NOREEN: Imagine everybody friendly for a change

One side says "Imagine no religion" and some of us respond, "Imagine no billboards."

The other side castigates people and businesses for saying "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and some of us wonder "What would Jesus do?"

The Freedom from Religion Foundation has purchased the "Imagine" billboards in many cities and has the billboard on North Academy Boulevard until Dec. 4. The organization says the idea behind "Imagine no religion" is to get people to think, but the fact that some religious people see it as a finger in the eye does not trouble Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom from Religion Foundation.

"How many church marquees do I drive by that insult atheists?" she asked. "The only way for this kind of bigotry to end is for atheists to speak out."

Newspaper columnists know it's easy to make people mad but much more difficult to get them to think.

Jim Jungiohann, a Castle Rock man who scouted out billboard locations for the Freedom from Religion Foundation, acknowledged he tried to find one as close as possible to Focus on the Family headquarters. Sorry, Ms. Gaylor, but the suggestion that you're not merely using billboards to get in someone's face is disingenuous.

Gaylor said the "Imagine" billboards are deliberately trying to channel John Lennon, whose famous song urged imagining no religion.
But other Lennon songs said that "whatever gets you through the night is all right" and "all you need is love."

When the Freedom from Religion Foundation uses one bit of Lennon lyrics to make its case, it sounds a bit like Christian sophistry that uses one piece of convenient scripture to support a political stance. Perhaps the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Focus on the Family are more alike than either of them would like us to believe.

Which brings us to Focus on the Family's "Merry Tossmas" campaign, complete with its "Christmas-offensive" and "Christmas-negligent" retailers. The idea is to toss out any ads that do not use the word "Christmas."

The campaign is underscored by the idea that to say "happy holidays" is dissing Jesus and that "Merry Christmas" is the only correct greeting.

Really? Wanna bet your WWJD bracelet on it?

Does Focus really think Jesus would insist that a seasonal greeting would have to include homage to him, or would he be OK with "happy holidays"?

Here's the closest Focus came to a straight answer to that question:

"I won't presume to speak for Jesus," Focus spokesman Gary Schneeberger said, "but his is the name above all names. To those of us who celebrate Dec. 25 to honor his birth - and 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas - it only seems right that his name ought to be mentioned as part of the holiday, too."

The fact that the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Focus on the Family do not intend to provoke anger doesn't make their actions any less provocative.

Clearly, one side doesn't want to hear any holiday greeting at all and the other side finds something pernicious in wishing someone "happy holidays."

Maybe we should turn the other cheek and stop going out of our way to make people angry.

Let's extend a holiday wish everyone can get behind: Peace on Earth.
-
Contact Noreen at 636-0363 or noreen@gazette.com. He appears Fridays on KOAA TV channels 5/30 at noon and on KRDO radio 105.5 FM and 1240 AM at 6:40 a.m.