Wal-Mart hates Christmas

[Walt Starr]

Spread this to anybody you know who shops Wal-Mart.

This is one time when Progressives should join the Catholic League. Spread the word, Wal-Mart hates Christmas!

:evilgrin:

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47345

[ixion]

1. personally, I say 'Happy Holidays'

so this particular one is a-okay with me, although I still will not set foot in a Wal-Mart if there's any way to avoid it. ;-)

[BiggJawn]

2. Interesting....

They sell Nativity scenes of all sizes and colours, but not a Menorah or Yule Log to be seen.

[Ian David]

3. They didn't say anything about Wal-Mart hating the poor and the sick?

But when Wal-Mart disses Santa Claus and the Christmas Tree...

Oh, that's un-Christian!

November 10, 2005

WAL-MART HAS BEEN PUT ON NOTICE

Bill Donohue commented today on the latest development in the Catholic League’s fight with Wal-Mart:



“Yesterday, I announced a boycott of Wal-Mart and asked 126 religious organizations that span seven faith communities to join with us. We want a) an apology for insulting Christians by effectively banning Christmas and b) a withdrawal of its insane statement regarding the origins of Christmas and c) a revision on its website.



“The piece today by Joe Kovacs on worldnetdaily.com quotes Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jolanda Stewart saying, ‘We already serve a diverse customer base, and we’re just trying to help them to celebrate their individual needs and wants.’ I thought Wal-Mart was a department store—not a Wellness Center.



“Stewart’s remark is flatulent. If Wal-Mart had a ‘Holiday’ section on its website that directed customers to its Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa sites, that would not be objectionable. What is objectionable is its steadfast defense of the statement about the origins of Christmas as crafted by its Customer Relations department, and the way its customers are directed online to find Christmas items. Searches for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa direct customers to the Jewish and African-American holiday sections, but searches for Christmas are directed to the ‘Holiday’ section. Ergo, Wal-Mart discriminates in its treatment of Christmas.



“Today, I e-mailed Dan Fogleman, Senior Manager of Public Relations, letting him know the following: ‘Now that Wal-Mart is standing by its position, I hope you’re ready for our next move. Don’t forget, we have the next six weeks to pull out all the stops, and we will.’”

The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. It defends individual Catholics and the institutional Church from defamation and discrimination.

More:
http://www.catholicleague.org/05press_releases/quarter%204/051110_put_on_notice.htm

[lapfog_1]

4. Not to mention that their main complaint is stupid

"What is objectionable is its steadfast defense of the statement about
the origins of Christmas as crafted by its Customer Relations department".

CNN didn't report exactly what was in that statement, but the morning morons did spend 5 minutes making fun of it (Visigoths? How could anyone be so dumb to believe that Christmas has anything to do with Visigoths, thus spake the idiots on the American Morning program).

WalMart, of course, fired the person who wrote the statement.
Never mind the facts:
http://www.ktm.fi/files/14243/IIe.htm

[Ian David]

5. Next they'll say that The Easter Bunny has nothing to do with Jesus

A magical bunny that lays eggs and distributes candy is right there in The Bible! Right along with Christmas Trees, The Maypole Dance, and Santa Claus!

[Ian David]

7. This year Jesus' birthday (15th of Tishri) fell on October 18th

This isn't the best site to go to, but it agrees with what I've seen elsewhere. And this site also has free MP3 music. I don't normally cite Jews For Jesus as a source. But anyway, I think they got this part right...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS
Not at Christmas, but at Tabernacles


When was Jesus Born?
Jesus was born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles,
in the fall of the year. To be exact, He was born on Tishri 15,
which this year is the eve of October 17th and the day of October 18th, 2005.

This birth date rotates with the Jewish calendar, so that means
that next year, 2006, it will be on a different date on our Gentile calendars.
It might be easier to remember to simply say that Jesus' birthday is the first day of the feast of Tabernacles
(Booths, Succoth, Ingathering).

The Feast of Tabernacles is a 7 day feast where the people make booths, or shelters, to remind them of life's temporary dwelling. It would be similar to our putting up tents and camping for a week. Then when the week was up, there would be a reluctance to let the holiday go. So God added a special extra 8th day.
Well, that worked out so well that the people said, "just one more" and
what started out to be 7 days, turned out to be a full 9 days. It was so filled with joy, happiness, fellowship and good times that it was called ,
"The Season of our Joy"..."Zeman Simchateinu".

<snip>

WHERE IN THE SCRIPTURES ?

More:
http://www.cybertime.net/~ajgood/HBJ.htm

[Inland]

10. Where were you a month ago? I didn't get my cards out. nt

[Ian David]

11. The Catholic League's strange relations with Wal-Mart

Government resistance to vouchers—or their exclusion of religious schools—have spawned an outpouring of private grants for school choice. By the end of 1997, Heritage notes, there were over 35 privately sponsored programs providing vouchers for nearly 20,000 low-income children—and over 40,000 parents had put their names on waiting lists for these scholarships. Sol Stern and Bruno Manno report in the Manhattan Institute’s Summer 1998 City Journal that a group of philanthropists led by venture capitalist Ted Forstmann and Wal-Mart heir John Walton have "announced a $200 million national fund" to provide education vouchers for 50,000 low income children. The success of many of these private initiatives has subsequently spurred more state and local governments to action.

More:
http://www.catholicleague.org/research/hinshawpublicschools.htm


<snip>
Perhaps the most cogent comment came from Pastor Terry Brennan of Holy Trinity in Arroyo Seco. He urged the museum to remove "Our Lady," arguing that by doing so they would be following in the footsteps of Wal-Mart which had recently decided not to sell a book about Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber. Father Brennan also compared the museum treatment of the Virgin of Guadalupe to a sports team callously using Indian mascots. At the end of the day, it was still not decided what would be done about the art in question.

More:
http://www.catholicleague.org/catalyst/2001_catalyst/0501catalyst.htm


September 12
Charlottesville, WV - A booklet called Born Free! Liberty; how long? was distributed outside a Sam's Club/Wal-Mart store. The booklet is a diatribe against the Catholic Church including, "A religion of externals is attractive to the unrenewed heart. The pomp of the catholic {sic} worship has a seductive, bewitching power, by which many are deceived: and they come to look upon the Roman Church as the very gate of heaven." When a customer complained, officials at the stores asked the people handing out the booklet to stop.

More:
http://www.catholicleague.org/2001report/miscellaneous2001.html

NOWHERE IN ANY OF THEIR SITE DOES THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE CRITICIZE WAL-MART FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN DISRESPECTING SANTA CLAUS!

[Walt Starr]

17. Yep, but you take an ally where you can find one

And let's face it, those who are offended by this are also the mouthbreathing customer base of Wal-Mart who are doing all they can to buy cheap crap made in China! Piss them off, and Wal-Mart is through.

Wal-Mart cannot afford to offend any of their customer base and this issue will cause them to offend at least one sector no matter how they react.

[depakid]

6. Christmas red and white cames from amanita muscaria???

Never heard that one before.

Of course, it's better than the Coca cola legend....

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

[Cone10]

8. Walmart

I hate Walmart and protest by not giving them my money but I have to say I agree with them on this one. Although their reasons on based on their profits.
That email actually told the truth but Walmart could not condone it because it is worried about the all mighty dollar. Anyone who is educated and took a history of religion class in college knows that most of the traditions we use today in Christianity are based pagan traditions. By the way I am a Christian, I believe if you really want to celebrate the birth of Christ then live your life as he did.

[Ian David]

12. As a Jew, it is obvious to me that many of my traditions have pagan roots

Shaking palm leaves and fruit in the directions of the four compass points during Sukkot... it doesn't get any more Pagan than that!

Except maybe for that Christian Maypole Dance where children cavort around a giant phallus wrapping it in ribbons.

[Inland]

9. Another fracture line of conservatives.

Religious conservatives demand obeisance, and the corporate business interests just want to make money. Usually, the rift is disguised by handing the gold to mammon and the social issues to the godly, but here's a conflict.

[ReverendDeuce]

13. I don't particularly care what Wal-Mart does... but...

Honestly, aren't we over this whole Christmas thing? Don't we as a society have better things to debate than this? It's a complete distraction by the fundies.

[Kickin_Donkey]

14. This has been discussed on DU here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5328686

I don't shop at Wal-Mart, but I have to give them moral backing on this one. Sorry, I'll take religious diversity and inclusion over "Christian" victimhood (although I know Wally is doing it for business reasons).

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. The Wal-Mart email has to be the most hilarious thing I have read lately

And I have to believe it's almost a piece of guerrilla theater. I picture some recently employed, already disaffected Wal-Mart employee, who apparently wasted at least 30 years of their life obtaining a PHD in arcane folk ceremonies, getting that complaint and then just saying, "Oh f@!# it" and firing off that completely bizarre response. It kind of reminds me of something you would read in A Confederacy of Dunces.

[ucmike]

16. Giant retailers ruining christmas?????

i heard o'reilly doing a rant on macy's the other night. it's hilarious that they are outraged that stores that pander to the xmas buying frenzy are expected to uphold the sanctity of their particular christmas.

i don't remember the original christmas stories involving 50% sales. they are livid that the clerks don't say "merry xmas" but they have no problem that walmart and macys and other stores see the holidays as a retail bonanza and nothing else. they stand there at the register, cart full of made in china consumer crap for the family, surrounded by giant, garland draped displays, tin foil wrapped chocolate santas, 3 for 1 dvds, dusty nylon xmas trees, the whole thing sanctified by the canned generic carols over the loudspeakers, and then burst into righteous outrage when the clerk-who may be a buddhist, hindu, atheist, jew, or "other"-isn't required to acknowledge someone else's specific religious observation.

"TO HELL WITH YOUR BELIEFS WALMART CLERK! ACKNOWLEDGE MINE!!! SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS, GOD DAMMIT!!!...oh, and I thought the bags of xmas themed snickers bars with santa and the virgin mary sledding were supposed to be 30% off...thanks."

there's no comment on the fact that xmas has been turned into a celebration of buying and that the historic message of christmas is nearly completely obstructed. that's all irrelevant...

[sepia_steel]

18. not exactly on-topic, but

I am so disgusted by the celebs doing commercials for wal-mart.

SICK SICK SICK :puke:

[Michigander4Dean]

19. Not surprised, considering they hate Christian values. | nt

[Midnight Rambler]

20. I hate the Catholic League for making me side with Wal-Mart

As if there wasn't reason enough to hate them already. Bill Donahue has a persecution complex that puts all the other fundies to shame. Reminds me of that one Seinfeld where Jerry is on the Tonight Show making fun of Uncle Leo for calling everyone an anti-Semite. My food is cold, that waiter's an snti-Semite! He loses money on a horse race, Secretariat is an anti-Semite! Same thing with Bill Donahue. He probably thinks the guy who cut him off on the freeway is anti-Catholic.