I received another chain letter today.  This one was urging people to flood the ACLU offices with Christmas Cards because the ACLU is trying to “take God, Christmas or anything religious away from us.”

These kinds of things always get me going and I find it hard to just let them slide.  Chain letters like this one usually include an incredibly long list of email addresses and this one did not disappoint.   I sent the following to each and every one of the addresses on the list (BCC of course).

1. This has been circulating since 2003.  I would think that the ACLU has figured out how to deal with this by now.  See: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/12/9/191515.shtml
   
   
2. The ACLU defends the rights of all Americans as enshrined in the constitution. However, because the ACLU is often better known for its work preventing the government from promoting and funding selected religious activities, it is sometimes wrongly assumed that the ACLU does not zealously defend the rights of all religious believers to practice their faith.  They work both sides of this issue always on the side of the people against the government.  If you think about it, it is probably better that there’s a group actively keeping the government out of religion.  Having the government involved in religion rarely ever results in anything good for people of any faith.  See: http://www.aclu.org/aclu-defense-religious-practice-and-expression
   
   
3. You might consider whether engaging in deliberate deception and attempting to sabotage an organization isn’t against what Christmas is supposed to be about.
   
   
4. It hasn’t always been a “Christmas” tree.  The practice of decorating evergreens dates back to pagan celebrations.  It was used by the Greeks in their worship of their god Adonia.  The Romans used evergreens in their celebration of Saturnalia and the ancient Germanic people, who are often credited with inventing the Christmas tree, decorated evergreens in their celebrations and worship of their god Woden.  Because the practice was so closely linked to so many pagan rituals, it was originally forbidden by the Church.  It wasn’t until the 16^th century that it was tolerated by the church.   See: http://landscaping.about.com/cs/winterlandscaping1/a/christmas_trees.htm and http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_tree.htm
   
   
5. When you send a mass mailing out, it is more polite to use BCC to protect the privacy of the recipients.  See: http://bccplease.com/ or http://www.cs.rutgers.edu/~watrous/bcc-for-privacy.html