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Ben Stein's odd words about Christmas

According to a popular Christmas-time forward, which has been deemed as "partly true" by fact-checker Snopes.com (or partly false), conservative talking head and man voted to have a more boring voice than a robot by the name of Dullby - Ben Stein - had this to say about the holiday season:

"I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat."

Like many over at Fox News, it appears as if Ben Stein feels that there's an all-out "War on Christmas" in this country. To Stein and his ilk, saying "Happy Holidays!" to a person can be translated to, "God is not present among us!"

What puzzles me about Stein's quote and his mindset on this issue is he seems to believe that by some people opening up the Christmas season to more groups of people, it means America has become an atheist country. Atheists don't believe in God, so why would someone, who doesn't believe in any of the major holidays around this time of year (Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa), tell people, "Happy Holidays!" as an illustration that this country is atheist? That doesn't make a bit of sense to me. When someone says, "Happy Holidays," it typically means they're expressing to a person or group of people to have a great holiday season, regardless if they're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, etc. So, why would an atheist both admit that such religious holidays exist and wish nothing but good times for people whom practice religion during these holidays, which are celebrating a God in which they don't believe?

A family: "Happy Holidays to everyone!"

Ben Stein: "Atheists!"


With that kind of thinking, Stein would likely react in the following manner to these made-up quotes:

Pastor of a Methodist church: "We're welcoming of all people, regardless of their orientation. Whether they're straight, gay, bi, or transgender, they're welcome here as children of God."

Stein: "Oh, so you're a heterophobe, are you? I see how you are!"


Golf club president: "No matter if you're white, black, brown, yellow, pink, or purple, you are welcome to become a member of this club."

Stein: "Why are you so against white people?"


Feminist: "I believe women deserve equal rights as men. We deserve to receive equal pay as men for performing the same job at the same level."

Stein: "You're so anti-man, it's not even funny! Sexist!"


Yes, Mr. Stein, because by including everyone in an event, it's obvious we strongly disagree with one of these groups and want to do away with them. Well, I must be going. I'm going to invite all of my neighbors to a party for the sole purpose of proving I don't like one family in particular. Yeah, I'm sure that's going to work...

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/confessions.asp#ZlxtOd53dQTgZd8E.99

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