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Let's Not Be Afraid of Merry Christmas
By Gil Troy
Edah
"Happy holidays," an oh-so-politically correct colleague very earnestly wished me last year. "Merry Christmas," I responded, relieved that he had not showered me in spittle by saying "chappy chanukkah" with a mangled guttural "ch."
While I appreciated my colleague's sensitivity, it was a charade. Last year, Chanukkah ended ten days before Christmas began. Ours was a Christmas vacation, not for some generic holidays. Similarly, it is equally absurd to call an ornament-festooned evergreen topped by a big bright star of Bethlehem a "Holiday Tree." Newsflash: Most Americans are Christians and they celebrate Christmas. While Christianity, thanks to the Founders' wisdom, is not America's established religion, it predominates, shaping our society in many ways, for better and worse.
We cannot pretend that Christmas is some generic American holiday or get distracted debating which Christmas symbols are seasonal and which represent the birth of their lord. For starters, it offends Christians who take Christmas seriously. I am happy to watch them celebrate, and for once, be the one enjoying a guilt-free day off without ritualistic demands or familial obligations.
The secularizing wave prompting this holiday makeover risks washing away good values. Jews have thrived in an America filled with practicing Christians who celebrate Christmas while respecting the separation of church and state. Many pious Christians are good friends to Jews and seek alliances among those sharing common values.
Christianity has often had a positive impact in developing American ideology. I honor the religious grounding which shaped Abraham Lincoln's merciful nationalism, John F. Kennedy's collective idealism, and Martin Luther King, Jr's liberal activism, let alone Ronald Reagan's muscular Americanism. I reject the secularist caricature treating every believing Christian (or every Orthodox Jew) as a raving, fundamentalist lunatic eager to impose one religion on everybody. Shrewd, open-minded, conscientious believers have long understood that separating church and state benefits the church or synagogue or mosque, by insulating religion from politics. Having judges or politicians decide which Jewish or Christian symbols are minor or major is a step backward not forward.
We don't need to banish any religious symbols or religiosity from our public spaces to get along and we should fear the soulless consumerism that runs rampant and unchecked when we abandon our faiths. The December gift-giving frenzy demeans both Christmas and Chanukkah. It is not coincidental that Walmart has become the flashpoint between those who treat the year's defining retail period as the "Holiday Season" versus those who call it the "Christmas Season."
Jews should beware what they wish for. If American culture bowdlerizes Christmas, if consumerism trumps Christianity, imagine what it can do to American Judaism. In fact, mindless multicultural areligious consumerism has already done great damage. We see it in the limp, diluted, ethnic posture most American Jews and now most Americans mistake for Judaism today. We see it in the spread of "Chrismukkah," which reflects this modern tendency to suck out the essence of a religious celebration and just leave the shell of an excuse to shop, ornamented with some empty symbols from quaint traditions. This superficial Judeo-Christian hybrid, popularized in a December 2003 episode of the glitzy TV show "The OC," now yields 151,000 hits on Google.
Looking over the vast spiritual and moral wasteland of most modern American popular culture makes us appreciate the rabbinic emphasis on the Seven Noachide Laws. Judaism respects people of faith and ethics, and especially appreciates those who root their ethics in faith.
This year - as usual - the White House has hosted many Christmas parties. And the White House also throws a Chanukah party, which was completely kosher for the first time ever this year. The attention to Jewish sensitivities was so great that the military aide introducing the guests on the receiving line asked whether they touched members of the opposite sex or not, so that the President and Mrs. Bush could greet them properly. This is the America that I cherish - an America of authenticity not posturing, of respectful diversity not compulsory homogeneity, of sensitivity to differences not an empty generic uniformity. It is an America where Judaism and Christianity and secularism and a host of other approaches to profound questions can flourish side by side, accepting each other, not simply tolerating each other.
So, no, when someone wishes me a "Merry Christmas," I don't take offense. If I wanted most people on the street to wish me "Happy Hanukkah" I'd spend December in Israel. And when I wish my Christian friends and neighbor a merry Christmas, I genuinely hope they have as deep, spiritual and meaningful a Christmas as they want to have. And yes, I hope they get some great presents too.
Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University, and the author, most recently, of Morning in America: How Ronald Reagan Invented the 1980s.
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