2 VIEWS FROM POSTMEDIA
Opinion by Ryan Stelter • Yesterday
Every year we hear anecdotally about the war on Christmas but it couldn’t be further from the truth.
There is no “war on Christmas.”
People will decry that you can’t say “Merry Christmas” anymore without offending anyone. That is nonsense.
You can say it all you want, whenever you want, really. Although you might look silly saying it in October.
That’s beside the point, however. I don’t know who concocted this idea about the “war on Christmas” but it resurfaces every year.
A recent Leger poll of 1,526 Canadians found that a whopping 92% of people would not be offended if someone wished them a Merry Christmas despite growing up in a culturally or religiously non-Christian household.
I have a theory that the “war on Christmas” is one born out of a fear of change. It is one of the holidays that is steeped in tradition and those traditions can be hard to follow every year. It’s not that you actually can’t say Merry Christmas to people anymore, it’s just a proxy for a larger feeling.
People are nostalgic around the holidays and it makes perfect sense. As every Christmas passes, we reflect on how much things have changed. Things aren’t the way they used to be, and it scares some people. It’s understandable as change can be hard.
For instance, I noticed a thread on Twitter the other day highlighting the “war on Christmas.” In it were screenshots of old newspaper articles dating back more than 100 years. Many of the articles were presented as people fearing that Christmas had been banned, that somehow everyone’s favourite holiday was being taken over by some mysterious Scrooge-like force.
There was even an article from 1961 that claimed communists were stealing Christmas away. Of course, this was during the Cold War when a word like communist was basically seen as a curse word.
It’s quite easy to cast blame on a nameless, common enemy trying to take away the precious holiday many hold so dear. When in reality, no one cares.
Perhaps the media holds a part of the blame, stirring up these ideas that Christmas is under attack. Any story where someone is criticizing the holiday garners major reactions and gets clicks. If we were to use older examples, it sold newspapers.
Yet with every passing year, Christmas has endured. On Dec. 25 people gather and swap presents while drinking egg nog and reflecting on the year that’s passed. (Also, can anyone please tell me if they actually tell scary ghost stories around Christmas? It’s for science, and my own personal intrigue).
While there is certainly the religious aspect of Christmas that many people adhere to, there are plenty who are not regular church-goers that celebrate the holiday. It’s hard not to, pretty lights, holiday parties and classic movies.
Of course, there are other holidays around this time of year, such as Hanukkah or Kwanzaa but they do not exist to eliminate Christmas.
I have yet to meet a single person who scoffed when I said to them “Merry Christmas” and I worked years in retail. If you’re the type of person who would get offended if someone wished you a Merry Christmas, I would kindly ask that you reflect a little bit on who you are as a person.
Saying “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings” is not silencing Christmas as those have been common sayings for years now. So, go on, spread that Christmas cheer this year and wish everyone you see on the street a Merry Christmas. Or don’t, it’s really up to you — it’s a free country.
Have a safe and happy holiday and please don’t drink and drive.
rstelter@postmedia.com
Twitter: @steltsy94
Opinion: Let's drop the arguing about a War on Christmas
Edmonton Journal
Every year, Halloween decorations come down, giving way to Remembrance Day poppies and then, it arrives — the Christmas season. Shops begin playing carols early and decorations adorn store displays. People begin winding down their schedules as many prepare to spend time with loved ones. We’re starting to get familiar with another season that descends with the last bugle call of Nov. 11: the “War on Christmas.”
Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that it’s the season of arguing whether or not there is a war on Christmas. The Guardian has made a parody of the annual hostility while Fox News is blamed for declaring it. Whether or not you believe there’s a War on Christmas, it’s hard to deny that December brings out the worst in some people.
Every year online mobs claim that any non-Christian decoration or festivity without some Christmassy iconography is part of the battle. Just as the first strains of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” blare out from mall speakers, the sudden arrival of Starbucks holiday cups (an annual target for right-wing keyboard warriors) are taken as shots fired.
And while the fervour around this has been strong in the U.S., we’re not immune from the issue here. Just this year in Edmonton, racists pounced on a Edmonton Downtown Business Association decision to move the large tree they erect in Churchill Square to a business district on Rice Howard Way, blaming Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, who was not even involved in the decision. It’s reminiscent of Fox News’ Christmas Tree fire last year, which several network folks called a hate crime.
Christmas is a contention as annual as the World Juniors hockey championship, yet how it’s celebrated changes constantly. Gerry Bowler, a.k.a. Dr. Christmas, has pointed out that Christmas has been in the crosshairs since the beginning of Christianity. There have always been attempts to restrain, transform, downplay, resist, and contain celebrations of Jesus’ birth. And yet Christmas remains. There have also always been voices calling for Christianity’s centrality in our society. And yet Christmas has been remarkably adaptable to both its adherents and people outside the faith.
One unique feature of this current controversy is its context within the general push for privatizing religion. Our own tree debacle here in Edmonton is one instance in a long line of religious conflict over Christmas that shows its political dimensions.
A case in New York in 1956 had to decide whether an inter-faith constructed Christmas creche could be displayed outside a high school (Baer v. Kolmorgen). An atheist parent in South Dakota contacted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who took the school board to court in 1971 after their child was forced to sing Christmas carols in school (Florey v Sioux Falls School District). What we see in these and many more cases is how the removal of Christmas from a more dominant cultural position can be seen as a secular move to relegate all religious holidays to society’s sidelines equally.
Is there a way to acknowledge Christmas as a religious, yet public holiday, without insisting on Christianity’s cultural supremacy? One way would be to not let the issue be as divisive as it has become. The narrative of the War on Christmas reflects already entrenched political divides. It’s not an exaggeration to draw the disagreement along stereotypes: liberals claim there is no war; conservatives maintain that it’s constant.
The left wants no Christianity in Christmas; the right wants only Christianity everywhere. We have the Guardian vs. Fox News; Jon Stewart vs. Tucker Carlson. Both sides think in terms of total opposition rather than an opportunity for reasoned, charitable conversation. Christmas can be a brief, fleeting moment of freedom from our divides rather than a way of entrenching them — much like the famous Christmas ceasefire on the Western Front in 1914.
But this will require a very different orientation to the conversation, one not trying to win an argument. This is the opportunity to have a different political dialogue, one that negotiates how to celebrate a religious holiday in a pluralistic society.
Christmas isn’t going anywhere; but what it looks like and how it’s celebrated in public will always fluctuate. Without Christmas, especially here in the Great White North, we’d lose a time of festivity and conviviality in the cold, dark months of winter. Without some restraint on public displays though and what it communicates beyond holiday cheer, we’d have the Ku Klux Klan erecting crosses on government property.
Christians point out that consumerism has already made the essence of Christmas unrecognizable in its celebration. Secular folks continue to celebrate Christmas by a vast majority. So, let’s have a multi-religious, cross-political conversation, not about what we should do but rather about what we’re already doing to celebrate at this time of year.
From this kind of conversation we can learn from sources we might not expect. Christians, for example, can look to religious minorities who are living their best religious lives through community service and care. When your holiday isn’t the norm, you’re really forced to reassess what the time means to you and how you can put your values forth nonetheless.
Non-Christian religious groups still participate in the season, not despite their religions but through them. We see Sikh groups providing free groceries and Muslim mosques offering shelter to unhoused people this time of year. If we can drop the obsession with proving whether or not there’s a war on Christmas and instead step outside to participate in unfamiliar traditions, publicly acknowledging the various religious communities of those traditions, then perhaps we can find a quieter return to the best elements of Christmastime beyond these distracting battles: charity, kindness, and family.
Joseph Wiebe is associate professor of Religion and Ecology at the University of Alberta Augustana, and the interim director of the Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life.
Every year, Halloween decorations come down, giving way to Remembrance Day poppies and then, it arrives — the Christmas season. Shops begin playing carols early and decorations adorn store displays. People begin winding down their schedules as many prepare to spend time with loved ones. We’re starting to get familiar with another season that descends with the last bugle call of Nov. 11: the “War on Christmas.”
Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that it’s the season of arguing whether or not there is a war on Christmas. The Guardian has made a parody of the annual hostility while Fox News is blamed for declaring it. Whether or not you believe there’s a War on Christmas, it’s hard to deny that December brings out the worst in some people.
Every year online mobs claim that any non-Christian decoration or festivity without some Christmassy iconography is part of the battle. Just as the first strains of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” blare out from mall speakers, the sudden arrival of Starbucks holiday cups (an annual target for right-wing keyboard warriors) are taken as shots fired.
And while the fervour around this has been strong in the U.S., we’re not immune from the issue here. Just this year in Edmonton, racists pounced on a Edmonton Downtown Business Association decision to move the large tree they erect in Churchill Square to a business district on Rice Howard Way, blaming Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, who was not even involved in the decision. It’s reminiscent of Fox News’ Christmas Tree fire last year, which several network folks called a hate crime.
Christmas is a contention as annual as the World Juniors hockey championship, yet how it’s celebrated changes constantly. Gerry Bowler, a.k.a. Dr. Christmas, has pointed out that Christmas has been in the crosshairs since the beginning of Christianity. There have always been attempts to restrain, transform, downplay, resist, and contain celebrations of Jesus’ birth. And yet Christmas remains. There have also always been voices calling for Christianity’s centrality in our society. And yet Christmas has been remarkably adaptable to both its adherents and people outside the faith.
One unique feature of this current controversy is its context within the general push for privatizing religion. Our own tree debacle here in Edmonton is one instance in a long line of religious conflict over Christmas that shows its political dimensions.
A case in New York in 1956 had to decide whether an inter-faith constructed Christmas creche could be displayed outside a high school (Baer v. Kolmorgen). An atheist parent in South Dakota contacted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who took the school board to court in 1971 after their child was forced to sing Christmas carols in school (Florey v Sioux Falls School District). What we see in these and many more cases is how the removal of Christmas from a more dominant cultural position can be seen as a secular move to relegate all religious holidays to society’s sidelines equally.
Is there a way to acknowledge Christmas as a religious, yet public holiday, without insisting on Christianity’s cultural supremacy? One way would be to not let the issue be as divisive as it has become. The narrative of the War on Christmas reflects already entrenched political divides. It’s not an exaggeration to draw the disagreement along stereotypes: liberals claim there is no war; conservatives maintain that it’s constant.
The left wants no Christianity in Christmas; the right wants only Christianity everywhere. We have the Guardian vs. Fox News; Jon Stewart vs. Tucker Carlson. Both sides think in terms of total opposition rather than an opportunity for reasoned, charitable conversation. Christmas can be a brief, fleeting moment of freedom from our divides rather than a way of entrenching them — much like the famous Christmas ceasefire on the Western Front in 1914.
But this will require a very different orientation to the conversation, one not trying to win an argument. This is the opportunity to have a different political dialogue, one that negotiates how to celebrate a religious holiday in a pluralistic society.
Christmas isn’t going anywhere; but what it looks like and how it’s celebrated in public will always fluctuate. Without Christmas, especially here in the Great White North, we’d lose a time of festivity and conviviality in the cold, dark months of winter. Without some restraint on public displays though and what it communicates beyond holiday cheer, we’d have the Ku Klux Klan erecting crosses on government property.
Christians point out that consumerism has already made the essence of Christmas unrecognizable in its celebration. Secular folks continue to celebrate Christmas by a vast majority. So, let’s have a multi-religious, cross-political conversation, not about what we should do but rather about what we’re already doing to celebrate at this time of year.
From this kind of conversation we can learn from sources we might not expect. Christians, for example, can look to religious minorities who are living their best religious lives through community service and care. When your holiday isn’t the norm, you’re really forced to reassess what the time means to you and how you can put your values forth nonetheless.
Non-Christian religious groups still participate in the season, not despite their religions but through them. We see Sikh groups providing free groceries and Muslim mosques offering shelter to unhoused people this time of year. If we can drop the obsession with proving whether or not there’s a war on Christmas and instead step outside to participate in unfamiliar traditions, publicly acknowledging the various religious communities of those traditions, then perhaps we can find a quieter return to the best elements of Christmastime beyond these distracting battles: charity, kindness, and family.
Joseph Wiebe is associate professor of Religion and Ecology at the University of Alberta Augustana, and the interim director of the Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life.
No comments:
Post a Comment