I come to you good people of DU to ask a question of the season

My friend always has this holiday bash for Christmas EVERY YEAR! My friend is rather unique and has friends from all different religious backgrounds, economic walks of life, lifestyles. She decorates her house to reflects her friend's various celebrations.


Out in her back yard she has Christmas tree(loves Christmas trees-- in fact in her house she has about 25 of various sizes in each room all decorated in a them--Peanuts(Charlie Brown) Cooking theme in the kitchen--etc.) and also various other decorations which are not Christmas in nature.

Her nearest neighbor who lives 2 miles from her saw her decorations and is now driving her insane. Stating she is not a True Christian and she should be ashamed of what she is doing. Going as far as to say she is"making a mockery out of a noble loving holiday".

Yes the neighbor is a Fundie and has getting his fundie friends to harass her too. She has been thinking and has the money to move the party to a reception hall but She then thinks "WTF I have lived on this land longer and have had this party here for years.

So if you were in her shoes what would you do?

Invite the fundie as well.

How often are you going to cross paths with this person?

Easy solution. Ignore them.

OP

everytime he leaves his house.

I mean, I could be more sympathetic if the offended one was a neighbor in a housing development, or a townhouse situation, but 2 miles away?

As long as there are no zoning codes to the contrary, everyone has their own rights on their personal property and freedom of expression on their own land.

OP.... Ba-humbug to Mr.Grinch.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_tree.htm

Origins of the Christmas Tree:

Pagan traditions: Many Pagan cultures used to cut down evergreen trees in December, moved them into the home or temple and decorated them. 7 Modern-day Pagans still do. This was to recognize the winter solstice -- the time of the year that had the shortest daylight hours, and longest night of the year. This occurs annually sometime between DEC-20 to 23. They noticed that the days were gradually getting shorter; many feared that the sun would eventually disappear forever, and everyone would freeze. But, even though deciduous trees, bushes, and crops died or hibernated for the winter, the evergreen trees remained green. They seemed to have magical powers that enabled them to withstand the rigors of winter. Not having evergreen trees, the ancient Egyptians considered the palm tree to symbolize resurrection. They decorated their homes with its branches during the winter solstice. 3

"The first decorating of an evergreen tree began with the heathen Greeks and their worship of their god Adonia, who allegedly was brought back to life by the serpent Aessulapius after having been slain." 5

The ancient Pagan Romans decorated their "trees with bits of metal and replicas of their god, Bacchus . They also placed 12 candles on the tree in honor of their sun god" 2 Their mid-winter festival of Saturnalia started on DEC-17 and often lasted until a few days after the Solstice.

In Northern Europe, the ancient Druids tied fruit and attached candles to evergreen tree branches, in honor of their god Woden. Trees were viewed as symbolizing eternal life. This is the deity after which Wednesday was named. The trees joined holly, mistletoe, the wassail bowl and the Yule log as symbols of the season. All predated Christianity.

"Christian"- fundie complaints about Christmas or any other event that predated their narrow vision. God, it irritates me when people are ignorant about the past and can't see that many of their prized rituals are "pagan" historical, anachronistic, what have you. I wish these folks had the werewithal to open a book, do a little research and decrease their ignorance. I'd tell the unaware neighbor to get bent. In a nice way of course.

Then it's gonna be up to the neigbor to look like even more of an ass if he/she feels the need to refuse the invitation; and it builds instant goodwill on the part of your friend.

Also, remember, Jesus never turned anyone away - make sure your friend says something like "In the spirit of the season, celebrating the birth of the one who never refused anyone's request for his time or presence, I invite you to the party in the spirit of Jesus' radical inclusiveness."

forgiving, teaching, winning hearts and minds, positive, patient, and intolerant mostly of cruelty and hypocrisy. Hmm. Wonder how many of these folks missed that. :)

and have the party anyway. Turn the music up loud too.

VERY rudely. basically tied the invitation to a rock and threw it at her door. This made her anger and bought about this question.

have ALL THE FUN. All attendees should make the 2 mile pilgrimage for a midnight prayer in front of Sour Puss's house.

Tell your friend to have a marvelous time.

Christions. 2. How is it a "loving" holiday, if she he can't love your friends' love of her friends and acceptance of their beliefs?

edit: changed she to he

If this Fundie p.o.s. lives two miles away, what the hell is he doing hanging around your friend's property, giving her shit about not being a good fundie "Christian" like him? At two miles away, I'd hardly consider that person a neighbor. But even if he was, say, a next-door neighbor, that still wouldn't give him the right to behave this way. What an EGO that asshole must have!

You said he basically attached the invitation to a rock and threw it at her door. Was he on her property when he did so...because that is trespassing, which is not okay for him to do! I'd say that would definitely be considered harassment, at the least, but possibly even assault in a legal sense. This guy sounds like a real asshole, and although your friend understandably wants to avoid a huge conflict, this really sounds like a matter for the police.

I wish your friend the best with this...I hope she has a big, wonderful extravaganza! :party:

And I hope the Fundie morAn gets a lump of coal and some dog crap in his stocking for Xmas. :evilgrin:

1 The neighbor needs to pass my friend's house when he leaves the house. It ends up being a dead end road and her house is like the first house on the street. (if you can call the road they live on a street.)anyways the road also curves giving everyone a prime view of her back yard.

2 He has a good Arm He stopped his pick up in front of her drive way and threw it at the front door. Found out the Guy was a pitcher of his high school baseball team.


Makes things clearer?

I live out in the sticks where situations such as that are common...long dead end roads, shared driveways, etc. Still doesn't give someone the right to throw rocks at your house, or tell you how you can decorate your lawn just because they see it when they drive by, though. In my travels each day I see a few junked-up cars, a sign stating the 10 Commandments, and one house that still has a HUGE obnoxious Bush/Cheney sign on full display on the front lawn. None of these are things I want to look at day in and day out, but I would never have the audacity to harass these people for how they choose to "decorate" their property. If they want to be tacky, that's their business, not mine. :evilgrin:

I just hope this all resolves itself peacefully for your friend.

first it's the time life classic rock commercials,now this

Tommy, can you hear me?