My Christmas experiment - freedom of religion and speech
The word 'Christmas' has often been replaced with the generic 'holidays'. I'm not saying everyone should convert to saying 'Christmas' (after all, there are a lot of atheists, Jews and so on who don't believe in Christmas or have their own holidays of different nomenclature). However, I realized I personally had got to the stage where I was almost afraid to say 'Christmas' for fear of offending someone. I needed to address this in a way that was (hopefully) non-offensive to others, but where I am clearly standing up for my beliefs. Here started my Christmas experiment, which was to wear a T-shirt saying 'Merry Christmas! Happy birthday Jesus' during my Christmas travel (two flights each way). I was curious. Would anyone say anything to me at all about this? Would anyone take open offense? The result? No-one said anything to me either way. My belief in fellow man's tolerance for freedom of speech and of religion was largely regained ...