A Christian Holiday for All Americans
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Imagine if every Thanksgiving, displays of Pilgrims were increasingly forbidden, retailers refrained from making references to the Mayflower or Plymouth Rock in their advertising, and schoolchildren were no longer allowed to draw turkeys by outlining their hands. After all, Thanksgiving offends some, particularly native Americans. Also, not everyone has reason to be thankful.
Imagine if every 4th of July, displays of the Founding Fathers were increasingly forbidden, retailers refrained from displaying the American flag or the Liberty Bell, and schoolchildren were no longer allowed to sing “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” After all, American independence in 1776 did not necessarily mean liberty for everyone. Even today, not every American feels as if they are truly free.
It’s hard to imagine many Americans conceding Thanksgiving or the 4th of July to please an objectionable minority, however vocal or significant. And yet for America’s biggest holiday, not calling December 25 its most widely recognized name has now become a common, politically-correct standard. This Christmas season, one Charleston, South Carolina school will be holding a “Winter Reflection Afternoon,” barring any complaints from students raised in tropical regions or the reflection-disabled.
Though most American holidays, including Thanksgiving and the 4th of July, have come under attack in recent years from the PC crowd, Christmas has long been put in a special kid glove category because of its religious origins. But even by the ridiculous standards of political correctness, should a holiday with explicitly religious roots be exceptionally disqualified from being celebrated publicly more than secular holidays like Thanksgiving or the 4th of July?
At the risk of giving liberals some not-so-bright ideas, how about raising objections to our calendar, a timeline based around the birth of Christ? How about our wedding and funeral rituals, where even non-Christians and atheists often steal or mimic Christian ceremonies? Many attempts to secularize Christmas are futile, as happy “holidays” is simply a combination of the words “holy” and “day.” Every child’s favorite holiday fat man, Santa Claus, is the Catholic Saint Nicholas. We even swear in Christian, where “Jesus H. Christ” or “for Pete’s sake” (a reference to Saint Peter) has been muttered by believers and nonbelievers alike for generations.
Even at our goofiest, Americans cannot run from their Christian roots. A staunch anti-Christian, anti-religious friend of mine fully subscribes to the latest popular end-of-the-world theory, something the Mayan calendar supposedly predicts will happen in 2012. Mayan expert Guillermo Bernal of Mexico’s National Autonomous University says that nothing of the sort has been predicted and suggests that apocalypse is “a very Western, Christian” concept projected onto the Maya. Why? Bernal believes so many are latching on to the Mayans because Westerners own myths are “exhausted.”
Bernal seems to understand Westerners better than they understand themselves. A battered wife who keeps taking back an abusive husband is never praised for being “accommodating,” but considered a stubborn, pathetic fool who only damages herself by refusing to stand up and assert her own self-worth. Today, even some liberals will admit that the West’s ongoing commitment to diversity and multiculturalism has reached a point of absurdity, where too many Americans willingly allow their simplest traditions to be abused in the name of accommodating everyone.
One need not be a genius or a churchgoer to recognize that the United States is a country soaked in Christian symbolism, tradition and temperament, and I am not aware of a nation on earth whose culture was not primarily formed and informed by some sort of religious core. For example, even non-Buddhists can appreciate and celebrate the importance of Buddhism to the region of Tibet.
And yet for every white liberal sporting a “Free Tibet!” bumper sticker on his Volvo-complete with Buddhist symbolism and imagery-that same American-born, Tibetan freedom fighter will often harbor a contradictory distaste for all things Christian in the United States, including religion-tinged celebrations of Christmas. Bernal’s observation that so many Westerners now latch on to the Mayans because their own myths are “exhausted” is absolutely correct, as most PC-minded Americans aren’t antagonistic to public religion per se; only religious expressions indigenous to their own country. I have never heard a Buddhist called a “Bible thumper.” I have never heard Mayans described as “backward.” I have heard both slanders applied to Christians as prestigious as the Pope by American liberals.
When Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas” in 1940, it was not considered a rejection of the composer’s Jewish faith or controversial on any level. It was understood that Americans celebrated Christmas and smart songwriters made cash from it–case closed. Today, the case for celebrating Christmas publicly in the United States is not closed, political correctness has made public expression much less open and Berlin’s song would be far more scandalous than it was 70 years ago.
Christmas is an explicitly Christian holiday that is also explicitly American on countless levels. And in a healthier, more normal and saner country there would be no shyness or shame in celebrating this glaring fact.
Filed under: culture
Very well said. It struck me as interesting, and perhaps a little ironic, as I was reading this excellent case for Christmas being an explicitly American holiday as well as an explicitly Christian one, that one can substitute “British”, “Canadian” or the adjectival form of the name of any other Western country where public recognition of Christmas as such is under attack in the name of left-wing inclusivity, for “American” and the argument works just as well.
Merry Christmas.
So, say Merry Christmas if you want.
There’s a lot of things that corporate America (the real leaders of the charge on this issue, in my mind) does that don’t make sense. Obviously, they feel that they can make more money or at least lose less money if they are less explicitly Christian.
The company Best Buy actually had Black Friday ads that included “Happy Eid” (Eid al-Adha, to be precise – the celebration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. Go, wikipedia!) in the text. That’s an interesting move – it’s a Muslim holiday that celebrates something that all Abrahamic religions would consider worthy of celebration.
I’m a Zen Buddhist, and I don’t celebrate Christmas. If someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, I thank them and say it in kind, but other than that, it doesn’t cross my lips; I see no reason to wish it upon anyone. I might encourage someone to have a Happy New Year, once Dec. 31st looms, but other than that, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the rest just aren’t on my radar.
December 8th is Bodhi Day, the day the Buddha got up from his 40-day meditation beneath a bodhi tree (which was probably named after him, come to think of it). On or before that day, I might tell people here and there, “Did you know that Dec. 8th is..?”, but beyond that, I keep the day in my own way and tend not to advertise.
I consider this whole issue largely a business and retail matter, random hoilday admonishments on the street notwithstanding; people are more likely to hear some sort of holiday greetings when buying something, or at work, I think, than anywhere else. At least, in sheer tonnage, it’s retailers pushing employees to make this an issue in the first place – do you say something? What do you say?
And yet, Christians could really stand to be a bit more thick-skinned about this: this is like white people complaining about BET, saying “But there’s no White Entertainment Television!” Of course there is – it’s called American television.
Christianity is, indeed, the default cultural norm in our country. As such, Christians are in a privileged position. You might rebuff me on this, saying “but Christianity is under attack!” To which I say “Yeah, you don’t see the Jews thinking they can get bent out of shape about their holiday. And Kwanzaa? So many people refuse to even acknowledge its validity as a holiday that the Kwanzaa-celebrants won’t make a peep about it being acknowledged – the very ability of Christmas-celebrants to complain belies the (previously unquestioned) dominance of Christmas as a holiday pastime.
An excellent piece, Jack. Thanks for writing it.
umm liberals already do oppose the christian timeline – they have adapted the bce/ce to replace bc and AD, ironically, or perhaps not, these terms have there roots in jewish community, as does the hostility towards christmas. The reason thanksgiving has been ‘off the hook’ is because it does not mention Christ.
ps, it is not ‘anti semitc’ to point that the obvious, just look at israel where kosher certification is being denied to hotels that put up christmas trees- how does a christmas tree make a hotel ‘unkosher’ do you really need an answer to that.
Zac in VA,
The problem isn’t so much people saying Happy Holidays. It lies in the idea that we are going to say that and stop saying Merry Christmas in order to not offend people. What we are facing in this country is a bias toward the minority and against the majority. This is the underlying problem. Christianity is and has been the dominant culture and root of Western Civilization. If you are not a Christian you have to accept it and live with it, but bias should not be shown to either side. Accept custom and the wisdom of our ancestors, and no one should be afraid of offending anybody.
Put it down to cowardice in defending our culture from the relentless tirades of fuzzy-minded globalism. My own credo is to ignore those who consistenty want to redefine reality to further their own political or commercial ambitions. One post here blames corporations. I concur. Our corporations have become stateless elites, and they are selling us down the river. The slavery analogy is intentional; by outsourcing jobs to India and China they are destroying the American middle class. Read my blog on http://www.FreeingTibet.com about how to fight this — and fight for democracy at the same time.
Zac — Excellent retort.
Daniel — Excellent straw man. Say what you want, and let others do the same.
Jack Hunter — Buddhists generally don’t thump anything, let alone the Bible. But all ridiculous analogies aside, they are not called “Bible thumpers” because they aren’t naturally evangelistic. Mayans aren’t referenced as “backward” because much of the conversation about them these days revolves around their science, which was extremely advanced. Oh, and please name me a “normal” or “sane” country, or if you meant a different time in the U.S., please name that.
Been following your blog for a while… good stuff
An absurd straw man. Christmas is just not under attack from liberal activists. If anything its meaning is subverted by commercialism. If all nominal Christains suddenly began to live out their faith, our economy would collapse. No one would join the army. Your entire notion of Christianity depends upon a secular culture. This is arguably the worst reasoned article I have ever read in Am. Cons.