Category: Faith

Use common sense people.

When I call a business and they say “Happy Holidays” I am not offended (after all, Holiday is taken from the words Holy Day). While the odds are huge that here in America I celebrate Christmas (if only in a secular way) I can understand you don’t know on the front end of a phone call or as I walk up to the register. But— When I say at the end of the call (as just happened) “Thank you have a Merry Christmas.” Your reply should not be (as just happened), “Thank you, and .. (slight pause to catch yourself from the reflex of responding in kind) .. Happy Holidays.”

I heard the pause and the felt the awkward stumbling over Happy Holidays. So I had to ask, “Excuse me, I just said ‘Merry Christmas’ to you and you said ‘Happy Holidays’. Are you not allowed to say Merry Christmas? As you can guess, she said, “No sir, I am not. It’s a company policy.” I remained calm and tried to use logic, “But I just said it to you &#8212 so you are sure not going to offend me, ya know what I mean?” “Yes sir, but this call is recorded and… ” in other words, she’d get in trouble.

I thank her and move on to her supervisor. I then proceed to try and use logic again to explain to the supervisor that my problem was not with the operator, but with the company policy and that I WAS THE ONE WHO SAID MERRY CHRISTMAS FIRST! (All caps now because it’s crazy &#8212 I was not upset with her)

Finally I said, “Look, I understand your afraid to say Merry Christmas on the front end of the call, but at the end if I say Merry Christmas, you should respond in kind. If you say ‘Happy Kwanzaa’ to me, I’m not going to be offended &#8212 you wished me well based on your beliefs &#8212 ‘thank you and happy Kwanzaa to you.’ I don’t care if you wish me ‘Happy Festivus.’ If you wish me well, I’ll not be offended. But an intentional effort to NOT wish me a Merry Christmas when I just wished you one, DOES offend me.

Use common sense people.

And have a Merry Christmas.

It’s not an exteme case. This is the norm for Islam – “The religion of peace”.

Apostates from Islam
THE NEWS THAT, DESPITE the Afghan parliament’s last-minute attempts to prevent him from leaving, Abdul Rahman has been given asylum in Italy has drawn a global sigh of relief. But now is not the time to forget the issue. The case of Rahman–an Afghan Christian tried for the capital crime of apostasy–is not the only one, even in Afghanistan, and is unusual only in that, for once, the world paid attention and demanded his release. But there are untold numbers in similar situations that the world is ignoring.

Two other Afghan converts to Christianity were arrested in March, though, for security reasons, locals have asked that their names and locations be withheld. In February, yet other converts had their homes raided by police.

Some other Muslim countries have laws similar to Afghanistan’s. Apart from its other depredations, in the last ten years Saudi Arabia has executed people for the crimes of apostasy, heresy, and blasphemy. The death penalty for apostates is also in the legal code in Iran, Sudan, Mauritania, and the Comoros Islands.
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