Florida professor suggests changing 'Merry Christmas' to 'Happy Federal Holiday'
"Happy Holidays" isn't quite neutral enough for University of Central Florida professor Terri Fine, who proposed a new holiday greeting: "Happy Federal Holiday". She made the suggestion in an op-ed in the campus paper:
While Fine argues that this switch would be more respectful of Christmas, Hanukkah, and other December celebrations, her idea has been met with a frosty welcome. For example, writing at the libertarian Reason Magazine, Robby Soave took particular issue with roping the government into holiday cheer. "Surely," he concluded, "that’s manifestly worse than just saying, 'Have a good one.'"
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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