"It's that time of year, Christmastime is here. And with the blessings from above. Everyone's okay, Merry Christmas Happy Holidays" is a line from a classic christmas song: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by N SYNC. This song blared over the speakers as I was in a store the other night and I had to do a double take. No, I did not forget to type a line in from the song, they took a line out of the song. The company actually took "God sends you his love" out of the entire song. Clearly, this angered me because well, here I am writing an article about it. But I just felt like screaming SERIOUSLY?! on the phone with someone at corporate. I could not believe that of all things, that line was taken out of a song because it would seem controversial to some people. This entire thing got me thinking: why are we acting like Jesus is not the reason for the season?
I think it is important to remember why we are even listening to Christmas music in the first place. It is Jesus' birthday, of course! Without this monumental birth we would not even celebrate Christmas, so why is religion being factored out of this holiday? The holiday's origin is 100% religious, there is just no hiding that, so why must we act as though it isn't just to make people comfortable? Regardless of anyone's beliefs or religion: Jesus is still the reason for the season.
Why can't we coexist? I know this is an impossible question, especially nowadays, but why is it so hard to accept what other people believe in and move on? For the first time in my life, there is a menorah in my local mall. Am I offended because I do not celebrate Hanukkah? Absolutely not. It doesn't concern me or cause any harm- so why not have a menorah? I think we are all too worried about offending someone or being offended and it needs to come to an end. For the upcoming holiday season why can't we just believe what we believe and let the rest be?
After all, maybe we should be listening to the Christmas songs that are playing all around us and take a cue from them, "Let your heart be light", "Let there be Peace on earth!", "Joy to the world, the Lord has come!" It truly is the "most wonderful time of the year" and we need to let go of all the judgement and concerns of offending other people when it comes to our own beliefs. We are all entitled to our own beliefs, ideas, and religion. And truthfully, that company removing the religious aspect of that song maybe did make someone else feel better but in the same token, it made me feel sad. We need to continue to keep Christ in Christmas and remember, above all things, Jesus is still the reason for the season: if we let Him be.
