Christmas with or without Christ

Keep Christ in Christmas. At this time of year we hear that a lot. It’s become particularly pronounced since the sensitivity about respecting all faiths in schools and other public places has become a subject of national debate. For human rights advocates and progressives, Christmas as a national celebration that Canadians can enjoy together without reference to only one of the religions is probably OK.

For some, “Happy Holidays,” has become a preferred salutation around the December solstice. To others, it’s a negation of faith and tradition, an attack on Canadianess. In places it’s even been characterized as an attack on Christianity, and that in a Christian country!

I think we agree as citizens that no particular religion should be favoured in our public institutions, i.e. that students in a public school should not be taught to credit one religion over another. Nor would we impose on patients in a hospital any consideration of their treatment based on their religion unless they request it.

There’s a question, however, that remains: what’s private and what’s public?

Quebec passed legislation banning face covering when accessing “public services.” A question pertaining to riding on public transit was raised immediately; bus drivers don’t require that passengers identify themselves when boarding, so wherein might the problem with niqab-wearing passengers lie? Also, is a grocery store a public place and if so, must it be religiously neutral?

There’s a case before the supreme court in the USA which will decide if a licensed, publicly-operating bakery can deny service to a customer based on the baker’s beliefs. (A particular baker refused to make a cake for a same-gender marriage.)

There are those who would see the Christ-in-Christmas, the niqab-in-public and the cake-baking-for-same-gender-weddings as trivial mattters. I disagree. Our world is becoming ever more globalized, communication and transportation options are bringing us ever closer together, wars are resulting in large numbers of refugees fleeing to safer places. It’s absolutely necessary that we define our national public policy because ever-growing multiculturalism is simply a fact . . . virtually everywhere. 

There are obviously secular and sacred parts to our individual lives as there are to the entire citizenry. Insisting that only Christian (or maybe Mennonite) mechanics should ever work on my car wouldn’t even occur to me. The fact that pistachio nuts are largely grown in Arab regions doesn’t come up as questionable when I need to bake Christmas Holiday cookies. What we have learned over time is that dictatorial theocracies (governing by religious authority) are simply bad for people: bad for the denomination, bad for minorities, bad for the neighbours. The strength of democracies rests decidedly on their ability to deal consistently and exclusively with the secular sides of our individual and collective lives.

At the same time, freedom to practice faith in safety is fundamental. Keeping Christ in Christmas has never been in question in Canada for those who are committed Christians—for whom following Christ is a way of life. No one in Canada will be challenged for exercising his/her freedom to worship God or to extol the name of Jesus Christ when the like-minded celebrate together. But it’s hardly appropriate to insist that those who don’t follow Christ deserve to be chastised for wishing us “Happy Holidays,” to accuse them thereby with “taking Christ out of Christmas.”

No more can Christ be “taken out of Christmas” than he can be taken out of his committed followers. That the majority of our fellow citizens choose to make December 25^th a “Santa Clause holiday” with presents under the tree and turkey dinner with family—and little else—is not a bad thing, and if they choose to doze through the day, well that’s no skin off my nose either.

Observing Christmas as a celebration of Christ’s birth is a choice many have made, a choice that doesn’t depend on legislation, on traditions or on whether or not our neighbours have chosen as we have.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! 

(Auf Deutsch heisst es “Frohe Weihnachten,” und da der Name Christi nicht im Grusz ersheint, entstehen diese Gedanken nicht.)(En français c’est “Joyeux Noel”, et puisque le nom de Christ n’apparaît pas dans le messagé d’accueil, ces pensées ne se présentent pas.)