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the so-called war on Christmas
As I write this, it is mid-December and numerous editorial writers,
buoyed by what they think is a mandate from the November 2004 election
in the US, are railing against the secularization of Christmas.
Now on one level I agree with them; what is supposed to be the
second-holiest day on the Christian calendar has been reduced, largely,
to reindeer, tinsel-covered trees, a fat red guy, and loot. Lots of
loot; it's how many retailers stay in business. If I were a Christian,
I might be pretty annoyed at that too.
The problem, though, is in their targetting. I've seen quite a few folks lately writing about how catering to the non-Christians (who, after all, are a minority and ought to just do everyone a favor and get out of the country now, or so I gather) has brought this on. "The Jews won't let us celebrate our holiday!", they whine, or "those damned athiests are taking the christ out of Christmas and must be stopped!" It's always someone else's fault, it seems.
Where is the self-examination and responsibility? How many of these good Christians, now complaining about secularization, put up trees, teach their kids about Santa, and break the bank on gifts for their families? This seems to be the norm in quite a few families. Hey guys, listen up: the non-Christians didn't impose secularization over the objections of the faithful followers of Jesus; the Christians did it to themselves. And now that it's spun out of control, a few of them are looking for a scapegoat.
It's time for everyone to take a little responsibility for his own beliefs and practices. No one else is going to do it for you, and sitting back doing nothing but whining about it gets old. It's everyone's responsibility to live out your beliefs through acts, not just by spouting words. If you believe that it's time to restore Christmas as a religious holiday, what are you doing about it?
I offer, then, nine commandments for indignant Christians (ten would be presumptuous):
1. Thou shalt act in accordance with thy beliefs. This is the greatest commandment.
2. Thou shalt not be surprised when others draw conclusions about thy beliefs from thy actions. If it walketh like a duck and talketh like a duck...
3. Thou shalt permit others to act based on their beliefs, whether those beliefs be of other faiths or none at all.
4. Thou shalt spend Christmas in worship, not in material gluttony. Extra merit will derive from spending the day with those more needy than thyself.
5. Thou shalt enhance thy private property with decorations in accordance with thy beliefs, and refrain from decorations not in accordance with them.
6. Thou shalt recognize that public property belongs to, well, the public, and refrain from imposing thy views there. This applies to everyone else, too.
7. Thou shalt carry the message of Christmas well past December 26 and strive to emulate the target of thy veneration. That's what it's really about, after all.
8. Thou shalt cease and desist from elevating minor holidays (like Chanukah and Kwanzaa) into "Jewish Christmas" or "African Christmas". It's not that simple, and thou doest not get it.
9. Recognizing that Christmas is not a secular holiday (in thy beliefs), thou shalt immediately commence lobbying for governments and employers to remove this holiday from their schedules of days off. (Thou canst take it as a vacataion day, just as the Jews do with Yom Kippur and the pagans do with Beltane.)
May you be free to enjoy your holy day insofar as you permit others to do the same with theirs.
I wish my Christian friends a merry Christmas. I realize that your lunatic fringe does not speak for you, and I'm sorry you have to put up with those guys.
Happy Minor Jewish Holiday!
(Anonymous) 2005-12-25 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)That reminds me. Now that I'm black, do I HAVE to celebrate Kwanza?
Rob of UnSpace (http://www.unspace.net/)
Re: Happy Minor Jewish Holiday!
I'm sorry? I think I missed something. This sort of thing isn't usually subject to change (Michael Jackson aside).
do I HAVE to celebrate Kwanza?
Do all Jews have to celebrate Sukkot? Do all Americans have to celebrate Independence Day? Do all people of Irish ancestry have to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day? I think you're off the hook. If I understand it correctly, Kwanzaa is a "nationalistic" holiday rather than a religious one, so while you'd expect that anyone who identifies as a Christian would celebrate Christmas, people don't always feel bound to expectations based only on their nation or race of birth.
Re: Happy Minor Jewish Holiday!
Re: Happy Minor Jewish Holiday!
(Anonymous) 2005-12-26 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)My parents have died, and so I have no way to find out the story behind this, although there are two great-grandmothers for whom no pictures exist.
There's nothing more fun than having someone say "Well, in "this group," I can say..." and then say something racist -- and then I get to say "Well, actually..."
Telling ex-girlfriends they dated someone of another race was interesting. I've been asked not to inform any parents of this fact! I figure it makes life easier on their kids.
The amazing thing is, for a lot of people, it matters. When I was in New Orleans, someone I'd never met came up to me and told me quietly that they knew I was just "passing" and that my secret was safe with them. I thought, that without the genetic test, there was no way to tell I wasn't the world's "whitest white boy." In the old days, an "octaroon" was not considered white in New Orleans -- and just about anywhere else.
I'm not sure that my parent's marriage was legal at the time in PA, assuming the African ancestry is all from one side.
I'm still trying to figure out what this means to me. The joke about Kwanza was an attempt to express that confusion.
Rob
Re: Happy Minor Jewish Holiday!
Telling ex-girlfriends they dated someone of another race was interesting. I've been asked not to inform any parents of this fact! I figure it makes life easier on their kids.
How sad. I mean, that wouldn't have surprised me twenty or thirty years ago, but you get this now? Outside the south?
I'm not sure that my parent's marriage was legal at the time in PA, assuming the African ancestry is all from one side.
PA had laws against mixed marriages that recently? Wow. (Or perhaps I have drawn massively-incorrect conclusions about your age and, by extension, timing of related events.)
Re: Happy Minor Jewish Holiday!
(Anonymous) 2005-12-27 02:34 pm (UTC)(link)I'd like to think I wouldn't have used my race to get a scholarship. The weird thing is all the Black Studies classes I took. I had no idea. I just did it because it was interesting.
I think just by existing as a good friend to both my ex-girlfriends and their husbands messes with the parents' heads sufficiently without adding to it. It's bad enough at the engagement party when the mother of the groom-to-be is looking through a photo album of her soon-to-be daughter in law and comes across a prom picture -- and turns to me and says "What a coincidence! This looks an awful lot like you." I swear, everyone in the room quit breathing for a good 15 seconds until I managed a "Why thank you!"