Jesus replaced with a Gregg's sausage roll.

Christmas. CHRISTS MASS

Actually you are not "forced" to call it Christmas - you can call it anything you want. What you call it between your family and friends is entirely up to you.

I think if a poll was taken the majority would want it to remain as Christmas (remember the outcry when some local authorities tried to rename it a few years ago).

So celebrate the birth of a child who you believe is fiction. I wish atheists would just say have a great bank holiday, this is honesty,

I’m perfectly honest annie I’m not celebrating the birth of Christ - I’m celebrating love, affection and friendship. It’s great to pause and do that over Christmas and the New Year. If there were a god, I bet he’d agree with that when he otherwise looks at some of the sour faced, intolerant so called Christians who take his name in vain and are harsh: unloving and uncaring to those who do not agree with them?

Who cares how you celebrating just leave those who still wish to pay homage to the spiritual side of Christmas to do so without ridicule. God knows it's such a hidious time in many ways for many. After many years of rejecting an over religious upbringing I've come to the conclusion that many draw comfort from the celebration of the nativity. This thead is awash with intolerance, snide and goady comments all delivered with supreme smugness apropos of an fatuous campaign that wouldn't be tolerated if it was taking the piss out of any other group of people.

No maryeliza, he would know why a person is harsh and uncaring , just as he knows why so many give their whole lives to Christ, why so many have died rather deny him, why so many have been and are giving of themselves to help others

It's - the love that passeth all understanding

I have over used many didn't edit.

a not an

Who is trying to stop anyone celebrating how they want? But what Christians don’t have any right at all to is not being ridiculed - they have freedom to worship, to state and believe in views which some of us find abhorrent, to boycott the wicked Greggs ..... sounds pretty ok to me. You should be quite content to take a bit of ridicule over the real religious persecution that people of many faiths ( including Christianity) have suffered and do suffer. Believe away - no one is stopping you with a sausage roll. Much as I hate the term, I am beginning see many aspects of sn**fl****y on here

What does sn**fl****y mean?

Christians have sometime been very good at killing other Christians they thought practised the wrong sort of Christianity.

Exactly trisher and even when not killing, being very harsh and unloving, do you remember a Lord Chancellor who was ejected from his Scottish sect ( Presbyterian I think) because he went to the RC funeral of a dear friend of his? Lovely people

Snowflakery Annie, there's a couple of good examples on this thread such as the two posters who were banned by their workplace from sending out Christmas cards on the spurious grounds they might cause offence yeah right find someone who would be offended, other than the idiots who dreamed that shit idea up in the first place!

Apart from the description of the perfect Christmas you and your family have and the love and concern you show for others you come across as unrelentingly “harsh and unloving” towards everybody who doesn’t share your views Maryeliza54. I am a practising Catholic. I wasn’t offended by the Greggs advert, it was beneath contempt. I never have, and never will, patronise Greggs because I thinks it really does look like a downmarket shop serving cheap food - I’d rather not eat that sort of food. I’m glad it does so much good in the North East, so many people need so much help. The last paragraph of Terribull’s 11.41 post says it all. Maryeliza54 if I had needed any further proof that Christianity is the right path, FOR ME, you have given it me.

Oh carol how wonderfully Christian you are towards me - I thought Christians were supposed to be forgiving and loving and turn the other cheek but hey ho, harsh, judgemental, what an absolutely perfect example of a Christian your post is

Yes I agree maryeliza54 like too many of those who shout their Christianity from the roof tops.

I have friends and family of several faiths, the majority of whom are kind, loving, decent people who would help anyone. They have no issues or problems with others who either do not follow their faith or have none at all. Their faiths seem to give them a kind of structure for their lives, it makes them, in part, who they are. I've noticed on this thread that those posters who are critical of religion/faith, are the same posters who regularly post harsh, angry and bitter condemnation towards others on many other threads too. They come across, on GN anyway, as being full of anger and bile towards anyone who does not see the world as they do. Maybe that's because they don't have a faith in anything, including themselves.

Some ‘Christians ‘ on here would definitely do well to read and reflect on Matthew 23. As for you Chew your words criticising me so harshly ( and others that you haven’t got the guts or moral courage to name) could so easily be about you and your posts - isn’t there something in the bible about motes and beams?

This thread has been utterly fascinating and with very few exceptions, has reaffirmed what is wrong with a certain type of Christian who thinks they have some special protected status which means they can condemn, ridicule and criticise as much as they want but they must be treated with kid gloves by those of us who do not share their often abhorrent beliefs. Honestly, a sausage roll. How absolutely fragile your faith must be if that matters but I suppose having people like me to feel so morally superior and judgemental about must give you some comfort

But maryeliza, you are an atheist you have not the foggiest what being a Christian is. You believe you have the right to be unkind, to criticise, to ridicule, to hurt people but you expect Christians who are as human as you to accept what you say without anger, hurt, you are saying really - I can kick you but you are a Christian so you are expected to take it,

And maryeliza, you tell Christians here to reflect on St Matthews teachings on hypocrisy, only Christians should reflect on hypocrisy?

Good post Chewbacca

Umm - thinking the nativity story, stable, angels, shepherds, wise men etc is fictional (or allegorical) doesnt mean you dont believe in Jesus Christ as a real person and follow his teachings! It's a matter of acknowledging that the Bible was written by a variety of people for a variety of reasons a long time after Christs death (the NT I mean of course.). The gospels were written by Jews anxious to show that Jesus fulfilled the prophesies of the Messiah in the O T.

I never have, and never will, patronise Greggs because I thinks it really does look like a downmarket shop serving cheap food - I’d rather not eat that sort of food. I’m glad it does so much good in the North East, so many people need so much help.
I wonder what you mean by that sort of food
Greggs have very strict policies about their ingredients and they aren't just in NE
With over 1,700 Greggs in the UK, we still pay attention to the important things. Like serving food that’s free of the nasty stuff (we don’t use artificial colours, flavours, added trans fats or MSG)

Oh dear Maryeliza54, I didn’t at all mean to be harsh or judgemental, I was quoting your posts. You are absolutely entitled to your views but I just don’t think they come across as anything I would wish to emulate. And I suppose it wouldn’t do any of us any harm to reflect on hypocrisy ...

Trisher - I’m sure there are a lot of people who like the food they produce, eg sausage rolls. I’m just not one of them.