Christmas should be a uniter, not a divider

Great Debates
1

It’s the War on Christmas season once again. Conservative Christians complain that vast effort to destroy the holiday is being waged, while non-Christians complain that Christianity gets rammed down their throat every December.

When we say “Happy Holidays” we mean, “Have a good time throughout the Holiday Season”. Well, the Holiday Season is a broad amalgamation of customs and activities. Not only does the season encompass a number of formal holiday observances— Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Years, but all the decorations, gift giving, caroling, family feasts, and helping the poor reflect a much deeper set of traditions.

The nights of late December are the longest of the year and such a gloomy time is begging for something to brighten it up. Of course, ancient tribal peoples felt the need to conduct rituals to bring back the Sun, and to do life-affirming things like gathering with loved ones, decorating with evergreens, sharing resources, and engaging in revelry. And the winter solstice is an obvious turning point in the annual cycle, a natural time to take stock and mark the new year. All this has made the onset of winter is something for everyone to look forward to rather than dread.

Cultures naturally placed a lot of religious significance on the solstice season, emphasizing themes of rebirth—as with the Sun—and honoring certain important gods. The Norse called it Yule or Yuletide and honored the gods Freyr and Odin, and the Romans called it Saturnalia in honor of the god Saturn. When Christians began celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25th, it fit in nicely, since to revisit the origin of the faith is for it to be born anew for the coming year.

But traditions that were common throughout the West, such as family feasting, gift-giving, public revelry, remained popular and well-entrenched. So the early Church pretty much said, “If you can’t like ‘em, join ‘em”, and re-cast the festivities as joyful anticipation at the prospect of participating in the Christ Mass. So technically, “Christmas” is just a church service that has lent its name to a holiday season that has always had a secular side—one that has continued to evolve.
Secularism should not be seen as a divisive concept—one group pitted against the rest of society. Secular simply refers to those aspects of life that do not involve faith in supernatural forces, and in which we all freely participate without regard to religious differences. Cars, computers, sports, shopping—all secular activities. When you get sick, do you go to a faith healer or to a secularist? We’re all secularists most of the time. The government represents all of us and deals with the day-to-day problems of the real world, so it must remain neutral on religious matters, i.e. secular. Private businesses are free to express their owners’ faith all they like, but most prefer to present a secular face in order to attract the broadest clientele.

There have been a lot of complaints that religion is being “driven out” out of the “public square”, but that is not the case. Anyone is free to get up on a soapbox in the public square and deliver a sermon (or write a letter to the editor or rent a billboard) and everyone else is free not to listen. But permanent fixtures on government property become government speech, and we’re not free not to listen to the government. In short, you can express your religion in the public square, but not with the public square.

Instead of setting a manger scene in front of the courthouse, what’s wrong with setting it up in front of the church down the street?

But presents and Santa Claus and Christmas trees—call them Tannenbaums—are not part of the Christian tradition, and so most atheists and an increasing number of religious non-Christians participate in these aspects of the holiday. Some Jews erect a “Hanukkah bush” topped with a mehorah, although this kind of thing remains controversial. And I’ve recently learned from co-workers that Hindus in India celebrate Christmas with gusto. The Muslim—not so much. These people should get with the Christmas spirit or they’ll get nothing but coal in their stockings.

2

I was with you up until the last paragraph. What the hell?

3

My thought’s exactly. It’s like two different people wrote the OP, with the second person taking over at the end.

4

Well, I wanted convey that non-Christians shouldn’t have to distance themselves from the season, in part by pointing out that there’s already a trend, and I was trying to keep it brief. I knew that last sentence would throw people for a loop, but which other bits didn’t you like and how do you (anyone) think I could improve it?

5

“Christmas is the time of year when people of all religions gather together to worship Jesus Christ.”

– Bart Simpson

6

I think it is Christians, not Christmas that need to be uniters, not dividers. Whining about pine trees, and presents for children seems to fall just a tad short of “Love your brother as you love Me.”
     May you be blessed, and joyful, each and all, in this season, and forever.

 Tris
7

Friends don’t let friends drink and post… :wink:

8

I don’t understand your post; you seem to be saying “The season encompasses not just Christmas, but a lot of varied religious and non-religious celebrations. Everyone should partake of the season in their own particular way.” Well… duh. Isn’t that what people are doing? I don’t really see what it is you want to change.

9

Yes of course; I’m endorseing that trend. But a lot of people are still using the occasion to create wedge issues. Conservatives act like to remove refences to Jesus schools and other government property is to ruin the holiday altogether. And on the other hand there are still some Jewish families, etc, who won’t let their kids put up a tree because they think it’s strictly a Christian holiday. I’m just trying to concisely sum up the point in order to help the issue along.

If I’m not being clear enough I’ll try to straighten it out.

10

I have heard on TV interviews where people have said it is a Holy Day, that was what Holiday meant, yet is Martin Luther King day, The 4th of July,etc. also Holy Days? I think not. The Holiday season starts at Thanksgiving and ends in January, then of course the Orthodox celebrate their Christmas which is on a different day, I have never heard them complain that they are being discriminated against.
Monavis

11

OK, here’s a different possible concluding paragraph - wadaya think?

So Christian conservatives are bearing false witness when they accuse their opponents of trying to destroy Christmas (however you define it). But non-Christians needn’t shun the holiday altogether, and many don’t. Most atheists and some Jews celebrate the secular side. And I’ve recently learned from co-workers that Hindus in India celebrate Christmas with gusto. But it’s sad many non-Christians feel they cannot participate. Culture warriors on both sides should recognize that there is common ground in which everyone can share. (I’d say that the Christmas tree—call it the Tannenbaum—is the universal emblem of the season.) The trend is already underway. After all, who wouldn’t want presents from Santa Claus? Not to mention all that peace on Earth and good will stuff.

12

Why is it sad if someone doesn’t want to participate in Christmas? I don’t get it. Who cares?

13

“Let’s just say that on this day, a million years ago, a dude was born who most of us think was magic. But others don’t, and that’s cool. But we’re probably right. Amen.”

– Homer Simpson

14

I just don’t see why not celebrating Christmas is something that is wrong, sad, or needs to be corrected.

I also feel that as much as people talk about the secularness of Christmas (and I completely agree that much of Christmas is driven by marketing and big business, which has little to do with religious meaning), it is still very clearly a Christian holiday, and pretending otherwise is a pretty disingenuous thing to do. St. Nick is a saint, creshes (sp?) abound, angels soar from window displays, and most of the music of Christmas deals with wise men, angels, or Jesus.

Just because you can point to a tree and a gift and ask “what’s so religious about that?” doesn’t mean that somehow turns Christmas into a holiday with no religious meaning.

15

Japan very nicely turns Christman into a secular holiday, with the emphasis on lights, trees and Santa. I have to say that I like it.

16

What about their kids?

17

Kids parents don’t do or let them do all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons. I don’t see the sadness is someone not having a Christmas tree.

18

I also think it’s sad that Muslin women have to wear burqas.

Of course I don’t think people should feel pressured into celebrating any given holiday and more than they should be pressured into being fans of the local sports team.

But recently I read an article by a Jewish woman who’s family liked to drive around and look at people’s holiday light display, and then went on about the kind of display she’d like to put up, “if I were Christian”. I thought, “well, what’s stopping her?”.

And years ago a Jewish woman who divorced her kids’ Christian father and remarried into a purely Jewish family wrote to Ann Landers, who gave her advice on how to explain to them how it’s no longer appropriate for them to have Santa Clause, etc. Yeah, I think that’s a little sad because it’s so unneccesary.

St. Nicholas is just part of an amalgamation of characters that evolved into the modern cartoon character that is Santa Claus. Besides, Protestants don’t recognize saints and Catholic dictrine does not hold that St. Nicholas lives at the North Pole and distributes presents every Christmas.

I’m curious, if you were to talk to someone who shares Bill O’Reilly’s contention that “secular pregressives” are waging a “War on Christmas”, what points of contention and what points of agreement would you reach?

But my main point is that the holiday season is not just one thing that either does or does not have religious meaning. Rather, it’s a multi-faced, multi-week season that some people use as an occasion for doing things that have religious meaning, but which also brings occasions for other things that have no such meaning–and some of which are longer-standing traditions.

19

With regards to the divorced Jew not celebrating Christmas, well, I think that’s a sticky situation and not one that would have an easy answer. Multi-faith families (or ex-families in this case) have a tough and complicated path to tread. I do agree that it’s kind of sad to absolutely take away a tradition that the kids might be very used to just because of the divorce. That’s a little beside the issue, IMHO.

I disagree with the whole concept of a “War on Christmas,” mainly because 80% of the US self-identifies as Christian. I think that it’s really disingenuous for folks to blame “secular” people (aka athiests) for fighting Christmas, while the entire direction the holiday has moved has been driven by Christians. It’s Christians who are buying all the presents, it’s Christians who are fighting each other at the check-out counters over the last Tickle-Me-Elmos, and it’s Christians who spend more time focusing on Santa and his reindeer than on Jesus Mary and Joe.

People complaining about this “War” want to claim that Christmas is secular and thus no big deal while talking about Christmas displays in public buildings, and then turn around and ask people to remember the real meaning (Jesus’ birth) of Christmas. You can’t have it both ways. If you go to church for a Christmas service, then how you can call it a secular holiday is beyond me.

I guess that I just completely disagree. :slight_smile: Regardless of the history of the celebration of Christmas, it is currently a Christian celebration. It’s not about solstice, or any other sort of long-standing traditions. In this age, find me someone who celebrates Christmas as a result of a tradition not based on the Christian celebration (goodness, they share the same root!). Not someone who chooses to now celebrate Christmas just for the goodwill towards men bit, but someone who inherited the Christmas tradition from non-Christian sources. I don’t think you’ll find anyone.

Sure the “holiday season” is multi-faceted. But here you’re not calling it Christmas anymore, while your OP mentioned Christmas specifically. And, like it or not, erecting a tree in the month of December, at least in the States, is a Christian tradition, not a Jewish one, nor Muslim, nor Hindi, nor whomever. Which doesn’t mean that other folks can’t adopt that Christian tradition, but to assume that everyone should just adopt the Christian way of doing things because it’s so nice and fun and lovey and everyone does it anyway, while simultaneously not suggesting that Christians should celebrate the Passover (or other non-Christian holidays), is nothing more than cultural imperialism tied up in red and green ribbon.

20

Oh, but I do concede the St. Nick point to a degree.

He is not currently a religious figure as such, but even so, he is a trapping (like the tree) of a celebration which also includes religious and specifically Christian themes. I know the tree was not originally Christian, but as I said before, in the 21st century, you’d be hard-pressed to find tree-erectors who weren’t doing so as a continuation of a Christian celebration.