200,000 Christian Shoppers Are Wearing "It's OK to Wish Me A Merry Christmas" Buttons
November 25, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
There are plenty of creative and effective things Catholics and other Christians can do to push back against militant secularism, and this new button campaign is a good example. It’s an overt way of publicly making an important point — i.e., Christmas is about Christmas, not some generic “holidays” — and you don’t even have to open your mouth to do it. To be sure, wearing one of these buttons will likely lead to opportunities to speak verbally about this message, but even if no one queries (or challenges) you about it, they will read the message, and it will stick with them.
With over 200,000 buttons on the streets and in stores this year, local store associates are likely to be presented with the opportunity to deviate from the corporate holiday wishing policy of top retailers like the Gap and Best Buy, and stealthily wish their customer “Merry Christmas” instead of the generic “Happy Holidays”. But since 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas (Gallup Poll, 2004), it’s likely that the store cashiers would prefer to wish their customers “Merry Christmas” as well. In fact 88% of Americans state that “It’s okay to wish ‘Merry Christmas’.” (Gallup Poll). . . . (source)Over 200,000 shoppers are wearing buttons this Christmas season that proclaim a straightforward message to retailers: “It’s OK, Wish Me A Merry Christmas(tm).” Individuals and churches around the country are partnering with the Wish Me A Merry Christmas Campaign mobilizing advocates energized for a return to the traditional, convivial greeting, bearing buttons that make a clear statement – “It’s OK, Wish Me A Merry Christmas(tm) (www.wmamc.com)”. Over 200,000 of these buttons have been distributed nationally.
I am really amused how American civil leaders are so afraid to claim Christmas holidays as something "Christian" in origin. The same way that Eid Al-Adha is something Islamic.
Forbidding American Christians (Catholics) to wish one another with "Merry Christmas" is completely ridiculous to most of us outside the land of the free United States of America. In the Middle East where I worked with many languages, races and religion, they never restricted themselves in greeting everyone (regardless whether they're talking with Christians, Bhuddists, Hindus, Sheikhs-even Muslims do) with utmost honesty and respect "Merry Christmas" because they know Christmas is something Christian.
A Land of the Free? I deeply doubt that.
Thanks Mr. Madrid and God bless you and your loved ones… advance MERRY CHRISTMAS!