It's December and I Have New Material

Every time I think I have said all I need to say about the War on Christmas, December comes around again and I will feel like society has sunk to a new low.   I find out I have so much more to say.

It's funny how certain Christians in this country feel like others are waging war against them, but I am the one who feels beaten down.  I feel defeated in trying to be the Voice of Reason.  No matter how much I, and others like me, try to explain how nobody is trying to take belief away from anyone else, those voices shout louder and dig their heels in harder.  

Why is Christmas, in fact all of Christian belief, a zero sum game?  Is there anyone out there among the evangelicals willing to refute this?  

Do you know what it looks like to me?  It looks to me like you believe if I do not acknowledge your holiday, if I do not share your "reason for the season", if I do not want to hear your prayers or look at your religious displays in the secular public square, then you are being forbidden to practice your religion and celebrate your holiday.  Unless all Americans believe, or at the very least acts as if they believe in public, then believers are being stripped of their rights.  If society acknowledges other belief systems, the current dominant religions will be destroyed completely.  There is no room for multiple voices in our public square.  

Maybe I need to stop spending time on Facebook (although I have tried to stop many times), but if Facebook is any indication about how the average Christian feels about his or her religion, then it scares me.  

I would like to be a part of a bigger debate.  I would like to be able to publicly say why I don't believe what they believe.  I would like to call out those religious posts sometimes.  I would like to be able to say I believe in secularism with the same pride and conviction my friends say they are Christian. 

I am afraid to do so.  I am afraid of losing friends.  I am afraid of ostracism.  My readers may tell me any friend who would ostracize me for lack of belief is not a true friend, or is a friend I would want to associate with, but it's not that simple.  I may have reasons for wanting to associate with certain people.  Maybe I enjoy their companionship in other ways.   Maybe I don't want to alienate our mutual friends.  

Every day I am reminded, "It's Merry Christmas, not Happy Holidays." or that I need to remember, "The Reason for the Season."  I am expected to accept this from my friends and I will be treated as intolerant if I don't at least stay silent.  However, if I were to say publicly that I disagree, I fear I would not be treated with the same tolerance.

Christians want complete strangers to wish them a "Merry Christmas" and they want their Facebook friends to "Type Amen if you love Jesus," because for some reason they need others to affirm their faith.  I'm not here to affirm your faith.  Affirm your own faith.  Didn't Jesus teach not to pray openly and boastfully (Matthew 6: 5-8)?

Disagreeing with someone else's religion, practicing another religion, or choosing to not publicly declare your religion out of respect for those who don't share your beliefs is not a form of persecution.  We can all share the public square.  We can all celebrate the things in our humanity that unite us rather than the personal beliefs that divide us.  I can respect your right to believe what you want to believe as long as you are not expecting me to play by your religion's rules or participate in your rituals.  

There is a saying out there, I'm not sure to whom it is attributed, but it is one of the biggest truth of American society right now:  

When you are accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression

I shouldn't be asking these questions.  I know why these people keep screaming about Christian persecution and The War on Christmas.  I have always understood it.  I wrote about it years ago.  It's all based on fear.  

I have come to the point where my empathy is wearing thin.  I understand you are afraid of sharing public spaces.  I understand the fear that allowing other voices to share the public square will drown out your voice.  Shut up and stop being so paranoid.  Is your church still open?  Is the Bible being sold in bookstores and available at the library? (Don't give me the Fox News scare stories about some extremist politician scaring you with stories of "liberals banning the Bible.  I am asking you if you can easily obtain a copy of the Bible right now.)  Can you decorate your private home for Christmas?  Are you going to have Christmas dinner?  Do you pray privately when you need to?  Do you believe God hears your prayers even if you aren't saying them out loud in public?  Then stop telling me I'm oppressing you if I don't want to hear your prayers in a public, secular space.  

The weekend I am going to celebrate Christmas.  I am going to celebrate Christmas exactly the way I want to celebrate Christmas.  I will have family come to dinner at my home.  We will talk, listen to music, eat, drink alcohol, exchange gifts, and eat some more.  We will enjoy each other's company for a few hours and be grateful we all the the time together.  That is my "reason for the season."  I don't need anyone else telling me how to celebrate.  I don't need anyone else telling me why I am celebrating a modern version of an ancient Solstice celebration.  Nobody else can tell me what greeting to use.  No matter what I say, I am wishing you well, so take it as it's meant.

Now go and have a happy holiday!