The need for a fuller portrayal of Christianity

(1 of 2)

Next

To the Editor: I write this in response to an editorial written by Kate Mason (Christmas: 'tis the season for coercion, 1/23/98, YH). While I agree with Mason's exhortation to "celebrate Christmas. Just don't try to make me celebrate it," and think the desire among many Christians to force others to celebrate their faith can be repugnant, I still take issue with much of the article.

Mason writes from the perspective of "an agnostic brought up in a Jewish home." I am a Catholic brought up in a Catholic home, and educated at a Jesuit high school. But I am not writing to defend Christmas, nor to apologize for all those Christians who insult or demean others. I simply want to suggest that in examining Christmas, we deal with a cultural phenomenon which transcends explanation in purely religious terms.

Mason argues against the Christmas season's "nationwide disregard of the secular state." But let's examine the nature of the disregard which Kate presents to us: "Merry Christmas" signs, and businesses with Christmas sales. These are less the signs of a religious group professing its beliefs and disregarding the separation of church and state, than they are efforts to improve sales. One shouldn't conflate the results of businesses' commercially-driven exploitation of the Christmas season with the goals of Christians trying to celebrate their faith.

Perhaps Kate's friend was partially correct in saying "Christmas has nothing to do with Jesus any more." What definitely has nothing to do with Jesus, despite Kate's allusions, is any belief that non-Christians would be better off if they were "one of us," or any belief that Christians see the "existence of Jews and other non-conformers" as a "problem" which needs to be dealt with.

While Christians should shoulder some of the burden for re-examining their faith, it would also be instructive to consider evaluating a larger society which feels that an adequate response to the narrowness of a "Merry Christmas" sign is to tape a plastic menorah next to it. It is not simply a question of the exclusion of unrepresented religious minorities. It is a question of preserving the value and integrity of religious and cultural symbols in a commercial culture focused on the lowest common denominator.

--Christopher Ribeiro, BK '00

Back to Opinion...