Is Christmas becoming too controversial?

It seems that Christmas have become a very political holiday. Some Conservative Christians seem to want to make sure that everybody knows that this holiday is only about Jesus Christ and Christmas by forcing retailers to acknowledge this. While others want to take any semblance of the religous nature of Christmas from public places. Still others are offended when people say Happy Holidays.

I have a strong Catholic faith, but I also don't see the reason to shove my faith down everybody else's throat. At the same time do we need to go to extremes to remove all religous symbols? After all Christmas is a religous holiday. Isn't there a middle ground?

First, I do not like that Christmas has become so commericialized. It is primarily a religous holiday after all. But, at the same time others also celebrate something this time of year. Jewish Americans celebrate Hanukah. African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa even if it is a recently invented holiday. It is still a holiday celebration. Finally, sometimes Muslims sometimes celebrate Ramadan. That is, when it falls in December on its rotation around the calender.

So, why do people take offense when retail stores, businesses and others use the more inclusive greeting of Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings? Isn't it a good thing to respect others' beliefs?

Some right wing Christians are boycotting Macy's in California and Ohio because their clerks do not say "Merry Christmas" when you buy something. Maybe I am mssing something, but since when did we rely on retail stores to greet us with religous greetings? Don't we expect them to be inclusive to all their clients? Isn't that just plain good business sense? Don't we expect them to just try to part us from our money at every possible opportunity? Since when did we expect them to greet us in religous ways?

Then there is the flap over how to greet people during the holidays. On December 15, Lou Dobbs, complained that he should not have to say Happy Holidays. If others don't like it then tough. Lou Dobbs has never shown an interest in being a right wing christian. But, he has definitely shown intolerance and stubborness. Isn't Christianity about tolerance and loving your neighbor? Why do I need to greet a jewish or muslim acquantence with Merry Christmas? Isn't that inappropriate since they don't celebrate that holiday?

We also hear of towns and school districts removing Chistmas symbols from places they are responsible for. For example a town in Florida wanted to remove a Christian Nativity scene from the town's holiday decorations but keep a jewish menorah. I can see if they wanted to remove all religous displays but why did they only pick on the christian symbol? Is that political correctness or hostility to Christianity?

There is a school system in Maplewood, NJ that is having a holiday concert, but they will not allow christian music to be played like Silent Night. If someone purposely goes to a holiday concert don't you think that they should expect christian songs in addition to secular songs?

Are we just going wacky in this country over a holiday that is suppose to be joyous? Isn't the point of Chistmas to announce the joy that Jesus Christ was born so that he would eventually die for our sins? Wasn't Christ's message to love each other, not argue with each other? Shouldn't we be extra kind, generous and patient this time of year? Isn't that why we give gifts to be generous? Isn't that why we do extra things for the less privledged?

Is the message of Christmas getting lost in all this bickering about visual displays instead of actually acting out the message that it is suppose to represent?