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Roses are red
Violets are blue
Here's a post
From me to you
 Divash · Mon Jan 01, 2007 @ 09:31pm · 0 Comments |
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Merry Bleepin' Christmas. |
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So, here's the thing. I got eight emails today. All from people I consider my friends. All of them are wishing me a merry Christmas.
I'm Jewish. This isn't a great big secret. Everyone pretty much finds that out about me within an hour of meeting me, if that. It's a big part of my life, so there are mentions of it every so often in conversation.
I send out cards for every Jewish holiday. Not emails. Not ecards. Actual, physical cards that cost about six bucks for an eight-pack, and another thirty-six cents each just for postage. I hand-write letters to go in the cards, instead of just printing out a mass newsletter. I care, and I like to think that it shows. Everyone who knows me knows that I celebrate Jewish holidays, and that I'm not a Christian.
And these eight people, who were silent all during Chanukah, emailed me either last night or this morning to wish me a merry Christmas. Why?
Christmas celebrates the birth of a child whom Christians believe was of divine parentage, and who grew up to become the messiah foretold in Jewish scriptures. Judaism, the originator of those scriptures, disagrees. Christmas includes, with open arms, anyone who believes in the divinity and messiahship of Jesus. It excludes firmly those who do not believe. I am a Jew. I do not believe in either the divinity or the messiahship of Jesus. I am, by my choice, excluded from Christmas. And Easter.
You would think that my friends would remember that. Maybe take the time to think before adding my name to a mass-emailed newsletter (which was full of beautiful, but inappropriate for me, messages about Jesus), "Would it be a little bit odd to wish someone a merry Christmas when they don't celebrate that holiday? Would it make her feel that I really didn't understand her beliefs and values, and that I didn't actually care about her beliefs or values at all, if I was willing to so casually dismiss them in the interest of spreading my own message?"
Now, I know what some of my readers are thinking. "But you don't have to be Christian to celebrate Christmas." To you, I would say, "Maybe YOU don't have to be Christian to celebrate Christmas. But if you really are secular, why not celebrate Festivus, Bright's Day, or the Solstice? These are all non-religious celebrations which involve lights, gifts, parties, and food in the midwinter (or the midsummer, if you're in the Southern Hemisphere). If you truly think that celebrating Christmas is secular and inclusive, then it should be no problem to simply switch the title of what you celebrate, so that it actually is non-religious?
Divash · Mon Dec 25, 2006 @ 06:40pm · 1 Comments |
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I never thought this would happen to me. |
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I spent months trying for realistic-looking avatars. Suddenly I'm wearing flame hair, wings, and I have little dragons and pixies floating all around me. What the heck happened? I've become Gaianized!
Divash · Wed Dec 20, 2006 @ 04:49pm · 0 Comments |
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