I am so sick of extremist Christians - Democratic Underground

LiberalEsto

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Sun Nov-13-11 02:41 PM
Original message

I am so sick of extremist Christians

Someone I've been friends with since childhood shocked me today by sending me the following email:

"CHRISTIANS EVERYWHERE:

What a clever idea! Yes, Christmas cards. This is coming early so that you can get ready to include an important address to your list.

Want to have some fun this CHRISTMAS?

Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year.

As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world. Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it.

Here's the address, just don't be rude or crude:
ACLU
125 Broad Street , 18th Floor
New York , NY 10004

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations because they wouldn't know if any were regular mail containing contributions. So spend 44 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a " Holiday Tree". It's always been called a CHRISTMAS TREE!

And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!!

For those of you who aren't aware of them, the ACLU, (the American Civil Liberties Union) is the one suing theU.S. Government to take God, Christmas or anything religious away from us. They represent the atheists and others in this war. Help put Christ back in Christmas!

** Suggestion: Pass this on to your church, co-workers, family, and friends. What do you have to lose but 44 cents, what do you have to gain --- more than you may ever know possible."

My response:

I think this is a horrible idea.

The ACLU defends anyone whose constitutional rights have been violated, including Christians. They support plenty of people with whose ideas I strongly disagree,but I understand that we have to stand up for our constitutional rights, or risk losing them.

I used to work for Americans for Religious Liberty, an organization that supports keeping church and state separate. There is no place in our Declaration of Independence or our Bill of Rights that says our government is Christian-only and that the government should support Christian holidays and beliefs with taxpayer money. Or ANY religion.

I do not consider myself a Christian, and I do consider the far-right extremist Christian movement to be a serious threat to our democracy.

Nobody is trying to take their God or their religion away from Christians. It is wrong, however, to spend public taxpayer money supporting the holiday of one single religion with displays in publicly owned places. Government should not sponsor religion. Our Constitution tells us this.

How would they like it if we Wiccans demanded that OUR holidays get big displays on public property, paid for with your tax dollars? What would they think if we wanted Wiccan beliefs incorporated into the public school curriculum?

How would they feel if Moslems, one of the fastest-growing religions in the U.S., were to demand tax dollars and space in front of a city hall to put up a huge display to celebrate one of their holidays.

Please don't send me anything like this again. I find it offensive.