CURRENT MOON

Thursday, December 02, 2010

The War Over Xmas


As I've said before, it's my own humble opinion that the world would go round a good deal faster if we'd all act like adults and acknowledge that, at this time of year, there are BOTH a number of different religious holidays and a secular holiday related to giving gifts, getting together w/ friends and family, making snowmen, exchanging cookies, etc. For historical reasons, there's some overlap, both between the holidays of some of the newer (cough*Christian*cough) religions and some of the older (Pagan) ones. And there's some overlap between the practices of some religious groups and some of the practices of the secular holiday. But most thinking adults can figure those things out and go on about their business.

For an odd group of xian Dominionists, however, no December can be allowed to pass without an attempt to blur the lines and create a sense of persecution among their faithful. The problem is, sadly, not limited to America.
Will you be wearing a crucifix to work this morning? Have you pinned your "Not Ashamed" badge to your lapel to show the world you're proud to be a Christian? Have you noticed the concerted campaign of anti-Christian bias all over the nation? No, I hadn't either – but that may be more evidence of the attack on religion that's secretly under way, like the Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Or so some leading churchmen would have you believe.

The "Not Ashamed" campaign is the work of Christian Concern, a pressure group whose most vocal spokesman is the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey. He has been sketching out an alarming, totalitarian scenario in which Christmas cards are "censored" because some don't feature mangers and oxen, school Nativity plays are "watered down" because they dramatise festive mice and squabbling baubles as well as baby Jesus, and Christmas lights have become rubbishy "winter lights" with no angels anywhere.

"Christmas has become something of which some are ashamed," Carey thunders. "A new climate hostile to our country's tradition and history is developing." Gosh, how nostalgic the ex-Archbish makes me feel. I'm pitched back years to when, as a tiny child, I listened to our local priest, Fr Smith, smiting the pulpit and declaring to his Battersea flock that the "real meaning" of Christmas had been lost in a haze of Morecambe & Wise TV specials and the American way of calling Yuletide "the holidays".

. . .

Not even Lord Carey's own people believe in his awful warnings about anti-Christian discrimination, the censorship, the undermining. The heads of the Christian think-tank Ekklesia say they can find no evidence to back up the "Not Ashamed" campaign, although "we have found consistent evidence, however, of Christians misleading people and exaggerating what is really going on, as well as treating other Christians, those of other faith and those of no faith in discriminatory ways".


John Walsh proposes a possible reason that the xian Dominionists are so worried:
The sad truth, Lord Carey, is that people aren't hostile to religion or passionately devout about it; just increasingly indifferent. They may send religious cards, sing carols, attend Mass, inspect the crib, as they've always done – but more as a style choice than an expression of devotion. They haven't been nobbled by Christianophobes. They just don't feel any atavistic twitch of veneration any more.

When the philosopher AC Grayling was introduced on a recent radio show as "a devout atheist", he corrected his host: "That's like calling me a devout non-stamp collector." What bothers Christian Concern, and the like, is that many people just aren't disposed to collect the stamps any more.


And I can't say that I believe that acting like a petulant child who can't understand the concept of overlapping holidays is one likely to make many people likely to WANT to start collecting your stamps, but, you know, whatever works. Me, I like the quoted bit of Dickens, describing the way I like to think of the secular holiday:
"a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of in the long calendar of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely..."

Picture found here.

5 comments:

Anne Johnson said...

I bought a bunch of Santa Claus stickers to hand out as rewards to my students. But first I ascertained from each and every one if this would be a problem with their parents. You know who would raise a stink about Santy Claus stickers? Jehovah's Witnesses! Of which there are some in my school.

BTW, the student council erected a delightful tree in the school foyer, with all new lights and ornaments. I watched them do it, and it's beautiful.

Puff said...

Working retail and Black Friday probably kill any reverence for Christmas more than anything else.

I remember when just hearing the music made me feel happy for reasons I couldn't put my finger on. Was I really genuinely happy about Jesus' birth or even the prospect of material gain? Maybe there is something to this "Christmas Spirit" business. A part of me still feels that way, which means retail hasn't completely hardened my heart (though some songs will piss me off).


Also, I suspect the "Do you believe in Santa?" spiel, both on parent and child side, kill the reverence not by distracting from Jesus, but by setting up a faith drama that's destined to be knocked down, preparing people for not believing in other things.

Scandinavia and the World did a fun comic on Christmas traditions:
http://humoncomics.com/christmas-traditions

Kathy said...

It stems from Christian privilege and with other religions gaining adherents and getting attention, they don't like it. Not being the top dog equal persecution in their minds.

If they only knew how much Christmas bombards the senses this time of year. I can't get away from Christmas carols when I go shopping or out to eat. There are signs in yards demanding I keep Christ in Christmas and perpetual complaining that the world is out to get rid of Christianity because they want to let others celebrate their own holidays as well.

Hibernation sounds good right now.

Mama Kelly aka Jia said...

I work in a call center environment and I make it a rule to wish everyone a happy holiday season ... not because Im not a Christian but because its not my place to assume what religion someone I'm going to talk to for maybe 5 minutes tops happens to practice. Every year it amazes me how many people take my lack of wishing them a Merry Christmas as a personal attack.

Makarios said...

IMO, John Walsh has nailed it. Fanatics can deal with people who like them (unsurprisingly), and with people who dislike them (and who therefore feed their "persecuted martyr" self-image). What they can't stand are people who simply don't care, and who ignore them. In this regard, they are very much like spoiled children.

What, after all, is the whole "Not Ashamed" bit, with badges, lapel pins, pendants, etc., other than crying out for attention? And, by the way, somebody is making money producing and selling that bling. Not sayin' it's a racket--just sayin'.