Multicultural Mush
Orlando Patterson, Harvard prof and guest columnist for the Times, writes at length to the effect that Christmas is merely “a uniquely American national festival.” (“A Holiday for Us All,” Dec. 23) As a practicing Jew, may I assert the contrary; it is a religious holiday that has been given a place of special privilege in our civic life. That its spiritual elements may have become attenuated does not make it necessarily acceptable to the one-quarter of America that is not Christian.
Patterson notes that Christians co-opted certain practices originally pagan, but this does not divest them of their character as essential hallmarks of that particular religion. After all, just because the swastika is an ancient design element found in the Indian sub-continent and MesoAmerica does not insulate it from embodying the values of the jackboot and the crematoria.
No other major religions or cultures decorate pine trees in the winter. As a sociologist, and as a prominent member of a minority community, it is astounding that Patterson would be oblivious to the significance of the Menorah to Jews as a religious artifact. His essay trivializes it as a possible design element for Christmas tree decor! And this is from a professor who teaches a course on “Ethnicity in Comparative and Historical Perspective.”
All in all, though undoubtedly unintentional, Patterson’s essay offers much offense to non-Christians.
Trope of the Times: “Why can’t we all just get along?”
Just as you viewed Patterson’s Op Ed as an affront to non-Christians, I believe it also offends the 20 to 25% who consider themselves fundamentalist Christians. These folks are very upset that Christmas has evolved into what they consider to be a very non religious holiday. If they had their wish, Christmas lights, decorated pine trees, and department store displays would all be changed to baby Jesus manger scenes.
My brother in law works for Pat Robertson and when I sent him “A Holiday for All of Us” he hated it and said it proved his point that Christmas has been de-Christianized.
So, I believe that instead of complaining about what few religious elements are left in the public domain (outside of churches) we should rejoice that Christmas has evolved this much from what the fundamentalists would dictate. Unless we can turn the clock back to a time before Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” and December 25 was just another workday, we should be happy that we a winning this battle
As a final proof that Christians are losing the Christmas battle, go to a non Christian country such as Thailand and notice the decorative lights, festive pine trees with presents under them, and Christmas music playing everywhere. Everything is joyous, but no one even pretends that there is any religious significance to this celebration.
And from a true believer’s perspective, that is exactly what is happening in this country.
Said by Andoni January 6, 2007 at about 7:29 am