Ok, so I am a Brit, I imagine that my experience is different to many EC members in the USA, but I wanted to share my thoughts on Christmas and religion with you and see what responses I get! This year our Prime Minister (David Cameron) put out a Christmas message in which he said that Britain was a christian country, and that our values in society were basically christian ones. The implication was also that Christmas was a christian celebration and that as a nation the nativity bound us in unity. I may be stretching his actual words here, but this was how it was reported in the press. I was brought up with little religious input from my parents, my father is a confirmed atheist. However, I went to a CofE primary school and generally had the half-hearted christian upbringing most kids had in the 70s/80s. I tend not to label my own beliefs - I'm not sure I have any - but feel uncomfortable pinning myself down. As a musician of sorts, I have, in the past, performed in many churches and taken part in many christian services. So I am familiar with the CofE litergy and can certainly appreciate the comfort and peace that a religion can bring - any religion. It's just that I have no personal relationship with any deity. My partner and I live within 30 feet of our local anglican church - its a bit "smells and bells", and a huge 19th century ediface amongst the terraced victorian houses. Living so close, I often walk over to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. I enjoy the calm, the ritual, and singing the harmonies to the carols! I don't take communion though. What always surprises me is how few people attend, rarely more that 50, and how low key it always is. There we are sitting in a cold barn of a building, with a giant crucified Christ looking down on us, surrounded by candles, and listening to a familiar, but still pretty awesome story, and the whole event feels as if no one really believes in it. The priest (told you it was high church) reads all the words from cue cards, the lesson readers make no attempt to sound in any way dramatic, it seems that no one really knows how the sung responses go, and the "homily" as it is called in the order of service (not a sermon) is usually incomprehensible, and allegorical without seeming to make any attempt to make a point - this year's was based on "Pictures at an Exhibition". Despite all this, there is enough about the experience to make me go again next year. Sorry, that was a long pre-amble, but I wanted you to know where I was coming from. Here are my questions to you: Does it irritate you that Christmas is supposed to be a religious festival, and yet it SO isn't - especially here I think? If your beliefs are non-christian, do you ignore it or join in? Does it compromise your own faith at all? How do you see us christians, looking at us from a non-christian point of view? Are our culture's basic values christian? If so, why do we seem reluctant to celebrate that? If we live in a multicultural society, surely it should be multifaith - or secular? And for our overseas members... The USA appears to take its religion much more seriously than we do both publicly and privately. What proportion of its population are not christian? Are their religious beliefs and their sensitivities given any thought and respect at this time of year? I don't wish to start any sort of argument, but I'd love to hear others thoughts, experiences and comments. :icon_bigg
1. No. I can't speak for the UK, but in the U.S. Christmas has been both a religious and a secular holiday for a long time. I have no issues with people celebrating it or not, however they see fit. 2. I am an atheist who celebrates Christmas as a secular holiday. It's about family, fun, and celebrating the idea of living in peace and harmony for me. Not all Christians are the same, so I don't see Christians as a whole in any particular light. I tend to form my opinions on what people demonstrate they believe, rather than what they claim to believe, so just saying you're Christian doesn't mean much to me good or bad. 3. Once again, not everyone in our culture (in my case American) has the same values, so I really couldn't say. I would say the ideals often preached as being American, "independent, hard-working, loyal, proud, driven etc." have very little to do with Christian ideals, but they often don't have much to do with the way people here actually live either. 4. I don't know the exact numbers, but I believe the majority of Americans are still Christians of one sort or another. I would say the collective "we're number one, so we're the national religion" sorts are protestants of one stripe or another, though even there, there's a notable split among evangelicals and other flavors. When I was younger, the primary friction was probably protestant vs. Catholic and to a lesser extent Christian vs. Jewish, but overwhelmingly the most tension now is Christian vs. anyone perceived as being "muslim." Some people, like myself, try to respect other's religious beliefs and be inclusive during the holiday season. Others prattle on about the 'war on Christmas' and think they are being persecuted when someone says "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas."
