The holy wars of xmas
Published by michael December 18th, 2004 in politicsErr… Christmas. I wouldn’t normally pay too much attention to the ultra conservative wing or to Christian propaganda, but considering who is sitting in the White House, unless you’re in denial still, I’d say it’s an imperative to keep tabs on the radical right.
Today the La Times reports that one southern church has taken to a boycott of stores not representing their Christian values. “As Christian shoppers, they would like to be greeted with the phrase “Merry Christmas” — not a bland “Happy Holidays” — and stores that failed to do so would risk losing their business.” That’s a rather inflexible ultimatum for a question of semantics. Rev. Mark Creech went so far as to say, “It’s a cultural war. We are in the thick of it,” Creech said. “It’s not so much an attack on us. It’s an attack on Christ.” I fail to comprehend how alienating people is a Christian value.
I started following the story of domestic religious culture wars almost a month ago when I read Suresh’s post on the new efforts of creationism (thinly veiled as creationism) to beat back the teaching of evolutionary theory in the classroom. After that, I read Wired’s take on this as well as National Geographic’s provocatively titled, “Was Darwin Wrong?” The whole issue itself is such a non-issue: a sham. Still, many who profess Christianity deny Darwin. As gathered together in this Wikipedia entry,
According to a 2001 Gallup evolution poll, 72% of Americans believe in some form of creationism (as defined above). About 45% of Americans ascribe to the more Biblically literal creationism, believing that “God created man pretty much in his present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.”
It’s fairly surpising and could mean that either a) Christian fundamentalist churches are systematically attacking the theory of evolution as contradicting a strict interpretation of the Bible, (and many Americans are fundamentalists) or b) public schools aren’t able to adequately teach the theory of evolution given their resources, pressures, and perhaps even the political climate. Oh heck, I’ll never understand a fundamentalist strict interpretation of any holy book clearly influenced by mortals.
A Boingboing post yesterday followed up on this theme, reporting one reader’s experience of seeing a “creationist” booth a their school science fair where they were apparently distributing this comic-strip creationist dogma. Have a look, if you dare– it’s good for a gasp or a laugh depending on your mood and disposition. (link)
Perhaps I’m just falling prey to the hype of “us and them” with images like this one showing the increasing divisiveness of U.S. culture. It’s baffling that there can be so many separate fundamentalist sects within diverse religions that believe they are the chosen few. It’s quite unfortunate that religions don’t turn out a larger degree of mystics that acknowledge all religious paths as valid. I guess the lowest-common-denominator of us versus them appeals to the common human divisiveness.
As I prepare to spend some time away from broadband, blogging, reading, and interacting less online, I give thanks for family and the unity of all people. I continue to envision peace among all people– I raise my glass (of sprudel) again as a prayer that all war may end today.
Update: check “This is not over” for the story on more similarly minded right-wingers in California.
5 Responses to “The holy wars of xmas”
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the creationists have been at it for a while. somehow I am more upset by this issue than by economic boycotts…
Would these boycotters be more pleased if the store employees either a) did not greet them at all? or b) greeted them with “Happy Hannukah! Have a Wonderful Kwanzaa! Merry Christmas!” To hell with them all, pun intended.
On a related note, there was a great article in the NYT today on a recent commercial that certain channels refused to air. They ended up bringing more attention to the commercial for the United Church of Christ than the channels that aired it. The ad had an image of a church with two big bouncers in front, rejecting different people–apparently the two men discretely holding hands (among those rejected) were the central controversy that prevented the select channels from abstaining from airtime. Ultimately the message was to convey that the UC of Christ does not discriminate, much like Jesus did not. I wholeheartedly agree that acceptance, love, and willingness to welcome are the values that Jesus would embrace, and that I, independently, support.
As an endnote, what an interesting act of civil disobedience it would make to stage two bouncers outside a church that discriminates in any offensive way. They could pretend to reject anyone they felt unfit to enter. (And then just let them enter, bewildered.) Prob. wouldn’t last long, but would catch some attention regardless.
Bit depressing isn’t it? Here’s a thought, too. The companies telling their employees to say “Happy Holidays” aren’t doing so because the government has told them to, they’re doing so because they believe it’s economically expedient. In other words, they’re just following the market, which many of these protesters would otherwise encourage them to do. Of course, the market also allows the religious radicals to protest to convince the companies to return to saying “Merry Christmas,†too. I nonetheless have to note the irony that they’re actually protesting the companies’ attendance to the market. The same market many of the protesters worship six (ok, maybe seven) days a week. And currently the market has decided that most of us don’t mind being told Happy Holidays as long as the salutation seems cheerful and, hey, at least somewhat genuine. And, mainly, of course, Happy Holidays is more inclusive and doesn’t exclude people of other faiths, includin
g heathens like me.
In other wacky religious news, did you hear about the judge in Alabama, who, apparently inspired by Judge Roy Moore and his 10 Commandments monument, is having the Commandments sewn into his robes as a decoration. Seriously:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=533&e=3&u=/ap/20041215/ap_on_re_us/ten_commandments_robe
Keep up the great work guys, and, um, Happy Holidays?
I was appalled to see that you think the “theory of evolution” is not adequately publicized in public schools. You said yourself that it was a theory, so why should not other theories receive the same amount of attention (i.e. creation). Think about things before you say them!
Anonymous,
What I said was that, “public schools aren’t able to adequately teach the theory of evolution given their resources, pressures, and perhaps even the political climate,” not that evolution isn’t getting adequate exposure (although I’d have to agree with that assertion as well).
I was looking for an explanation of why the widely-accepted within the scientific community theory of evolution is poorly understood, and was guessing that perhaps it’s not well taught in schools, or even worse, surpressed.
From my perspective, your postulation that other theories (i.e. creationism) should receive the same amount of attention is reactionary, but understandable. No doubt in Georgia many people agree with you.
I would feel about the same way if you had suggested that the geocentric model of astronomy (that teaches that the sun revolves around the earth) should receive as much time as the heliocentric theory (that the earth revolves around the sun) in public schools. I’m not a materialist that thinks science can disprove the spiritual realm, nor the existance of anyone’s god(s). Yet not all theories are created equal… some just fail to stand the test of time, like geocentrism & creationism.
Respectfully,