As flap over appropriate greeting intensifies, county residents have their say. The opinion: don’t turn the season of peace into a war.
By Jane Holahan
Updated Feb 19, 2007 15:58
Remember, back in a simpler day, when a common wish for the Christmas season was peace on earth and goodwill to men?
Well, forget peace on earth, there’s a war being waged against Christmas.
That’s what Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other conservative commentators are saying these days.
They are urging boycotts and battle plans at stores that say happy holidays rather than merry Christmas, worried that Christ is being taken out of Christmas.
They are raging at President Bush for sending out a card wishing everyone happy holidays instead of merry Christmas.
They point in outrage to stories about schools banning the word Christmas and about Lowe’s selling holiday trees.
So how does Lancaster feel about it all?
We asked shoppers at Central Market — where Happy Holidays signs share space with Merry Christmas signs — whether they were ready to do battle.
And we asked some ministers their opinion in this holid...er, Christmas season.
The response was pretty consistent: Nobody is interested in a war.
Everyone wants everyone to be able to say “merry Christmas” if they choose to do so, but they don’t see anything wrong with saying “happy holidays.”
And they don’t believe that stores have much of anything to do with the true meaning of Christmas.
“I don’t expect Target and J.C. Penney to uphold the meaning of Christmas,” says the Rev. Joel Devinney, of Grace Baptist Church in Millersville. “And I don’t really expect my school district or my government to define Christmas. I think it’s valuable for them to recognize and understand the importance of Christmas, but I don’t expect them to define the significance of Christ’s birth.”
“It’s not a war around here,” says retiree Bruce Williams, 67, of Lancaster. “You just don’t want to hurt other people’s feelings.”
“I don’t particularly see a problem,” says Angie Schadt, 31, a portfolio manager at Fulton Bank. “I would be upset if I was told I had to say ‘happy holidays,’ but when I was working as a teller in the bank, I’d say ‘happy holidays’ because you were working with so many different people.”
Besides, Schadt, of Ephrata, says, it’s up to individuals to get past the commericalism of the season.
“My daughter and I are going to a Nativity scene. I don’t want her to lose the true meaning of Christmas,” she says.
“For most people, the Christmas season is still a very spiritual experience,” says the Rev. Nathan Baxter, rector of St. James Episcipal Church. “Those of us who are Christians have an obligation, in the best spirit of it, to offer people a merry or a happy Christmas. We hope they can find the joy we find thinking that God really does love us.
But not necessarily at the mall.
“The motivations are different for Wal-Mart. It’s a commercial time,” Baxter says. “They ask themselves, ‘How can we appeal to a broader audience and make people comfortable so they will buy?’ ”
Baxter does think the poltical- correctness factor is a bit extreme. For example, he would encourage stores to sell Christmas trees, not holiday trees.
“But on the other hand, I wouldn’t excommunicate them or, if they are a Christian, say they didn’t love Jesus,” Baxter says. “They are trying to be as customer friendly as possible.”
That’s not to say that some people don’t overreact to the whole thing.
Rob Brock, who runs Hole in the Wall Puppet Theatre, remembers somebody from the YWCA telling him they couldn’t bring a group of kids to see “Cinderella’s Christmas” because it had the word Christmas in it.
“I said, ‘Excuse me, aren’t you from the Young Women’s Christian Association?’ ” Brock recalls with an exasperated laugh.
“As a Christian, I don’t have any problem with saying, ‘Happy Holidays,’ Brock says. “But you know, it’s too bad you never see programs like ‘The Gift of the Magi’ or ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ anymore.”
Can people be too sensitive?
“I don’t think reasonable people, even of different faiths, are offended by the term merry Christmas,” says Devinney. “If someone said, ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ it wouldn’t ruin me.”
“Pick a subject and you can find people who will be too sensitive,” says Chris Modlin, 46, a Realtor from Lancaster. “But I’ve got more important things to worry about.”
Besides, like many of the people we talked to, Modlin believes Christmas is what you make it.
“I’m volunteering at St. James. I’m going to be there Christmas morning, serving breakfast,” he says. “I’m hoping that’s what it’s all about.”
“I think everyone has the right to do what they want to do,” says Margot Tomlinson, 61, a psychotherapist from Lancaster. “At Christmas we should focus more on loving.”
Omar Saif, 52, who runs a Middle Eastern food stand at Central Market and is a Muslim, has no problems with people saying ‘merry Christmas’ to him.
“I’m from Jerusalem, where we celebrate all religious holidays. You have to get along,” he says.
Sometimes, rumors fuel the fires of the Christmas war.
The New Era recieved a letter from a woman who was upset because “it has come to my attention that Lancaster General Hospital is not putting its tree over the fountain because someone has said it offends them.”
Not so.
“We learned the structural integrity of the tree on a pedestal above the fountain was not as strong as we wanted,” says LGH spokeman John Lines. “We still have our Christmas tree on the roof, which can be seen for miles, and there are about 50 trees around here.”
But, Lines says, the hospital is sensitive to the issue.
“Thousands of people visit or are patients during December, and they include a wide range of cultures and diverse beliefs,” he says. “Our decorations recognize the diversity of the celebrations that occur during this time.”
And despite rumors that saying “Christmas” in a public school is becoming illegal, plenty of schools offer concerts during the season that include both secular and religious songs.
“We want to be respectful of the many celebrations our students and staff observes,” says Kelly Herr, a spokeswoman for the School Distirct of Lancaster. “But we have no policies saying you can’t say ‘merry Christmas.’ ”
Baxter worries that people urging boycotts and decrying a “war” on Christmas aren’t doing their cause any good.
“Maybe I am naive, but I think putting so much weight on it is making us militant aggressors, which I think is harmful to the spirit of Christmas,” he says.
“At this time of year, love is high in people’s hearts.”
