leave Christmas alone.

Christmas has lost much of its spiritual meaning in the public sphere, and that’s fine with me. but wait, let me explain. charles krauthammer’s article in the washington post made me think about the significance of the words "merry Christmas" - or rather, the significance of their absence, and my conclusion surprised even me.

it’s common knowledge that the politically correct climate has vilified the word Christmas. i know i’m uncomfortable using the word in greeting unless i’m fairly sure the recipient is Christian. although it would be as strange for me to wish a buddhist merry Christmas as it would for my jewish friends to wish me a happy rosh hashanah, this practice has gone from innocent case of mistaken identity or naive assumption to a serious crime of persecution and attempted assimilation. okay, maybe not that bad. but still, you see my point.

...more than 80 percent [it’s 77% as of 2001] of Americans are Christian, and probably 95 [96] percent of Americans celebrate Christmas. Christmas Day is an official federal holiday, the only day of the entire year when, for example, the Smithsonian museums are closed. Are we to pretend that Christmas is nothing but an orgy of commerce in celebration of... what? The winter solstice?

so four percent of the population may feel left out at this time of year, and many Christians may feel guilty about this. but you don’t hear everyone complaining:

I'm struck by the fact that you almost never find Orthodox Jews complaining about a Christmas creche in the public square. That is because their children, steeped in the richness of their own religious tradition, know who they are and are not threatened by Christians celebrating their religion in public. They are enlarged by it.

It is the more deracinated members of religious minorities, brought up largely ignorant of their own traditions, whose religious identity is so tenuous that they feel the need to be constantly on guard against displays of other religions -- and who think the solution to their predicament is to prevent the other guy from displaying his religion, rather than learning a bit about their own.

krauthammer gets it both wrong and right here. i’m not sure it’s the open display of the Christian religion that bothers everyone, but rather the government’s display of religion. Christians sometimes see their right to practice religion as their right to have the state sponsor their religion, as in the case of public school caroling and courthouse nativity scenes.

although krauthammer’s probably right that it doesn’t hurt non-Christians, i’d still rather do without. members of other religions should be glad that their most sacred holidays have not been diluted, usurped by the state, and merged with pagan holidays. the state’s - or wal-mart’s for that matter - involvement in the celebration of my deeply-held religious beliefs is something i do not need or desire. i’d rather keep uncle sam, and my neighbor’s tax dollars, as far way from my spiritual well-being as possible. there is plenty of room in civil society for religious celebration, i don’t need it subsidized. i won’t go so far as to say we should ban public celebration of the holiday as the puritans did, but i don’t need strangers to wish me merry Christmas. i don’t need my future children to learn about their religion from the government. let me practice in peace, and in private - without uncle sam, or you. the title of krauthammer’s article rings true for me too, but in a different way: leave Christmas alone.

nonChristians who celebrate Christmas make up about twenty percent of the population, then, according to the statistics cited above. these “cultural Christians” are a peculiar breed who celebrate Christian holidays because they are part of their cultural framework and family tradition. besides, it’s a good reason to spend large sacks of money making one’s house look like the runway at laguardia. of course, Christmas has both cultural and religious aspects, mostly the former. a clear distinction between the secular, winter holiday and the holy day, divorcing the pagan traditions of gift-giving and partying and deference for the birth of Christ, would resolve some of this tension. we could – oh yes, we could! – even have two greetings: happy holidays and merry Christmas (cultural Christians might want to think of something more creative than happy holidays)! we could then keep cultural Christmas alive in public schools, and keep all the cultural celebration. let them have their candy canes, their snow men, their reindeer, their elves. let them walk in a winter wonderland. these things have nothing to do with my spirituality, but rather the secular concomitant, not necessity, of my religion.

so merry Christmas, and happy holidays! i’ll celebrate both this year.

krauthammer article via a & l daily.

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