The War on Christmas from Within

The end of year holidays in western culture will be a challenge for me this time. This is understandable as it will be my first Thanksgiving and Christmas without Mom. There is at once a sobering reality that old traditions will not be enacted again, if ever. Yet, this potential nose dive into melancholia will be tempered with the excitement of starting new traditions.

On a personal level, this may mean a dinner out at a nearby oriental buffet with friends, as opposed to the old tradition of a home cooked feast with family. Ah, but what happens when half of the family have gone on to their Great Reward and the other half is too busy starting their own new tradition to carry on the home cooked feast idea with the sibling?

No matter! Sushi bar it is!

On a larger scale, members of this august bastion of western culture have already embarked on a new tradition: namely, let’s start a new Christmas tradition by acting less like Christians at the most holiest time of the year. The most noteworthy example of this new tradition happened last week, when every Republican member of the House of Representatives voted to make it more difficult for refugees from Syria - all refugees from Syria - to settle in the United States. They were joined by 47 Democrats.

Don’t worry, we’ll be starting the paperwork to disown them shortly, but this new tradition of ethnocentrism at the holidays is worrisome. Yes, nothing says "peace on earth, good will to men" like old fashioned bigotry! 

 

See, new holiday traditions are exciting! Yayyyyyy!

All this is in response to the attacks by terrorists in Paris on 11/13. ISIS or ISIL claimed responsibility for the event, so naturally all people of Syrian nationality came under suspicion. Newsflash to all right thinking people everywhere: this jump to conclusions should not have happened naturally. Of course it didn’t happen naturally; it only happened because the most faithful-to-God among us are allowing their fears of other cultures to overcome our rational thoughts of our national psyche. Excuse me, but isn’t faith suppose to supplant fear and make us all better human beings, not just to ourselves, but for the entire human race?

Now, all the people of Syria, who have seen their lives crumble around them due to a civil war, who if they choose to stay will either be killed by the current regime or ISIS, will now have very few places to seek refuge because nations of the west which are supposedly steeped in Judeo-Christian values are suddenly going to shed those values and deny the downtrodden people of the world the chance, the most basic human right of survival? 

I really hope this new tradition does not catch on.

Until this year, I dismissed the idea of a war on Christmas declared by secular western society. I believed that this so-called conflict was dreamed up by a ratings crazed producer at an unnamed American news network called Fox, but this year I’m thinking that there really is a war on Christmas. This year, it is the Christians themselves declaring war on their own values, by denying refuge to the less fortunate people everywhere in the world. The conservatives among us are so fearful of another terrorist attack that they are willing to abandon their faith in God and dishonor the memory of the man whose birth we celebrate at this time of year.

I don’t why this is happening, but I believe that is what’s happening.

Let’s go back to the concept of "peace on earth, good will to men." Christians of the world, these words were not placed together just so they can be strung on a banner over our Black Friday shopping sprees. It’s more than just six words on our holiday greeting cards. It is a concept, a very real concept, of extending peace, friendship, human rights to all who we encounter in this life.  

This means good will to those beyond Christianity. This means Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and all the other believers and non-believers of the world. Yes, even atheists.

(Thank you for reading. And as we go to the bottom of the first inning,  it’s terrorists one, Jesus coming to bat.)