Well, I’m still alive, for what it’s worth. I’ve been ignoring the ol’ blog, largely because I haven’t had much of anything interesting to say. Sure, there’s been plenty to talk about between August and November, but how much of it will we remember ten years from now?
If our government (which, I will remind you again, we create) doesn’t change the way it handles some things, we won’t have to worry about it because we’ll all be dead.
Ha ha! As you can tell, I’m already into that jovial holiday spirit. Thanksgiving is mere weeks away and after that we enter the massive commercialized orgy that is Christmas shopping season. I love the end of the year!
But seriously, today I would like to talk about Christmas. Well, actually before I do, I suppose I should talk about religion, because it’s probably relevant to this discussion.
I do not usually discuss my religious beliefs with others unless I am specifically asked. On the other side of the coin, I feel no particular hesitation to respond to questions of that nature. I’m going to mention religion here, briefly, to explain my point of view. I am not a Christian. As a matter of fact, I find Christians more or less amusing. Here we have millions and millions of intelligent adult humans, who are generally some of the most genuinely decent people on earth (generally), and who through some bizarre circumstance all happen to believe a bunch of stuff that is, frankly, ridiculous. I’m talking about the vast majority of my fellow Americans here — I’m probably talking about you, statistically speaking. But don’t come after me in the night; I bear you no malice. I mean, no matter what you believe, it’s all about tolerance, isn’t it?
And yet that’s where we completely fail. And by we, I mean the minority. It seems to me that, in any conflict, the one place you absolutely don’t find tolerance is in the minority. Here we have the Christians, who want nothing more than to love you and explain to you why you’re going to spend eternity in Hell, and on the other side we have those of us who follow a different faith, who enjoy ragging on Christianity because it’s so popular and, frankly, because it makes us a little uneasy. Our behavior is frequently downright insulting. So who’s really more tolerant? Just because I find the Christians’ sense of religious manifest destiny morally reprehensible doesn’t mean it’s done with malicious intent.
Let me be perfectly clear. I completely disagree with pretty much the entirety of Christianity. I do not believe it is morally virtuous to “convert” people that do not know better. I believe it is wrong to indoctrinate children into a religious faith without letting them explore and find themselves. To do so almost always withholds the actual experience of religious enlightenment. The vast majority of Christians (and followers of other heavily dogmatic faiths) only believe what they do because their parents did before them, and have therefore never really experienced religion. I can find very little common moral ground with most Christians.
But, God help me, I love ‘em.
And this brings me to my subject, which is Christmas. Despite Christianity’s attempt to arbitrarily designate it as the birthdate of Their Savior (which, by the way, is extremely unlikely to be the case), Christmas remains today what it was before Christianity came along — an end-of-the-year bash that takes place at more or less the time of the winter solstice. But in recent years Christmas has become very much a taboo subject in America, because everybody’s freaking out over separation of church and state.
Perhaps, at this point, it would be helpful for me to explain what, in my humble opinion, makes something religious enough to be kept out of the public arena. This is my litmus test:
Question 1. Is it clearly and overtly religious in nature? Are no other interpretations possible?
Question 2. Does it merely display, or does it actually glorify, a specific religious faith?
Question 3. Is it an expression of sentiment, or of belief?
The first question just separates the wheat from the chaff. The second takes that a step further. But ultimately the third question is the most important. This is why “God bless America” is just fine, but “In God we Trust” is probably pushing it and should be dropped.
So where does that leave Christmas? If you apply the test correctly, nowhere. The only things about Christmas that are religious take place in the privacy of people’s homes. There is absolutely no connection between an electified fir tree and God. Even the images of angels have become almost secular. A nativity scene is probably still a religious display, but not much else about Christmas is. If you actually research the history of the winter solstice celebration, and don’t just believe what you’re told, you’ll find that the contribution of Christianity to Christmas was pretty minimal.
But for some inexplicable reason the public perception is that Christmas is somehow dirty — associated with the religious majority and therefore taboo. But minority religious festivals are just fine! I mean, who are they threatening? This is why my younger siblings attend a school where they’re not allowed to have a Christmas play but they get the day off for Rosh Hashanah.
I say, bring back Christmas! Sure, you can have your Hanukkah and your Kwanzaa, as well you should have a religious holiday. And hardcore Christians ought to recognize Christmas as the solemn occasion they believe it is. But for the rest of us — and I believe that here I speak for the majority — let Christmas just be about getting free crap and making a huge mess. How many Christmas carols are actually religious? Like, two? Let our grade schoolers sing Jingle Bells or Deck the Halls without attaching arbitrary religious significance made up by adults.
If people like me — the Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and countless others — of America are too wrapped up in ourselves to recognize how secular Christmas really is, then we’re in serious trouble. We need to be fighting over the things Christians are doing that are actually sinister, like trying to sneak religious nonsense into our children’s science classes. We ought to be thanking them for popularizing Christmas! Peace on Earth, good will to men — who among us can disagree with any of that? And as I mentioned before, free crap!
Is it the name that offends people? Then let’s just agree to call it xmas, pronounced “eks-mas” and spelled with a lowercase x. Do you think I’m making light of the situation? It’s these sort of arbitrary distinctions that get people killed every day.
Religions of the world, lighten up!
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