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Originally Posted by Mr. V
I enjoy Easter and Christmas but I have to wonder whether in this ever-increasingly politically correct world we live in here in the USA these two religious holidays will fall by the wayside due to their religious foundation?
Same with some wording in the pledge of allegiance: why should a non-believer swear allegiance to "one nation, under god" if he/she is an atheist?
I'm an atheist and while I don't care enough to challenge the current state of things I do believe 'twould be better to swear allegiance to "one nation, under law."
Just sayin;.
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Under US folklore, the Pilgrims, which were mostly Puritans, came to the New World to escape taxes paid to the Church... they didn't believe in Christmas as it is not biblical and largely based on the RCC rendering Saturnalia into a less pagan holiday. By the way, we also don't actually celebrate Christmastime... which is the holiday. Most don't even know what Epiphany is, or its significance.
Also the Greatest Generation, and the ones prior to it, did not have even the original Pledge to say in school... that was added for the Boomers; and the ''under God" was added per Ike. The Puritans would have seen it as heresy, since only an allegiance to God was acceptable. Today JWs will not say the Pledge because of this belief.
I've even seen people state we were founded as a Judo-christian nation... but the Article of Confederation that founded the USA did not have anything specifically about Freedom of Religion. And the Freedom of Religion that we adhere to today was not the original. Jews and Catholics in NH could not vote nor hold public office - including being a public school teacher.
The restriction on taxes going to private schools was mostly an added amendment once the US Con 14th ratified and fear was that money would flow to the private Catholic schools that had arisen in the State.
Easter is a little more tricky. Our Sunday Sabbath wasn't really created until Constantine. Long after Jesus would have risen. Scholars believed that Easter was moved to Sunday (unsure of the actual day) because the gathering of the Mass would already be established. And it still contains a lot of pagan undertones... the eggs and the rabbit are ancient tokens of fertility.
Since both holidays are lot more commercial than religious... I doubt that they would ever truly go away. Many retailers will close on Christmas, but only because they do not feel that they would make enough revenue to cover expenses and see a profit. It is also the reason that ''Happy Holidays'' is used. The retailers wanted to extend the shopping season after we moved to a consumption-based economy... and the song ''Happy Holiday''; which was part of ''White Christmas'' became a popular Christmas song in the 50s because stores played it so much. From that we also get ''Black Friday'', and now ''Cyper Monday''... but as retailers compete, the virtue of Thanksgiving goes to the wayside and we start seeing Christmas earlier and earlier.