Perspective
It seems that every year around this time (if you tune into conservative media) all of Christendom comes “under attack” by godless atheists and pagans that want to take the Christ out of Christmas. It’s an abomination! A travesty! A sickening display of moral decay in the United States! It’s clearly the worst thing to ever happen to Christians in the history of their religion!
Okay, you can put your sarcasm shields down.
Every year, I want to tear my hair out while I watch people that are, realistically, pretty well off complain about how their vast majority is under attack. They complain and whine on live TV about persecution but there are places in the world where people are actually being persecuted for their beliefs or for the way they were born. People not wanting nativity scenes on every inch of public land or having someone say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” is not the worst form of persecution happening in the world right now, not even by a long shot. It’s not even as if there’s a lot of people that are clamoring to end the now three month long domination of everything ever by the Christian holiday. Even if every atheist in the country were up in arms about it, it still wouldnt be the worst thing to ever happen to Christians! It’s like, “Hey guys, maybe you should take a look at a the big picture?” Or maybe they should just take a few deep breaths and calm down.
I think most problems can be made a little easier by taking some deep breaths but that seems beyond most of humanity.
That said, the few people on the other side that actually want to make a big deal out of nativity scenes or Christmas trees or whatever should also probably take a deep breath and a step backward. The holiday season is a pleasant time, we should aim to be more inclusive and to celebrate the one thing we have in common at this time of year: buying a bunch of shit from China.
Thanks, China, for bringing us all together.
Discussion (33) ¬
What I think the media needs to get right is that most atheists are not anti-religious.
Just remember, kids. It only takes one person to ruin it for everyone.
Yeah most people seem to think the a in atheist is short for “anti” but it’s more like asexual as in non. Asexual people don’t hate everyone who has a sexuality, they just don’t have one. Antisexuality would be different, however.
So an antitheist would be somebody attacking religion and wishing to end all religion. Not an atheist. In the same logic, someone can be a Christian without being an Anti-Catholic. Etc, etc. And EVERYONE can certainly be an anything-they-want without also being an Anti-Atheist. I think the moral of the story is for EVERYONE to NOT be an anti-ANYTHING and.. like they said, take a few breaths and calm down. ;’D Most of us are a civilized people and we should act like adults about our differences instead of having a proverbial toddler tantrum and slap fight every holiday season.
Is that Nero, with his famous neck-beard?
It is! What a stud! This would be in 68 CE, just before the end of his reign, when (I imagine) his neck-beard would be in full plumage.
I’d gladly give up my war on Christmas (remember when the war on women was disrespectful to the troops?), if I can get to throw Bill O’Reilly to the lions instead.
Or to the wild geese – I’m not picky.
I live in a city with Christ in the name, I hear it so often that for me the meaning is completely separated from Jesus. It is just the name of the city. And no-one is declaring war on us (welp, except a whole bunch of earthquakes)
Christchurch New Zealand! I know where you live now :]
So the lead herring knows where the herring lives? Stranger times.
Or possibly Christianssands, Norway.
One of my coworkers started ranting to me about the war on Christmas. It was amusing to see her backpeddle when I casually said I wasn’t Christian.
Seriously, people bristle at the mere thought of saying Happy Holidays yet also complain about non-Christians celebrating Christmas…
Man. I was just luling about this the other day. All I can think when people are whining about this is, “When you live in a place where so much as holding a cross will get you put to death, let’s talk about persecution.”
P.S. I just want you to know, I absolutely love your comic. I’m more a “stare and admire from afar” type of person, but, I’m sure it’s always nice to hear someone gush. So *gushes about how much she loves your comic*
I appreciate this. People like her are undesirable in any camp, and evangelical Christianity has too many.
-A Christian.
Lions and tigers? By Jove, they must’ve travelled all the way to Kenya to acquire those!
It should be mentioned that the popular “Christians VS Lions in the Colosseum” thing has no basis in historical fact though — if memory serves, the first descriptions of Christians being martyred in the Colosseum start cropping up in the late renaissance.
So if anyone goes off about it, you can tell them that they’re… lion. *rimshot*
haha Yeah, I like to use popular notions in the strips to hit points home. From what I’ve read, the Romans DID feed early Christians to different kinds of animals. In particular, I’m fairly certain they were sent to fight packs of wild dogs in the colliseum. There are also accounts of other people being fed to lions, so it’s possible that Christians were also, at some point, fed to the big cats.
Pretty sure I’ve never heard anything about tigers, but I wanted to add some variety haha
The Romans did a lot of exotic animal imports for the coliseums. Commodus liked to pit himself personally against all manner of beasties, the stranger and more foreign the better (up to and including a giraffe). Considering what else they were able to get, there’s actually nothing implausible about them having lions or tigers.
I see one spotted kitty in the group, too. Is that a leopard?
This could help clear some things up 🙂
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Persecution
http://theconversation.com/mythbusting-ancient-rome-throwing-christians-to-the-lions-67365
Interestingly, one of the only reasons the Colosseum wasn’t pilfered for all all its stone (like so many other ancient buildings) was because Christianity claimed it was a place of martyrs. That was also the case of a few other temples which were either converted to churches for a time or palatial housing for the wealthy.
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Sorry, I just had to do that.
Wait a second — with all those big cats around… where’s Cat God? 🙂
Why do you think he takes the form of a cat now?
To put the fear in them.
“Happy Holidays Including But Not Limited To Christmas”.
There, that ought to do it…
Just remember, you can’t hyperventilate if you take deep, calming breaths.
Challenge accepted.
And one poor lion didn’t have a christian…
“Happy Holidays” wasn’t even about being inclusive initially. It was originally about someone not seeing another person for the whole Christmas to New Years holiday season. So they wanted to cover both (Christian) holidays, and they didn’t want to take the time to say “Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year”.
So not war, just laziness. Good ole’ fashioned American laziness.
What amuses me is that Christmas is actually a Celtic holiday the Christians co-opted in order to win converts. So, technically, anybody who celebrates and doesn’t focus too much on the Jesus part is actually MORE in the spirit of the holiday.
Heck, there are people here in the good ol’ U S of A who are persecuted more than these poor Xtians: Gays, Atheists, Muslims, …
– Just a foot soldier in the War on Christmas.
“Happy Holidays”, comrade…
My brother works in local news. You know when these stories are aired? When it’s a slow news day. They can be saved for weeks.
And then it struck. You talk about attacks on Christianity and then use CE for the year!
I like to imagine that Caesar is having a good laugh at Ms. O’Tool from across time, somehow.
It should be obvious even to a casual observer that there is nothing too illegal, nonsensical, untrue, or evil that theists will not use it to try to impose their beliefs upon others.