Religion & Government

Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday
Now that the "Holiday Season" (Christmas and Chanukah and Kwanzaa) has passed, this is a good time to acknowledge that Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday. Created in the United States in 1966 and celebrated December 26 through January 1, Kwanzaa is "a celebration of family, community, and culture." in the words of the movement's website. Kwanzaa is more like the Irish or Italians dressing in their traditional garb then dancing, respectively, the Jig or the Tarantella,. A joyous occasion but not a religious event.

Recognizing that it is discriminatory to say -- in the words of Kwanzaa's founder -- that the celebration is intended "to give a black alternative to the existing holiday and to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply to imitate the practice of the dominant society," observant blacks now suggest that such traditions can/should be celebrated by "people of any ethnicity" -- which brings us back to the Irish Jig and the Italian Tarantella: a celebration of tradition and culture, not a religious observance.

Composers persecuted for writing Catholic Mass
Those secularists who would prefer that religion not matter in world affairs should avoid reading histories of England, especially about the reign of Queen Elizabeth, described by one writer as "an extremely dangerous age of religious upheaval and persecution."

It was so bad that musicians could be jailed for composing a Catholic Mass, which composers like William Byrd and Thomas Tallis did surreptitiously during the period when Catholics were denied civil rights in that great kingdom.

A church-state problem?
What day/date is this? Depends on the calendar you use
Rejecting what they termed a "popish calendar," European Protestant countries retained the old Julian calendar for more than a century after Catholic countries adopted the current Gregorian calendar, which went into effect in February 1582. Great Britain held out even longer, to 1752, and -- to avoid all reference to the pope: "B.C." or "A.D." -- called the revision the "New Style" calendar and labeled dates before or after Christ "O.S." for Old Style or "N.S."

  • Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1873; Eastern Europe and Russia between 1912 and 1919; Turkey in 1927. China adopted it in 1912 but didn't promulgate it nationwide until 1949.

  • Before Caesar's creation of the Julian calendar there had been Asian and Egyptian versions of lunar or solar calendars; over the centuries, the lunar calendar grew out of sync with the actual seasons.

  • There are perhaps 40 calendars in use throughout the world: Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Chinese are examples. The Jewish calendar dates events from 3761 B.C., the Bible's literal year of the Creation.

Keep God out of Government?
Secularists, atheists, and some non-Christians continue to be uncomfortable and unforgiving about any connection between religious and civil life. One example running around the Internet is that Roosevelt's ending words, "So help us God," have been omitted from a monument or plaque commemorating his post-Pearl Harbor speech. Those uncomfortable with official references to God will just love the following phrases from Lincoln's 1863 proclamation which established the official date for celebrating Thanksgiving: "ever watchful providence of Almighty God" . . . "gifts of the Most High God" . . . "our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."

Just what Royal Oak needs --
Religious bias oozing into civic debates
An unfortunate side-effect of the debate concerning the sale of the Parker School site to Beaumont Hospital is obvious Catholic-Protestant tension resulting from the unsuccessful request of some Shrine parents to save, or to create, a park on part of the site.. 

And the fact that some area Jews are prominent in a peace movement re the Iraq War has led to charges of anti-Semitism against those who point out that prominence. Both sides seem to ignore that one may agree or disagree with the State of Israel's foreign policy based on that policy's perceived merits. It is noteworthy that American Jewish public opinion as reflected in two national "Jewish" newspapers -- the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times -- seems split, despite the obvious advantage to Israel of a Saddam-free Iraq. No, "those people" don't all think alike.

Finally, some area real estate agents are hearing discrimination charges in instances where neighborhoods are "turning Arab."

Merry Christmas! -- Dec 2005

 Religion & the Calendar

Keep God out of Government?

France is wrong about religious symbols

Permit all religious displays on public property

Bah Humbug
It's okay to say "Merry Christmas."
Permit all religious displays on public property
A December 10 editorial in the Daily Tribune argued that because the United States is a religiously pluralistic nation, government has little choice in removing religious displays from public property. I would argue that in a religiously pluralistic nation government should demonstrate its neutrality by permitting seasonally traditional displays by any major religion. Usually the dates will be separate. On those occasions when the dates coincide, the displays can coincide, and the Christmas Tree can double as a Chanukah Bush.

Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu -- we are all "the public" and have a reasonable right to use public property. Our constitution prohibits the establishment of a state religion. It does not prohibit government acknowledgement of religion. The First Amendment adds that "Congress shall make no law . . . prohibiting the free exercise of [religion]" In my mind, to prohibit religious displays on public property is to prohibit free exercise.

I agree with the Trib that the United States is culturally a Christian nation . . . I do not consider it offensive to wish a non-Christian "Merry Christmas!" . . . I am not offended when a non-Christian shares his holy greeting with me.

Whatever happened to "diversity?"

 France is wrong --
Permit all religious symbols to be worn.
During my high school years in Cleveland -- 3,000 boys, no girls -- some Catholics wore crucifixes or carried rosaries, some Protestants wore simple crosses, some Jews wore skull caps, two Sikhs wore their turbans, and I remember talking with guys I now know were Muslims about the comparison between their Ramadan fasting and my Lenten fasting.

True, most fellows did not wear religious symbols, and there was occasional teasing about the crosses and skull caps and turbans, but there certainly was no separation of church and state issue.

As is true about religious holiday displays (see comments at left) there is no logic to government taking stands against religion in the name of religious neutrality. The neutral course is to leave people alone.

So France -- apparently experiencing the downside of too much Arab immigration -- overreacts by banning Muslim girls' head scarves and Jewish skull caps, and crosses/crucifixes. Tell me how that helps bring about togetherness.

Whatever happened to "diversity?"