All holidays are "made up". Jesus wasn't born on Dec 25, that was the day of a Pagan "holiday" that some Roman emperor decided to merge with his Christian subjects core belief, so now we have "Christmas".
Kwanzaa is the only "holiday" that celebrates and teaches African cultural principles.
Of course the GOP will dismiss it. They still haven't learned the lessons of the 2012 elections.
Originally Posted by markroxny
True. All holidays are made up. But some are more made up than others.
I think Orwell said that.
Do you really need a holiday to teach and celebrate "principles", as opposed to events or famous people?
And when you look at the definitions, are those really "African" principles? They look pretty generic to me.
Take Ujamaa, for example: "Cooperative economics emphasizes our collective economic strength and encourages us to meet common needs through mutual support."
That isn't really African. That's warmed over Marxism.
Which makes sense considering who Ron Karenga was - a 60s radical. He was basically substituting secular economic ideas for religious beliefs he didn't share. And he tried to sell it by wrapping it in African garb to sell it in the black community. It's more of a Trojan horse than it is a religious or cultural celebration.
I think black Christians of all people ought to be insulted by it and oppose it for leading young folks away from Christianity (to the extent that it actually does). And I say this as someone who is borderline atheist.
The rest of the world isn't obligated to put on blinders and pretend Kwanzaa is real. I think Mormonism is a bunch of hoodoo espoused by a con man, Joseph Smith. If I can say that about Mormonism, I should be able to say the same thing about Kwanzaa and Ron Karenga without having anyone insinuate that it is racism.
To put it another way, if CoG started a new "holiday celebration" based on individualism, self-reliance, and limited government principles and called it "Libertaria" and pitched it as a celebration of Anglican Protestant "principles", would you laugh at it or treat it seriously?
If Hallmark used Libertaria as an excuse to sell more holiday cards, would that make Libertaria any less of a phony manufactured holiday?