Girl Guides told not to participate in Ottawa-area Santa Claus Parade due to secularism policy
Girl Guides told not to participate in Ottawa-area Santa Claus Parade due to secularism policy
A Santa Claus Parade in the west end of Ottawa is making its comeback this year, but Girl Guides will not be participating because of Girl Guides of Canada's secularism policy.
This is just stupid.
I'm an atheist. A devout atheist.
This is not "secularism", it's stupidity.
As atheists, my family celebrates the traditional secular commercial Christmas. We will also happily attend Chanukah celebrations, Kwanzaa celebrations, winter solstice celebrations, Nicholas Day celebrations, Yule celebrations, Festivus celebrations, or whatever else we are invited to attend. Our beliefs are not so delicate that they could collapse just from being exposed to others joyous celebrations. We love participating in other people's joy.
This sort if fanatical secularism sucks all of the joy out of the season.
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I understand your points, they make a lot of sense. Both sides (if youll allow me to generalize) are often overly sensitive to the religious traditions or lack thereof and we could all do to lighten up on it a little.
However, I personally was raised in a very conservative home and attended a christian educational institution (they call it a school, its more like brainwash camp) and since becoming an atheist I strongly prefer to stay far away from organized religion, especially religious holidays. It cannot be a separated from the religious aspect for my family, it is a constant presence and the major theme for those occasions for them. This perspective makes the major holidays stressful and exhausting for me, as family strife reaches an all time high, and it's rather difficult during december because the christian holiday is absolutely pervasive. It would be nice if we could separate our society from such strong judeochristian vibes.
I'm sorry to hear about your challenges. Religion is not a part of our holiday celebrations. If you go back far enough, Christmas was actually co-opted from paganism in an effort to convert pegans to Christianity. So maybe we call it a Yule parade and everyone can take part?