This time of year
My friend thatcrazycajun posted here about his concerns and feelings about the Christmas season which has inundated us with more sales and TV specials and the like celebrating one faith's holiday. He had asked how people were reacting to it. I've waited to post, and I'm thinking I may never be really ready to, but here goes:
I'm Jewish. Growing up as a school child in the 1960's, there was only the mention of Christmas in public school. If anyone celebrated anything else, it was never mentioned at all. Going through junior and senior high school (we didn't have middle school where I grew up), you had Christmas concerts, and it was a rarity that any other holiday or holy day was mentioned at all at this time of year. As ebonypearl said in her post here:
When Christians have children, it's expected they will raise their children in their religion. This also applies to Jews and Muslims and Buddhists with this caveat: the children of these other religions are expected to not only know about but to respect and even participate in the Christian activities created for Christian children. However, those of minority religions not named here are expected to raise their children as Christians because to do otherwise is considered child abuse. That's privilege, not persecution.
When Christians have children and raise them Christian, they encourage their children to share their activities with their friends, family, neighbors. Parents of minority religions school their children in silence so the children won't be taunted and harassed and teased and beaten by not only Christian children but by Christian adults, and pushed to the point of suicide. That's privilege, not persecution.
On one of the local news stations, they have an "ask a question" segment. Knowing that this time of the year would have day upon day of Christmas stories without any mention of any other religious holiday (I don't count Kwanzaa in this because it's not religious in nature), I asked the question about Hanukkah, namely when did it start this year. The person who handles that particular segment told me it would be on the news on December 2 by e-mail, at which point I wrote him back and said, "You realize you're a night late?," to which he said, "Yup." Literally. The fact is, had I not played "ringer" with the question, there would have been no mention of Hanukkah on the local news for the third year in a row, just as there had been no mention of the major Jewish holy days for three years running. Atlanta is 10% Jewish (according to what I've been told), yet there has been no mention on this one particular news channel about our holy days at all.
Getting back to Hanukkah: let me remind everyone that the only reason we give presents on Hanukkah is because of the over-commercialization of Christmas. There is a holiday/holy day for giving of gifts in the Jewish calendar: PURIM. However, it never gets mentioned anywhere except on Jewish calendars and Jewish houses of worship.
Hanukkah is a minor holiday. I know that. However, it would still be nice for there to be token recognition of the holiday. I've not seen a Hanukkah special on TV (in years except for one on PBS years ago with Leonard Nimoy narrating). You don't get Hanukkah music when you go in the stores. When most people want to wish you good tidings at the time of year, they don't say "Happy Holiday," they say "Merry Christmas." Again, to quote ebonypearl
Since I live deep inside the Bible Belt, it’s common for people to ask, right after getting your name, what church you go to; so privileged they never once consider that you might not be Christian. And when you say, “I’m not Christian”, in their mind, the only other thing you could be is Satanist, or, if they’re feeling charitable, maybe you’re just “going through a phase”. That’s privilege, not persecution.
There is a website out there for people who want to complain that Christmas is not being mentioned by business entities. Here is a link to it. They seem to have problems with anyone who isn't Christian and want to force businesses that respect other faiths to be boycotted. That's persecution on the part of Christians.
Rather than ramble on, allow me to end this with one more quote from ebonypearl:
Other religions don’t necessarily want the same privileges that Christianity enjoys in America; what they want is to be allowed to exist without harassment, without fear, without being accused of being “in a phase” or belonging to a “fake” religion, or having reporters say they "claim" to be an adherent of their religion, or having their religion dragged into a news report just because they aren't Christian.
Asking for the right to exist peacefully and to be allowed to live their beliefs without deliberate hardships and barriers placed in their way isn’t persecuting Christianity.
And it’s not persecution for someone to wish another “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.
So to all, a belated Happy Hanukkah, a Good Yule, a Blessed Solstice, a Blessed Diwali (is that proper? I honestly don't know), and a Merry Christmas. And the hope that next year I won't have to hear about that "person" named O'Reilly talking about a "war on Christmas" which does not exist, and hopefully he'll remember that there are other holy days at this time of year.
Oh, and let me apologize, but I don't know how to cut down the entry to make it so that you can click to read the whole thing.
I'm Jewish. Growing up as a school child in the 1960's, there was only the mention of Christmas in public school. If anyone celebrated anything else, it was never mentioned at all. Going through junior and senior high school (we didn't have middle school where I grew up), you had Christmas concerts, and it was a rarity that any other holiday or holy day was mentioned at all at this time of year. As ebonypearl said in her post here:
When Christians have children, it's expected they will raise their children in their religion. This also applies to Jews and Muslims and Buddhists with this caveat: the children of these other religions are expected to not only know about but to respect and even participate in the Christian activities created for Christian children. However, those of minority religions not named here are expected to raise their children as Christians because to do otherwise is considered child abuse. That's privilege, not persecution.
When Christians have children and raise them Christian, they encourage their children to share their activities with their friends, family, neighbors. Parents of minority religions school their children in silence so the children won't be taunted and harassed and teased and beaten by not only Christian children but by Christian adults, and pushed to the point of suicide. That's privilege, not persecution.
On one of the local news stations, they have an "ask a question" segment. Knowing that this time of the year would have day upon day of Christmas stories without any mention of any other religious holiday (I don't count Kwanzaa in this because it's not religious in nature), I asked the question about Hanukkah, namely when did it start this year. The person who handles that particular segment told me it would be on the news on December 2 by e-mail, at which point I wrote him back and said, "You realize you're a night late?," to which he said, "Yup." Literally. The fact is, had I not played "ringer" with the question, there would have been no mention of Hanukkah on the local news for the third year in a row, just as there had been no mention of the major Jewish holy days for three years running. Atlanta is 10% Jewish (according to what I've been told), yet there has been no mention on this one particular news channel about our holy days at all.
Getting back to Hanukkah: let me remind everyone that the only reason we give presents on Hanukkah is because of the over-commercialization of Christmas. There is a holiday/holy day for giving of gifts in the Jewish calendar: PURIM. However, it never gets mentioned anywhere except on Jewish calendars and Jewish houses of worship.
Hanukkah is a minor holiday. I know that. However, it would still be nice for there to be token recognition of the holiday. I've not seen a Hanukkah special on TV (in years except for one on PBS years ago with Leonard Nimoy narrating). You don't get Hanukkah music when you go in the stores. When most people want to wish you good tidings at the time of year, they don't say "Happy Holiday," they say "Merry Christmas." Again, to quote ebonypearl
Since I live deep inside the Bible Belt, it’s common for people to ask, right after getting your name, what church you go to; so privileged they never once consider that you might not be Christian. And when you say, “I’m not Christian”, in their mind, the only other thing you could be is Satanist, or, if they’re feeling charitable, maybe you’re just “going through a phase”. That’s privilege, not persecution.
There is a website out there for people who want to complain that Christmas is not being mentioned by business entities. Here is a link to it. They seem to have problems with anyone who isn't Christian and want to force businesses that respect other faiths to be boycotted. That's persecution on the part of Christians.
Rather than ramble on, allow me to end this with one more quote from ebonypearl:
Other religions don’t necessarily want the same privileges that Christianity enjoys in America; what they want is to be allowed to exist without harassment, without fear, without being accused of being “in a phase” or belonging to a “fake” religion, or having reporters say they "claim" to be an adherent of their religion, or having their religion dragged into a news report just because they aren't Christian.
Asking for the right to exist peacefully and to be allowed to live their beliefs without deliberate hardships and barriers placed in their way isn’t persecuting Christianity.
And it’s not persecution for someone to wish another “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.
So to all, a belated Happy Hanukkah, a Good Yule, a Blessed Solstice, a Blessed Diwali (is that proper? I honestly don't know), and a Merry Christmas. And the hope that next year I won't have to hear about that "person" named O'Reilly talking about a "war on Christmas" which does not exist, and hopefully he'll remember that there are other holy days at this time of year.
Oh, and let me apologize, but I don't know how to cut down the entry to make it so that you can click to read the whole thing.