Theme parks are a private enterprise. As such, they are free to provide whatever entertainment they want. They evaluated their audience and decided that they wanted to see a Christmas Show that was religous. Get over yourself. It is a religous holiday. If you don’t like the show, you can always get up and leave.

Would you have been equally upset with a program that described the president as a murder and called for him to be tried for war crimes? For some reason, I just don’t think so.

Think about it — where you just as upset with the Dixie Chicks complaining about the President? Probably not.

unfortunately they’re just selling to their audience. i agree with you though. who would think that Jesus supports the Iraq war and the death penalty and the summary dismissal of sources other than the Bible.

Arnhead, I see what you’re saying. However, when one goes to a Dixie Chicks concert, they expect a certain political bias based on the performers’ well known political and sociological beliefs. When one goes a theme park, they don’t necessarily expect to be confronted by political bias. While of course the theme park has a right to do whatever they want and provide whatever entertainment they believe their audience will enjoy. It’s simply a matter of expectations.

Further, saying that Christmas is a religious holiday is a dubious claim. Christmas was originally a pagan holiday meant to celebrate the winter solstice. When people were being converted to Christianity, the “converters” realized that it’s easier to convert people when they are allowed to keep their own sacred holidays. This fact can be seen in many sects of Christianity (such as Jehovah’s Witness) who don’t celebrate Christmas for this very reason.

Yes, the park was playing to their audience, but it’s weird to be confronted with this theme when it was unexpected.

I think you may be confusing “secularized” with “secular.” Christmas was never a pagan holiday. The church did use pagan holidays to convert people to Christianity, but just their customs and traditions. The actual holiday, the celebration of Christ’s birth, regardless of how it is celebrated or when, is absolutely religious. The customs and traditions carried over from the pagans, centuries ago, are now associated with Christ’s birth. Unless your offense to this is that you are in fact a pagan from before the holiday was put in place, you don’t really have any claims to it as a secular holiday.

I think the author’s evaluation of the show is an exaggeration. I may have overlooked something but I have found no other complaints about it, as I probably would have done if it were as politically charged as it is made to be on this blog. I find it a little disconcerting that there are so many valid and worthy issues in society to blog about, and this author chooses to fall in step with the thousands of others that make Christmas into an issue. You, apparently one of the few who were dissatisfied with the show, should have done as Arnhead suggested and just left, letting others celebrate as they saw fit in peace. And one Christmas show is hardly enough to evaluate the themepark as religious, in any case. If assertions were that easy to substantiate I could judge the entire Retriever Weekly establishment as trivial, based just on your blog here.

I agree with Aaron. Take Pearl Jam for example, their fans have to accept the fact that if they’re going to be going to the show they’re going to be subjected to some of Eddie Vedder’s political rants…

When I go to a theme park I’m not expecting to be bombarded with religious and political propaganda ESPECIALLY when prior to the show they had a little disclaimer stating that the show was for people of all religions and faiths.

And actually, I would be horrified if they had a program at a theme park that described the president as a murder.. or anything of the sort… considering that a majority of the audience would be families and children.

While theme parks may be privately owned, I want to know that if I’m going somewhere with my family I’m not going to conned into watching religious and political propaganda disguised as a “holiday show”. I’d much rather see a silly mouse or a duck running around on stage singing holiday songs.

Let’s not be hating here.

And for a response to the Dixie Chicks remark and song, go on youtube and search “dixie chicks marines”. Listen to the Marines response.

Happy Holidays everyone!! (Chag Sameach l’kol haYehudim!)

I dont agree that it’s right to push things on people, but 1) Christmas IS a religious holiday, and again as someone noted, they ARE a private enterprise.

A synopsis of the show: A family (mother, daughter, and father-in-law) are celebrating Christmas but their husband/father/son is in the military serving in Iraq (of course the word Iraq qas never used but in his letters home he always spoke of the extreme heat, sand, and he was always shown next to a palm tree). His leave is not granted to him, initially, and he writes home sayin (and i quote).. “I know it’s right…” as in implying by not getting his leave and staying in Iraq (or whichever sandy place he is where the weather reaches “120 degrees”)…

Anyway the show continued with songs and whatnot and then between two songs the young mother sits down with her daughter and says “it’s time to read the Greatest Book of all time (I don’t recall the exact word she used)”.., and they never say The Bible but the grand-father proceeds by reading a passage from The Bible…

So I’m not exaggerating anything here… their implications were hard to miss.

And to say that “his author chooses to fall in step with the thousands of others that make Christmas into an issue” is presumptuous. I love Christmas. I never “evaluated” the theme park as religious I was simply stating that I was surprised to see a show with such implications at a theme park because I’ve been to plenty before and never saw something like that.

Also, the main reason why I didn’t leave the show was too see exactly how far they went with it.

Completely off topic, but there’s an actual religious theme park called Holy Land in Orlando.

@David: and my family went to visit there last Christmas. http://www.holylandexperience.com/ My boyfriend and I got out of it, thank God. He didn’t need my family saying, “But you should know this! It comes from your part of the Bible!”

Saira, I’m with you. I would never have the expectation that a theme park would push such propoganda. Unlike music and other artistic venues, amusement park rides don’t usually have a political agenda. I would be really confused and thrown off even if the propoganda was from my side.