Christmas Reborn

A number of jews have come out in support of Christmas (also here and here). This makes sense. The excuse for most of the anti-Christmas actions have been on behalf of the jews and others who do not celebrate Christmas. As far as I know, most jews are ok with the fact that they are a minority. Banning Christmas on their behalf makes it appear can only lead to anti-semitism.

The whole campaign is working. Macy's announced that they will return to telling people Merry Christmas instead of Happy Holidays. Lowes is following suit and renaming their stock of holiday trees, Christmas trees. Not everyone is happy about the news. The Huffington Post has the news release here. It is followed by many angry posts and some obscene Jesus jokes.

Speaking of Lowes, this is the first I have heard about their policy. As of this moment (January 2, 2005), their web site lists 18 items with "Christmas" in the name. These are tree stands, trees, and ornaments. They also have 213 items with "holiday" in the name. These include trees, lights, storage boxes and inflatable decorations but not a single menorah. This is the first company I have seen to actually sell "holiday trees".

Anyway, there is a section of the far left that is very anti-Christ/Christian. These are the people who wanted the "blue states" to join Canada and rename the rest "Jesusland". They sometimes refer to "Jebus". A lot of them seem to flock around the Huffington Post. Currently there are two (negative) posts about Christian leaders and one about Christianity. This last one was written by Deepak Chopra.

Taking the Bible literally makes no sense to moderate and liberal Christians, and one of the most urgent tenets of literalism, that Jesus will soon return to Earth to render judgment and save the righteous, seems like a fantasy. Secular society has no need for Jesus to return. It leaves each citizen to privately choose a religion, or not to choose one, and all other maters fall outside the realm of faith.

In a mainly political blog like this, having a Hindu questioning the tenets of Christianity seems wildly out of place. At least the comments on this one leave out the Christ jokes, but they again show that elite liberals think it polite to disparage the beliefs of others in public.

That is what the whole fight for Christmas comes down to - respect. The left says that out of respect for other cultures we have to hide our religious celebrations - call them by other names, play up the pagan aspects of the season, and hide the religious parts. These same people would never think of asking jews or muslems to hide their holy days. They would find it insulting if someone tried to rename Chanukah or Ramadan in favor of inclusiveness.

Rather than summarize, I'll swipe a sumamry from someone else.

Religion is meant to be a bond for people. These harmless icons do nothing to promote religious interpretations or any sort of theology — especially Christmas trees. If you look in the whole of the New Testament, you won’t find mention of a Christmas tree. There was not one at the last supper; Jesus did not demand the adding of lights to pine as a requirement to achieve salvation.

It is important for us to be respectful of others’ religions. It is also important that actual religion does not enter into the realm of public judgment. But the icons are useful and harmless. They educate children about other religions and ideas and help foster happiness and a feeling of tradition. They bring people together.

And I, for one, am not offended by others’ beliefs. People comfortable with their own philosophy can gaze upon icons from other religions without feeling their own values are under attack.

And the lights are just so damn pretty.