The Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights (www.catholicleague.org) launched a boycott against
Wal-Mart on November 10th not because of a complaint from a member that
Wal-Mart stores replaced the term "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays", but
because of the reply they received from a Wal-Mart Customer Service
Representative regarding the change. The Catholic League posted the Wal-Mart
reply to their web site as follows:
"Wal-Mart is a
world wide organization and must remain conscious of this. The majority of the
world still has different practices other than 'christmas' which is an ancient
tradition that has its roots in Siberian shamanism. The colors associated with
'christmas' red and white are actually a representation of of the aminita
mascera mushroom. Santa is also borrowed from the Caucuses, mistletoe from the
Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth and the tree from
the worship of Baal. It is a wide wide world." (The Wal-Mart reply had
Christmas in all lower case, as is the double-'of'.)
The above reply was not only offensive to the
Catholic League, but to executives at Wal-Mart as well, who responded:
"As a retailer, we recognize some of our customers
may be shopping for Chanukah or Kwanza gifts during this time of year and we
certainly want these customers in our stores and to feel welcome, just as we do
those buying for Christmas. As an employer, we recognize the significance of
the Christmas holiday among our family of associates.and close our stores in
observance, the only day during the year that we are closed."
This, however, was not satisfying to the Catholic
League, especially in the light of the first comment from the Customer Service
Department of Wal-Mart, which was not retracted, thus a boycott notice was sent
to 126 religious leaders, according to the Catholic League on November 10,
2005.
In response, Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman
released a statement on November 11, 2005 saying, "We sincerely apologize to
any person or organization that was offended by the inappropriate and
inflammatory comments made by this former associate."
The Catholic League did not get everything they
wanted, as Wal-Mart will continue to use the term 'Happy Holidays' to reflect,
as they say, the multiple religions of their customers. That was acceptable to
the Catholic League which also recognizes the multitude of religions of their
customers and the fact that their boycott was based on the reply by the
now-fired customer service representative who sent out the initial missive. The
boycott was effective, as the Catholic League accomplished their goals and the
boycott ended after about 24 hours.
The fallout of
the situation has had far reaching implications. Despite the boycott being
cancelled, many people are upset and still prefer to boycott Wal-Mart with the
more basic issue as the reason - Wal-Mart associates will not say Merry
Christmas. Oddly enough, the people who claim to be offended by the term Merry
Christmas are not the people the original complaint is from or about. Jews of
all denominations, for example, are not offended by the term, as Jews recognize
this is a Christian country. In general, when someone sees a person clearly
identified as being Jewish, they are usually greeted with Happy Hanukah anyhow
out or respect. The people most offended by the term Merry Christmas are
atheists and agnostics who are offended by religion itself - these people will
not be happy regardless what the greeting is because even the term Happy
Holidays recognizes a holiday, or holy day.
Last
year, Federated Department Stores reportedly felt the effects financially after
refusing to say Merry Christmas and instead saying Happy Holidays. This year,
Wal-Mart is walking the same road, but they would have stayed under the radar
if one of their CSR's did not try and teach religion to the Catholic League.
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