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Ben Stein: Jewish, but OK with Christmas Trees
By Julie | October 21, 2008
With the holidays approaching, we know it’s going to start up again. The same battle heard for years now: separation of church and state vs. Christmas. Nativities and Christmas trees will be taken off lawns of courthouses. For non-compliant government offices, lawsuits will be started. Employees of our favorite stores will be told it’s inappropriate to wish someone “Merry Christmas”. Maybe it will be like years past and enough customers will complain, leading employees to scream out “Merry Christmas” if you approach to ask for a bathroom. Public school children can sing songs like “Frosty the Snowman”, but one utterance of “Away in a Manager” will send one minority parent to the ACLU, until the whole thing is decided by the Supreme Court. (Is it supreme if we send them all the simple, no-brainer stuff?) Did I mention I learned the words to “Away in a Manger” from a public school?
I’m fine with people celebrating different holidays this time of year. I find it interesting to learn each different religion and cultural traditions. But darn it, not one is telling a Jewish person they can’t call a Menorah a Menorah! A Christmas tree is a Christmas tree; stop calling something it’s not!
I recently stumbled across some of Ben Stein’s writing on this very topic. He said it well, and managed to poke fun at Hollywood in the process. So I have to share it. Oh, and did I mention Mr. Stein is Jewish and he’s still not offended by Christmas Trees? Here is a link, from Ben’s own site:
Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise’s wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It’s not so bad.
Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.
If you haven’t seen Ben Stein’s Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, it’s on video
Topics: Awesome People, Faith, Holidays, Life and Living | No Comments »
