Merry Christmas
is not offensive!
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Posted: November 23, 2005
1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Rabbi Daniel Lapin
© 2005 WorldNetDaily.com
Source URL: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=47559
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Well, December is nearly here, which means the dreaded "C
word" is upon us. Put politely, "the holiday season"
is nearly here. We shall all hear those "Happy Hanukkahs"
and "Happy holidays," but rarely a "Merry Christmas."
Secular fundamentalism has successfully injected into American culture
the notion that the word "Christmas" is deeply offensive.
I think we Jews may be making a grievous mistake in allowing them
to banish Christmas without challenge.
We see obsequious regard for faiths like Judaism and even Islam,
while Christianity is treated with contempt. I don't want Judaism
treated with less respect. I want Christianity to be treated with
as much respect.
Step up to the greeting-card racks in your local drug store and
see what I mean. Virtually every Hanukkah card is respectful. Similarly,
every Kwanza card is a paper paean to this rootless, recent invention.
You won't find many cards taking vulgar shots at those holidays.
You will, however, find tasteless cards that mock Christmas. You'll
find off-color risque Christmas cards that you'd be embarrassed
to be caught looking at. Few even mention Christmas, almost as if
the word is so offensive that casual card browsers should be protected
from accidental contamination. Secularism is saying, if we can't
completely banish Christmas, let's at least turn it into a bad joke.
Our self-appointed "leaders" in the Jewish community
do us no favor by denouncing every public expression of Christian
faith as if it were a ham sandwich at a barmitzvah. Anti-Christianism
is unhealthy for all Americans, but I warn my brethren that it will
prove particularly destructive for Jews to be leading the extirpation
of all signs of Christian fervor from the village square. Just look
at France. Only a religion can stand up to another religion. Christianity
could have defended France, but secularism pushed Christianity into
retreat. Now, Islamic fundamentalism has its way because there is
nobody with moral fervor to resist. Secularism promotes cowardice,
not courage – and that is bad for everyone.
Nearer home, Palm Beach prohibited a Christian group from placing
a Christian manger scene alongside a menorah on public property.
One of the plaintiffs, a Christian woman named Maureen Donnell,
told Fox News, "They've discriminated against us, they allow
the menorahs, but they have absolutely no interest in these Nativity
scenes."
Although Palm Beach didn't always welcome Jews, today it is a city
with a large Jewish population. It would have done wonders for Jewish-Christian
friendship if Palm Beach's Jews would have valiantly defended religious
rights for everyone, not just for Jews. Too bad they missed this
opportunity. Remember, friendship is a two-way street.
This I can promise all Jewish parents – trying to prevent
your children from awareness of Christianity is not enough to fill
them with a love for Judaism. That takes dedication. You should
not allow your children to listen to rap music's obscene lyrics.
But neither should you recoil in horror when your kids hear Christmas
carols. It is invariably a local Reform rabbi who teams up with
the American Civil Liberties Union to file a lawsuit against the
school singing carols. Christianizing the culture is not the problem
for Jews, secularizing it is.
A music teacher in a Washington school removed Christmas from the
lyrics in Dale Wood's "Carol from an Irish Cabin" to read:
"The harsh wind blows down from the mountains and blows a white
winter to me."
Parent Darla Dowell, whose 7-year-old daughter sang the song, called
the decision "absurd." "I think the most important
thing that angers me is that they sent a message to my child that
there's something wrong with Christmas and saying Christmas and
celebrating it and performing it at her school with her peers,"
Dowell told Fox News. She couldn't understand why it's OK to exclude
Christmas when her daughter was forced to sing Hanukkah tunes that
included lyrics about the "mighty miracle" of Israel's
ancient days. In that song, there were at least six mentions of
the Jewish holiday.
Will Mrs. Dowell think better of Jews on account of their yanking
Christmas? How exactly does this aggressively applied double standard
help to maintain the mutual respect that used to characterize relations
between American Jews and Christians?
A 1989 Supreme Court decision found a Nativity scene on city property
to be unconstitutional. The court emphasized that the privately
owned creche was indisputably religious. In the same case, however,
a five-judge majority found that a nearby display, featuring an
18-foot Hanukkah menorah did not violate the Establishment Clause.
In the interests of fairness and friendship, we Jews ought to protest
the court's anti-Christian bias. Nationwide, Christmas Nativity
scenes are banned from city halls and shopping malls but Hanukkah
menorahs are frequently permitted.
I know the court's distinction, but I reject the legal fiction
that a menorah – over which I say a blessing invoking God's
name – is merely a cultural symbol. I think most Christians
also find that distinction meaningless and offensive.
As an Orthodox rabbi with an unquenchable passion for teaching
Torah and devoting myself to the long-term interests of Judaism
and America's Jewish community, I believe we Jews must turn our
backs on the secularism that will sink us all. An act of friendship
would be welcome. Let us all go out of our way to wish our many
wonderful Christian friends – a very merry Christmas. Just
remember, America's Bible belt is our safety belt.