The Conceit of Christianity

Now that the holiday season is over I actually have a bit of time to sit down and reflect on things that have happened and what they mean. It's been a bit of an awkward time, between my mixed marriage which lands me in church, my atheism and dealing with the public, my Judaism and dealing with the public, as well as being very aware of the minority position I'm in. And I've learned quite a bit this year.

Those that follow my twittering will know that I've been reading up on the pre-Christian origins of the December 25th celebrations (and here's a nice article with religious stories and at least 12 pre-Christian gods born on December 25th). I've also been reasoning out exactly what is meant by holiday greetings. But something interesting I have learned about this year is something I could never put my finger on until now. It's the conceit that lays at the heart of modern Christianity. I'm not using conceit in a pejorative way but rather pointing out that current members seem to all share an inflated sense of importance and universality.

What triggered this Yuletide realization was a discussion that occurred at my job. I'm out as an atheist and that means that some of the more conservative people I work with come to me as their friendly unbeliever. Christmas came up and I told them that to me Christmas was simply "Chinese food and a movie day". They replied that it was sad as it is a day about family. I replied "That's true. If you celebrate Christmas." They went on to say that it's really one of the few days off that are celebrated, as opposed to Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, etc. I, once again, agreed stipulating that it's only true if that person should celebrate Christmas.


And then it dawned on me. There was something deeper to their assumptions about the holiday of Christmas and how people celebrated it. To them it was a family day without much religion. But that was still coming from within their Christianity. Their view of my atheism is not that I reject all gods but rather I rejected the Christian god. Their view of the Judaism I was raised with, likewise, accepted a god and therefore the Christian god in some way, though without Jesus. This is probably a shock to most Christians but the Jewish god is not the same deity as the Christian god. Assuming so is part of the conceit of Christianity. Were that true then Christians would be expected to believe in Allah but I'm guessing you'd be hard-pressed to find a Jesus follower who would claim that is true. The best way to visualize this is to put the "big three" in a line:

Judaism-----------------Christianity-----------------Islam

That is a simple time-line. Now, here's how Christians see it:

Judaism----------------->Christianity-----------------Islam

And here's how Muslims see it:

Judaism----------------->Christianity----------------->Islam

Each successive religion sees the previous ones as part of the foundation of their own religion. That's because the older a religion is the more readily people will respect it as a belief system, though Scientology is not more ridiculous than a literal reading of any of those major religions listed above. But by building on an ancient heritage and history they can claim some sort of legitimacy by lineage. The twist is that those previous foundational religions don't accept the spin-off faiths in any capacity. Christians don't accept Allah as their god nor Mohamed as a major prophet. Jews, similarly, don't accept the Christian god or Jesus. There is one ancient rabbinic text that may mention the same Jesus of Christian fame, though it writes him off as a poorly read scholar and therefore finds his religious exegesis moot and invalid. While I can't speak on the details separating the belief systems between Christianity and Islam I can point out some incredibly vast fundamental leaps between Judaism and Christianity. So here are some key facts about how the religion works according to Judaism

• God does not care about belief. One does not need to believe in god in order to be a good Jew.
• It is not written anywhere in the Hebrew Bible that a messiah will be born of a virgin.
• Messiah, in Hebrew, means king rather than embodiment of god. Think savior as in saving someone, not Saving someone.
• There is no heaven or hell in Judaism and to live one's life with the afterlife in mind is forbidden.
• The letter of the laws does not completely exclude the idea of other gods, simply the worshiping of them.

That's just a sampling of differences which really split Judaism from Christianity on the god level. Christianity is based on faith, belief and worship while Judaism is based on practice and adherence (and lineage). Since these are essentially opposing sets of metaphysics their entire world-views are incompatible.


That was a lot to take in, but there's a second part to the Christian conceit I want to get to and that is the idea that Christmas can be a secular holiday. This is false. The confusion comes from the fact that it is currently a federal holiday and therefore observed by the state with the closing of the post office, municipal services and banks. This does not mean it's secular. George W. Bush made "Jesus Day" (June 10th) a state holiday in Texas but if you think that's secular then you're delusional. The truth is the state makes mistakes and this is one of those cases. Christmas, the celebration of Jesus' birth, can never be a secular holiday as long as Jesus is involved in it. And for those who argue that he's not an longer then I must disagree. While the reason for the season is Earth's tilt away from the sun the reason for Christmas is to put a Christian mask over pagan holidays in order to win converts. Christmas is, at its very core, a holiday to celebrate a Mass for Christ. The fact that it's a federal holiday does not make it secular, but it does drive home the... incredible conceit of Christianity ever year to non-Christians. I'm not trying to be rude by calling Christianity conceited; I'm jut trying to point out a fundamental problem with how Christians view the world in relation to their one, elected, narrow world view. However, when's the last time you heard a Jew, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, Jain or Zoroastrian claim that Christmas is a secular holiday? While it's not a rare view it is held as an elusively Christian sentiment. Hell, Hannukah is actually a military victory remembrance celebrated in a specifically Greek style and has no religious roots to it and I've never heard anyone say that Hannukah should be a secular American holiday.

Is Christianity alone in this conceit? Not really. I'm sure that most people that are part of a religion believe their world-view to be correct. Who would choose to believe in something they know to be false? The issue that comes up with Christianity is its sheer number of followers. Jews are only about 2% of the population, albeit a vocal 2%. Christians clock in at just over 75%. What is important to remember is that being a majority does not make a religious practice secular. While being a majority does make it easier to bend the US legal system to turn a religious holiday into a nationally recognized federal holiday it does nothing to lessen the purely Christian concepts that Christmas consists of. With a 78% majority Christians cannot vote away logic. They can only vote to ignore it.

For all my Christian friends: I do not mean offense to you. Even if you see bits of yourself in this post does not negate the fact that I'm still your friend. If this single aspect was all I saw in you then I'd be letting the air out of your tires rather than cheerily returning your phone calls. I'm also not arguing against Christmas and pushing an atheist world-view. Celebrate Christmas. All I ask is that Christians (and the mainly non-religious who were raised Christian) recognize that Christmas is still part of the Christian religion and culture, and that is is completely separate and in some cases antithetical to the ideas of other groups. To deny this is to deny the views of others and that would mean actively wrapping one's self in Christian majority arrogance.

The Disney Princess Convolution

I am a little confused over this hubbub regarding the newest Disney princess, Tiana. I know that there's a lot of talk because she's the first princess who's African-American but it's by no means a racial jump for them. I believe the first non-white princess what Jasmine. She was Middle-Eastern and no one blinked an eye. Also included in the franchise is Mulan, who was Chinese. In fact, Disney counts Pocahontas amongst their princess line. She's Native American and that didn't cause any stir. And then there's Ariel from The Little Mermaid. She's not even human!

The fact of the matter is that Disney has already created and marketed an African princess: Nala. Sure, she's a lion but Ariel is an Atlantean and at least lions are real. We also come across the oft ignored Giselle from Enchanted. While she is white (with skin like fresh milk) she's live action so that's got to cross some sort of racial boundary.

So really where's the amazing twist of having an African-American princess? Disney has done races before. Yes, they have one more token ethnicity but overall the standard is still going to be white. I'm not defending or complaining about that, just stating that nothing new is really happening here.

Personally, I don't really want the ethnic inclusion that so many seem to crave from Disney. Portraying a Jewish-American Princess in a Disney cartoon is guaranteed to be more trouble than it's worth.

Why I can't, in good conscience, wish you a merry Christmas

It’s that time of year again. Yes, that time that comes once a year, every year: the “Holiday Season”. And with the holiday season comes a certain number of annual battles. There’s the “religious displays on public property” struggle. There is also the eternal “to have or not have Christmas in schools” fracas. But what I’m going to talk about is the smaller but far more common skirmish known as the “happy holidays” blitz.

Yes, the ever present scuffle over what the proper greeting to share during this winter season is. The common nondenominational standard is “happy holidays” and that’s a fine choice. It can cover anything you’ll be celebrating this season that is a holiday and that’s the extreme majority of people. Its only real opponents are the militant “merry Christmas” crusaders who want to force their reason for this season as THE reason for the season: Jesus. It is a good thing to note that the solstice is the actual reason for the season. The winter solstice is when the Earth’s axis is tilted the farthest from the sun as it can get and the days become longer, the nights shorter and the possibility of not freezing and starving to death began to look more realistic to struggling communities that lived before heating and grocery stores came into existence. For all of you who think that the winter solstice is actually a pagan celebration you might be surprised to find out that Yule is the pagan celebration that was adopted by Christians in Europe in order to pull in more converts. So for those militant “Merry Christmas”ers who revel in the Yuletide spirit… you’re the proud participants in an ancient pagan holiday! Congratulations.

The interesting thing about the Christmas Army is that they insist that everyone wish them a merry Christmas. Let’s look at that for a moment. The fact that it should be “merry Christmas” no matter who is being addressed means that they are specifically wishing their holiday on others. That’s fine as a proper Christian really can’t endorse Chanukah, a day remembering a military victory over non-Jews who wished to impart their beliefs on the Jews. A Jew can’t really endorse Christ’s Mass, a celebration of (to Jews) the birth of a man who ended up espousing the end to Judaic law. So wishing your own holiday to others is fine…

As long as you’re prepared to be wished other people’s holidays on yourself. For example, as a (cultural) Jew if someone wishes me a merry Christmas I have a number of logical responses to give:

• Happy holidays.
  The standard and probably the safest.

• Season’s greetings.
  Remember that one?

• Happy Chanukah.
  This, while completely appropriate and a response in kind, has the ability to make the other person feel awkward. It is confrontational to the extent that within the holiday wish is the fact that they just wished a Jew a merry Christmas.

• Happy solstice.
  Solstice is an astronomical event that occurs at some moment during the 21^st of December, no pagan beliefs necessary or implied.

• Thank you.
  Not rude in any way though it will probably get you some odd looks.

• Thanks, but no thank you.
  At first the above might seem rude and even more confrontational than the previously mentioned “Happy Chanukah” but in any other social situation this would be completely acceptable and even polite. Offered a food item you do not eat? Handed a flier that you’re not interested in? Any offer that you would like to politely turn down can use this response so why would someone else’s religious celebration be any different?

While I am thankfully not in retail my wife is and has already experienced the wrath of at least two customers who are crusading for Christmas. These people are rude, usually mean spirited and at least tacitly bigoted. While I won’t get into what Christianity would think of these traits it is moderately safe to say that none of them are part of the joyous and loving Christmas spirit these people are trying to shovel down other people’s throats.

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I know that a lot of people, some of my friends included, think this whole thing is dumb and that Christmas is pretty much an American holiday at this point. If find that the vast majority of people who feel this way come from a Christian background. It doesn’t really matter if they are practicing or not, they still come from the comfort of a majority. Being part of a minority (or even coming from one minority to another, as is my case) gives one a completely different perspective. Christmas is not a comforting family event for me. When the decorations with Santa were put up in schools and the town Christmas tree went up at the municipal center, near the courthouse, police station and library, it was a reminder of being different (which is fine) and no one recognizing or respecting that (which is not fine).

For people with Christian families, whether they are Christians themselves or not, the holiday of Christmas represents something completely different than what it does to me. They see it as a fun, festive time of year. I see it as the continued implicit acceptance of Christianity by American culture and local governments. And while in practice Christmas unfortunately has developed “secular American” aspects it remains, at its core, a religious celebration for a religion I’m not a part of for a god I don’t agree with.

So I ask all of you out there to remember the real reason for the season: the Earth’s axial tilt in relation to the sun is at its farthest. Historically mid-winter was a freighting time when food supplies could run low, there was less daylight and therefore less usable time in the day, the cold was at its worst and survival could become a terrifying day-to-day issue. The “reason for the season” was that solstice was the turning point. There’s a reason that Yule, Christmas and Chanukah all rely on lights and fires in their celebration; because they represented survival, hope and more hospitable seasons. Families would gather not to rejoice but for warmth and because who knew if they would survive to see each other again. Then the solstice would come and the winter would ebb. Days would become longer and it really did turn into a season of hope. To me, that seems like more than enough reason to celebrate.

For my money I now prefer some variation on “ solstice”, be it happy, joyous, safe or warm.

“Season’s greetings” also properly captures this concept; by definition the season is the reason for the season.

“Happy holidays” comes in as a third choice for me, being very safe but also works on the assumption (however safe it may seem to be) that there’s a holiday at the core of their celebration. Personally, there’s no god at the core of my holiday gatherings and festivity. There are, however, friends and fun.

So with that I wish all of you readers a safe and joyous solstice. That’s a sentiment I can get behind.