Happy holidays: So what’s wrong with that?

From an editorial in the Columbia Daily Tribune, December 15, 2005.

"After all, that friendly admonition ["Happy Holidays"] can include those who get their jollies this time of year from paying homage to Jesus Christ as well as those who don’t, and there are millions of the latter. [more...]"

and a response:

"I’d like to say I take great offense at your disparaging remark about those of us who are devoted followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. How dare you have the audacity to denigrate those who follow the words and teachings of Jesus? It’s quite one thing being tolerant of all things, but to single out the believers of one particular faith, in this case the Christians, to belittle is inexcusable. In my opinion, you owe all Christians a huge apology."

The caller to "Trib Talk" is probably right but let's look at the response shall we?

How dare you have the audacity Sounds like a not-so-veiled threat to me.

It’s quite one thing being tolerant of all things, but to single out the believers of one particular faith...is inexcusable. The caller is also quite right; it is, "one thing being tolerant of all things," obviously the original writer was not, nor did he claim to be. That is his right just as she has a right to be angry with his opinion.

The caller is giving us another another example of the general fundamentalist paranoia which holds that anyone advocating "tolerance" is against Christianity (or whatever fundamentalist religion is being "belittled"). Sometimes the "tolerant" person is against Christianity but most often s/he is intolerant of the intolerance advocated by such hard-core fundamentalists.