The
Status of Christmas: Are We Denying our Own Culture?
Published in Marietta Daily Journal Dec. 11, 2016
Christmas is here! Not Christmas Day just yet, but Christmas
season. Is there anything that elicits
more joy in America than Christmas? Anything
that more quickly turns our thoughts to goodwill, children, the needy, and to
giving?
We’re all aware of the
commercialization of the Christmas season, of how easily seduced we are to
think of things rather than people. Yet, Christmas still seems to bring out the
best in us. Individuals, families, and
organizations look around for people who need help at Christmas. We want everybody to have “a good Christmas.”
Since for over two centuries the
total impact of Christmas has been positive, why and how did we get to the
point where the word “Christmas” is to be shunned? What trail of events led President-elect
Trump to exclaim boldly, “We will say ‘Christmas’ again”?
The answer is that for two decades
or more many schools and businesses have been gun shy about even using the word,
much less allowing its celebration. We
celebrate vague “holidays” instead, ignoring the fact that “holiday” is but a
variant spelling of “holy day.”
Many school systems insist on the term “Winter
Holidays,” which is purely druidic, the Druids being the 200 BC (oops, I mean
BCE) Celts of the British Isles who were devout worshippers of nature. Schools have actually only substituted one
religious term for another. The Star of
Bethlehem is out. The Winter Solstice is
in. Presumably, students are to turn
their thoughts to the tilt of the earth, and away from its creator.
It
is difficult to deny the reality of religious beliefs and roots. We cannot escape transcendent terminology. Every
culture has a set of beliefs and principles that inform and shape it. How foolish, how ignorant it is, to deny this
fact.
Of
course, America’s religious and cultural roots lie deep not only in Druidic
thought, but in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam.
Buddhism is the reason Americans believe in and seek karma. Hinduism is why Americans believe in
thousands of gods. Islam is the reason
Americans believe the word of God must be read in Arabic. Right?
Not
really. America’s ethos springs from
none of these belief systems. These
systems have informed Southeast Asia, India, and the Middle East. America’s foundational religious, legal, and
social ideas and ideals have their roots in the richness of the Judeo-Christian
ethic and tradition. Who with any
amount of historical or cultural knowledge would deny this?
Yet
we are not supposed to say it. A false
and stupid sensitivity has led us to deny historical truth and be tippy-toe
about who we are. Do Buddhist, Hindu, or
Islamic countries deny what has shaped their cultures? They certainly don’t. Why then should Americans deny that the Ten
Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount are the basis of our ethics and
morality? What has fashioned America
more, the Dhamma, the Vedas, the Koran, or the Bible?
Don’t
answer that. Misled college kids will
bristle with hostility and protest in your front yard.
Whether
they are afraid of lawsuits or simply personally opposed to Christmas, school
officials are denying that Christmas is a part of the American psyche. This fact about our ethical roots doesn’t
mean that everyone has to celebrate Christmas or believe in the Christ of
Christmas. Not everybody in Indonesia,
the world’s most Islamic nation, is Islamic, but Indonesia certainly doesn’t
deny her Islamic culture because of it.
We must be pluralistic and
multicultural, we’re told. Frankly, the
entire West is about to pluralize and multi-culturalize itself out of an
identity. Unlike the East, Western
civilization has become unsure of itself.
Witness the ongoing transformation of Europe. In many pockets of America, self-loathing is
the order of the day. This is particularly
true on college campuses where students are taught to respect the beliefs of
others, but not dare have any of their own.
Acknowledge the cultures of other lands, but don’t embrace your own too
tightly; otherwise you are “nationalistic” or “nativistic.”
Just as public schools must now say
“Winter Holidays” instead of Christmas, colleges require students to use BCE
rather than BC. BC is a reference to
Christ, so none of that. Of course BCE
refers to the “Common Era” which means the Christian era, but at least for
extreme multiculturalists the word Christ is gone.
It is such anti mindset that now
encircles Christmas. The Grinch that is still trying to steal Christmas is not
the mighty dollar. It’s the deniers of
historical facts who just don’t like the facts.
Christmas lovers, unite! And spread the love, particularly to those
who don’t love Christmas. And give, give, give! That’s what the Christ of Christmas taught us
to do.
Roger
Hines
12/6/16
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