There is no war on Christmas. My faith is not threatened by respecting and honouring somebody else’s beliefs. If God is real, then God is not diminished when I treat someone with respect whose beliefs about God are different from mine. Jesus is not diminished when I say “Happy Holidays” to someone who is not Christian.
You know what is diminished in that moment? Christianity’s long-time privilege of imposing its cultural power on others. The diminishment of privilege is always a good thing for those who have been oppressed by it.
Jesus is diminished when I try to compel someone else to believe what I believe or to honour my cultural privilege.
When I honour and respect the differing beliefs of others then I am fulfilling Jesus’ command to “love my neighbour as myself.”
This particular December I have become more aware of the darkness of this time of year and my need for daylight, as well as the spiritual Darknesses and Lights brought into my life because of Covid, and of the diminishment that has been caused towards some people because of our historic equating of “dark” with “evil” and “light” with “good.”
On December 21, my pagan friends will celebrate Solstice with profound images of Darkness and Light without the judgmentalism that often comes with those words. This year I will join them, and my faith will be deepened when three days later I welcome the coming of the Light of the World in the form of a newborn baby. And my pagan friends are welcome to join me for that celebration too.
Happy and Merry Everything, folks. We need all the happiness and merriment we can get this year. God remains God regardless of what we believe or don’t believe. Because the Divine Source of All Life and Love will always remain larger than our ability to comprehend Her, Him, Them, It.
Rev. Ryk Brown
(From the print-only edition of The Flamborough Review December 17, 2020)
