving them a phony SS number so they can teach children.
A Republican ??? Geeze, everyone knows they hate kids.
#42 Fusion, looks like I hit a nerve. Present company excepted.
Should I tone down my generalizations? I always welcome process improvement in my blog contributions.
Once the occasion was made an official US holiday, it became a secular observance day, by definition.
Christmas was started as a christian holiday. Now Focus on the Family is upset that people are trying to rid it of all christian meaning. Seems to me that they have good reason to protect it. If the rest of us want a holiday where we can spend more than we can afford and get paid for not working we should not try and piggy back on the christian holiday. Just setup a new one.
Anyone who is offended by calling the holiday “Christmas” should kill themselves. The 12/25 holiday has nothing to do with religion. It is a holiday. In general, the purpose of all holidays is to drink alcohol, eat too much and not be at work. The 12/25 holiday has the added requirements of spending yourself into debt buying shit and consuming power to run a boatload of lights all night. The 12/25 Holiday is called “Christmas”. Period.
#46 – SnotPoop
>>Anyone who is offended by calling the >>holiday “Christmas” should kill themselves.
By the same token, anyone who is offended by stores (many of which are run by Jews, Atheists, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, etc.) using “Happy Holidays” in their promotional literature should kill themselves too.
Get a fucking life, losers.
Once again, the holiday in question is called Christmas and it has nothing to do with any religion.
Do stores run by Jews, Atheists, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, etc. refuse to use the name “Wednesday” for the day between Tuesday and Thursday? It the same thing.
#48 – SnotPoop
>>Once again, the holiday in question is
>>called Christmas and it has nothing to do
>>with any religion.
And the “holiday season”, which includes New Years, Chanukah, the winter solstice, Festivus, Kwanzaa, and other “holidays” besides Christmas.
So for Dobson’s Dummies to encourage boycotting stores because they’re marketing their wares to any and all who celebrate anything around the end of the year is religious intolerance and bigotry, pure and simple.
I wouldn’t expect anything less from a child-beating, homophobic creationist bigot who thinks SpongeBob SquarePants is a fag.
It’s a tribute to America’s tolerance for freaks and outcasts that Dobson is allowed to walk the streets. Too bad he doesn’t allow others the same freedoms he himself is granted.
Let us come to terms that this is a culture and values war. The FOTF article is posted to incite a reaction for the traffic value.
It is too bad there is so much hatred toward Christians, even if you think there is misguidance.
Except from the radical left-wing Christians, I do not see an equally hateful response to things that are morally wrong.
I think I may obtain their list and consider shopping with the retailers they recommend. It seems the retailers who are not afraid of proclaiming Christmas, even if it is essentially a paganistic, materialistic holiday now, are demonstrating they are not afraid of the PC crowd, the (more obnoxious of the crowd) Jews, Muslims, activist homosexuals, and whoever else is irked by Christmas and Christians. These retailers have guts! I like that.
#22 @ray
none of us hate christians, we hate hypocrites and fotf are hypocrites.
consider this, from john chapter 2
14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
i think it’s pretty clear that Jesus was no fan of mixing religion and commerce on any level.
so for fotf to recommend stores is abhorrent to me as a christian.
that’s all.
#40, pw,
OK. It is our traditional religious holiday. Without the birth of Our Lord, what would you guys be doing on 12/25? You would be beginning the New Years drinking week.
Good question. BUT, Christmas was not the holiday it is today until after the Civil War. Most States did not even have it listed as a statutory holiday. New England especially, Thanksgiving was the big day and who knows, maybe that should have evolved into our big gift giving day. Most religious leaders felt that religious days should not be celebrated, including Christmas and Easter.
First, it is well established that Jesus was not born on December 25. It is strongly believed that he was born in August, 4 BC. Only a few high placed individuals routinely had their births recorded at that time and it wasn’t until much later that local Parishes started recording births as well as deaths.
Celebrating birthdays is a pagan tradition. So maybe we should be saying “Get your religious paws off of our pagan tradition.”
#43, Dallas,
Should I tone down my generalizations?
Naa, I should thank you for the opportunity to rant.