Unleashing the Yuletide Blogs of War

Halloween is a full month away. Thanksgiving is two months nigh. Therefore, it is obviously time to start thinking about Christmas. Not an easy topic, considering the War on Christmas that has waged, lo, these many years thanks to the paranoid imaginations of the Right Wing's stable of jackasses. Like clockwork, each of them starts braying about the so-called liberal war on Christmas right around this time of year.

The "War on Christmas" is, of course, part-and-parcel of the Right Wing's attempt to tar any moderate, progressive, and/or non-Christian American as anti-Republican and anti-Christian, in that order. A recent Miller Lite beer commercial featuring the image of leather-clad homosexuals from San Francisco's Folsom St. Festival posing in a risqué parody of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper got Bill Donahue and the Catholic League angry enough to put down their beers and complain.

Right-wing radio "shock jock" Erich "Mancow" Mueller weighed in on the subject earlier this week on (where else?) FOX "News" during a panel discussion (or mob denunciation) of the ad. Briefly interrupting Mueller's attempt to channel Tom Arnold, host Andrew Napolitano made the comment that the Left "has always disliked the concept of Christianity." Actually, it's not the "concept" of Christianity that most thinking people object to, so much as how self-righteous Right Wing gasbags insist on shoving it down everyone's throats. You know, just like Jesus Himself did.



How un-American and petty. This obsession is so all-consuming on the Right that there is even an entire blog devoted to this non-issue. The blog masthead states that, "The war on Christmas can only be confronted if Americans are aware of its existents (emphasis added)." I'm not aware of the "existents" of anything, actually, but I think I understand what he's saying. Namely, the war on Christmas can only be confronted if Right Wing lunatics and hate-mongers can actually convince enough Americans that this pile of contrived tripe actually exists. Or extents. Whatever. Honestly, name one Christian household whose worship of Jesus Christ and celebration of Christmas is sullied in any way by the fact that America is in fact home to people who worship different religions? As for myself, I'm looking forward to another joyful Chrismukkah or Hanumas Season.

This is all so pointless and hateful. As I've commented on an earlier post, to paraphrase Gerald Ford, if Jesus Christ was alive today, he'd be spinning in his grave. Or, as Erich "Mancow" himself asks during his appearance on FOX, "Why... Jesus Christ. Why?" I couldn't have said it any better myself. Happy Holidays.

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

The Beatles: Christmastime Is Here Again


The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right: War On Christmas

The Ugly Fox News "War on Christmas" (JewsOnFirst.org, 12/13/2005)

The Daily Show's Stewart responds to O'Reilly's misleading attack (MediaMatters.org, 12/8/2005)

O'Reilly: "War" on Christmas part of "secular progressive agenda" that includes "legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage" (MediaMatters.org, 11/21/2005)

ALL ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS TREE- Pagan origins, Christian adaptation, & secular status (ReligiousTolerance.org)

CHRISTMAS WARS ESCALATE: CHRISTIANS FIGHT BACK (CatholicLeague.org)

JesusCreed.org

Fox News Watch panelist Gabler: Fox News "pumping" Christmas "war" (MediaMatters.org, 12/5/2005)

Have a Merry Christmas... Or Else! (SecularLeft.us, 12/1/2005)

There Goes the Economy: Catholics Threaten Beer Boycott

"It's Miller Time!"™
You have to love over-reacting religious wind-bags. Without their fabulous, public diatribes against this or that aspect of popular culture, I'm sure I'd miss seeing commercials like the recent Miller Lite ad that parodies da Vinci's Last Supper. Self-Appointed pan-American Catholic purity enforcer William Donahue is now threatening Miller Brewing Company with a Catholic boycott of Miller Lite beer, stating, "Miller doesn't know what they're in for." I guess we can take that to mean that Donahue and his Catholic legions drink a LOT of Miller Lite. Oh, well. I guess that Miller Lite's loss is Old Style's gain.

Old Style Beer for Old School Beer Drinkers
Thanks, Mr. Donahue. What with global warming, child prostitution, the war in Iraq, the American health insurance crisis, chronic poverty and other such problems licked, the Church and her followers should definitely devote their energies to standing up to evil beer companies and their ungodly commercials. You surely know how to make your Savior proud. Well done. Seriously, methinks you are expending way too much capital over a non-issue. I'd recommend that you chill out, take some deep breaths, kick back and watch a little Comedy Central. Then again, given how you feel about homosexuality, you'd probably end up boycotting Comedy Central over this piece from the Daily Show. Oh, and you'd drive Comedy Central right out of business, just like you did to Miller Brewing Company.

Intermarriage: Charting New Directions

"You can't be both!" The rabbi from the neighborhood shul sternly upbraided me after I had finished describing how my wife and I will one day raise our children in both the Jewish and Christian faith traditions. I felt the blood rise to my cheeks and the back of my neck became very hot. I never like being told what I can or can't do, especially when it has to do with something as personal as how my wife and I choose to raise our children. I was further upset because the premise for the gathering at the shul was held under the pretense of "interfaith dialogue". Instead, the evening was about the rabbi's desire to affirm non-Jewish matrimonial partners who had agreed with their Jewish spouses to raise their children in an exclusively Jewish household. Not my idea of interfaith.

In a way, though, it was hard to stay angry with him. After all, his job is to grow and sustain the Jewish community that worships at his shul. Encouraging his congregants to go out and baptize their children in the name of Jesus Christ is not the traditional way for rabbis to accomplish this. And his opinion is scarcely isolated within the world of religious Judaism. In many, if not most cases, the reaction to the growing intermarriage phenomenon by Jewish scholars, religious leaders and lay people is highly critical and denunciatory. My encounter with the neighborhood rabbi and the following comments posted by a rabbi on BeliefNet.com provide a good example of the types of fierce resistance that Jewish men and women encounter in response to the notion of marrying a non-Jew:

"I often ask Jewish men to think of the many Jewish women who need Jewish husbands. With so few Jewish men available to Jewish women anyway—Jewish men marry outside the faith at twice the rate of Jewish women—every time a Jewish man dates or marries a non-Jewish woman, it leaves another Jewish woman who will never find a Jewish husband.

"So you may ask, to paraphrase the Beatles, 'all those lonely (Jewish) people, where do they all come?' Well, a lot of them come from the paucity of Jewish spouses left because of high incidents of intermarriage."

It is a rare thing in life to hear an ordained member of the clergy invoke the Beatles as a means to laying down a serious guilt trip, so savor the memory of this moment. At any rate, this rabbi takes the kugel for chutzpah in my book. Nowhere in his column do his comments reflect any consideration for what it is the young man wants for himself. Marriage is seen mainly, primarily as a vessel through which the continuation of the Jewish people is ensured. The love between two human beings appears to be of secondary consideration.

Now, the purpose of this column is not to pick on Jewish rabbis, and the Catholic faith that I come from can be every bit as unbending in its insistence on orthodoxy of belief and practice. This includes choosing a marriage partner who at the very least will not impede one's ability to raise children in the Catholic faith. (Again, that theme: marriage as the primary vehicle for expanding and perpetuating an institution. Where's the love?). Now, on the one hand, I do have to say that the diocese where I live was very accommodating when I requested a dispensation to be married to a non-Catholic. I tip my hat to the priests who worked with me and my wife to secure Church permission to conduct a non-traditional marriage ceremony with the assistance of a Catholic priest. On the other hand, there are loads of über-Catholic Catholics who shudder to think that (a) there are people in the world who are not Catholic, and (b) worse yet, there are Catholics in the world who would (shudder) choose to marry a non-Catholic. You can read a sample of what I'm talking about by clicking here.

OK- then there is the subject of something that is referred to as the "Silent Holocaust". This term is used in reference to a handful of social and political topics, but the usage I'm referring to is when devout Jews ascribe this term to the high incidence of interfaith marriage. The contention is that Jews who would and should otherwise be marrying other Jews are thinning the overall worldwide Jewish population by marrying non-Jews. Thus, the contention is made that what Hitler and his evil legion of murderers and rapists could not achieve through violent acts of killing, interfaith couples are achieving quietly one wedding at a time.

I think I'll need to devote an entire other blog post to this particularly odious topic, as I've already said a great deal and this phrase stirs up very strong feelings inside of me. For now, suffice it to say that I am beyond offended that anyone would stoop so low as to even casually associate me and anyone else in an interfaith marriage to the vile and nefarious participants in Hitler's campaign of brutality and death. This association is beneath contempt. It maliciously slanders each person of good faith and character who is in an interfaith marriage, while at the same time carelessly cheapening the memory of those who perished under such mournful circumstances.

OK. 'Nuff said about that for now. As for decisions that are inevitably forced upon the members of any given interfaith marriage, I see the issue as breaking along the lines of the false choice of all or none. Judaism, Catholicism, and other organized religions teach that you're either "X" or you're not. In response to this I posit that our children will learn that they are Jewish and Irish, Greek and Czech. They will learn about the cultural and historical aspects of all of the heritage that they will inherit. They can be believers in Jesus Christ without following the path prescribed by the Catholic Church or any other, if that is what they choose. They'll learn that it is possible to be X, Y and Z. In an earlier post I quoted Buddhist monk Thich Naht Hahn on this very topict: "In Christianity, you have to believe in the resurrection or you are not considered a Christian. I am afraid this criterion may discourage some people from looking into the life of Jesus. This is a pity, because we can appreciate Jesus Christ as both an historical door and an ultimate door." Indeed.

There is more than one way to be, people. The birth of new ways obviously will challenge the old ways. But the challenge is one that encourages growth and understanding, not destruction. Interfaith marriage is not, should not be about squelching one's faith or cultural heritage. Interfaith marriage should stand as an example of inclusiveness and provide a window that offers a glimpse at new directions that faith institutions could be taking. I'll close with a quote from Fr. Walter H. Cuenin, a Catholic priest who penned a guest column on interfaith marriage for the Jewish family Web site InterfaithFamily.com (see the link below). I've never met the good father, but I couldn't agree more with what he has to say:

"It also seems to me that we need to appreciate the good that can come from interfaith marriages. In a strange sort of way these marriages do remind us that God's call for the human family transcends all religious boundaries. There is no religion that has the only path to God. While we find great benefit in our own faith traditions and want to see them passed on to future generations, no one tradition has an exclusive hold on God's attention. When people of radically different yet connected traditions marry, perhaps they are imaging a new way of viewing life. It may seem disconcerting, but could it not also be a call to greater religious harmony?"

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

A Catholic Priest's Perspective on Interfaith Marriage, by Rev. Walter H. Cuenin (InterfaithFamily.com)

Jewish Mother, Catholic Girlfriend, by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (BeliefNet.com)

"Jews to Intermarriage as Babies to Bathwater," by Tamar Fox (Jewcy.com, August 6, 2007)

Catholic Discussion Board (Greenspun.com)

"Chaplaincy Holds Panel on Interfaith Marriage." The Brandeis Hoot, February 9, 2007.

AmericanCatholic.org

J-Date.com

CatholicMatch.com

Intermarriage (Ohr.edu, September 17, 2005)

Silent Holocaust (Wikipedia.com)

The Interfaith Union

"On Assimilation and Intermarriage...Again." (NewZionist.com, July 7, 2005)

I Did It My Way...

Frank Sinatra: My Way

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention
I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption
I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway
And more, much more than this, I did it my way

For what is a man, what has he got?
If not himself, then he has naught
To say the things he truly feels and not the words of one who kneels
The record shows I took the blows and did it my way!

When I first started blogging on the topic of interfaith relationships, religion, dogma, etc., never did I envision quoting the late great Frank Sinatra as a means to illustrating a given point I might try to make. But, the lyrics to My Way nicely summarize a lot of what I've been experiencing emotionally and intellectually the further down the interfaith path I travel and particularly as I contemplate what it is I want for my household and, someday, for my children. Let me try and explain...

In the opening post on Unkosher Jesus, I described myself as "as the Catholic half of a Jewish-Catholic marriage." This is technically true, as I was raised, baptized and confirmed as a Roman Catholic. Yet in a recent post ("Equal and Opposite Reactions", 09/11/2007), I responded to a reader's posted comment in part by saying that "I do not look to the Catholic Church for moral or spiritual leadership." The reader responded with both editorial commentary but also with a question that I feel requires serious reflection if I in fact take my approach to an interfaith lifestyle seriously:

"It is truly sad that you don't "look to the Catholic Church for moral or spiritual leadership." Exactly what do you, as the Catholic half of an interfaith marriage, look to the Church for then? It seems ludicrous that you would call yourself a Catholic and not care what she says concerning moral matters."

So, what kind of a Catholic am I? How can I call myself a Catholic if I have married someone who is not Catholic, and with whom I do not intend to raise Catholic children? Well, maybe it's time I simply made peace with the fact that I am more than a lapsed Catholic. Maybe a better term for someone like me is Existential Christian, as I feel like I have left the old, familiar ways of worship and belief, but have not yet arrived at my new home. I know that I want my family's home to have room for God in at least two different fashions, one Jewish and one Christian. I know that I want our children to be affirmed in the heritage that they will inherit from both of us, Jewish and Christian, Greek, Irish and Czech. I believe that the reality of God is bigger than the teachings and beliefs of any one religion.

In fact, I find myself gravitating to the writings of Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong, who asserts that humanity's theistic conceptualization of God is both false and unnecessarily limits our ability to know and honor God. In his 2001 book "A New Christianity for a New World", Spong describes God not as the Author of Being but as the Ground of All Being: "God is Being- the reality underlying everything that is. To worship God you must be willing to risk all, abandoning your defenses and your self-imposed or culturally constructed security systems. If God is the Ground of Being, you worship this divine reality by having the courage to be all that you can be- your deepest, fullest self." Spong's writing echoes an earlier work by Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self, where Jung writes: "Christianity holds up before us a symbol whose content is the individual way of life of a man, the Son of Man, and that it even regards this individuation process as the incarnation and revelation of God himself."

Being an individualist can be lonely at times, and ultimately a community of worshippers is going to have to consist of more than one person. I have not yet been to a Unitarian church service, and perhaps this would serve as a suitable option. In any event, I am more and more inclined to find my beliefs resonating with those of Bishop Spong and Jung. I see the act of becoming as holy, and that by helping to enable others to become their full selves I am performing a holy task. I will continue to hold to my belief in inclusiveness and togetherness, even where this means a departure from established traditions and practices, and the need to develop creative alternatives.

I'll close with a quote from a reader who posted a comment in response to an earlier blog entry on interfaith families:

"I was thrilled to find this blog. I am Jewish, my husband Catholic, and we are raising our children as both. We had a civil ceremony and had the marriage 'blessed' by a priest in a local church because it was important to my husband. We did not agree to baptize our children or perform any traditional rite. A Rabbi and a Priest performed a welcoming ceremony for both our boys. In this day and age when so much hatred abounds, I would think children are loved brought up to love god in ANY way, and who are taught to understand and appreciate the different ways to pray are gonna be good kids. No baptism or bris will make them better people. And who cares what any religious institution's views is? If it's important to you to receive baptism then fine, have your kids baptized. My kids are doing just fine without it."

My point exactly. When my wife and I were married, it was a religious ceremony that was co-presided over by both a rabbi and a Catholic priest. However, the vows we exchanged were of Pagan origin, Druid to be specific. In this fashion we were able to avoid pledging allegiance to anyone but each other, before God and our family and friends.

Druid wedding vows:

You cannot posses me for I belong to myself.
But because we both wish it, I give you all that is mine to give.

You cannot command me for I am a free person.
But I shall serve you with all of my heart and with all of my love.

I pledge to you that yours will be the name held in my heart each night,
and yours shall be the eyes into which I smile at the start of each day.

I will tell no strangers our grievances or troubles.

I pledge to you all that is mine in my living and my dying, equally in your care.

This is my wedding vow to you, a promise made to my dearest love and greatest friend.

This is a marriage of equals.

We did it our way. We will continue to search for ways to express the presence of God in our home that are right for us, making room for each other's cultural and religious practices. We're glad to know that there are others out there journeying along a similar path. Shalom.

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

"More Couples Choose to Wed Their Way." Washington Post, July 2, 2006

John Shelby Spong.com

Questions and Answers About Raising a Child in a Multi-Religious Family, by Racheline Maltese (AssociatedContent.com, June 6, 2006)

Religion, the Undiscovered Self and the Future (Metareligion.com)

Equal and Opposite Reactions

To paraphrase our fearless (and presumably clueless) leader, "Atheism is on the march!" And it would appear it has plenty to march against. Militant, right-wing Christianity in the West and radical Islam in the East have been gathering strength and exerting influence over politics and matters of war and peace for many years now. American culture is saturated with references to evangelical Christianity to the extent that suburban "churches" now resemble the shape and size of mega-stores like Wal-Mart, where Christian music, literature and other goods are offered at low, low prices. Always low prices.

For those who believe in God, human beings were made in God's image. Yet the world's myriad religious faiths and religions reflect a host of variant images. Which one should a given society reflect in order to perfectly capture the image of God him or herself? Here in the United States, the "Christian" Right is happy to supply that answer, as is the Taliban of Afghanistan and militant Hindus in India. This is all very comforting if you happen to be an American Evangelical Christian, a conservative male Afghan Muslim or an Indian Hindu. It is anything but if you happen not to subscribe to the respective state religions of any of these places, or any other country where one religion predominates the national discourse over policy and culture.

In my view, a religion ceases to serve its own inherent purpose, to even be a religion, when it crosses the line separating worship and service to proselytizing and imposition. In any pluralistic democratic society, no religion or faith-based organization can demand anything more reasonable than to be free to practice according to its traditions and rites. Insisting that public policy and common culture reflect these is beyond the pale, and it should come as no surprise that non-believers are becoming more vocal in opposition to the "Christian" Right's imposition of its values and beliefs upon all Americans.

There are some atheists or nontheists who have abandoned belief in God because they have lost faith in their given religious traditions. I personally don't see a direct correlation between losing faith in a given church or religion and abandoning my belief in God. Nonetheless, for my part I am happy to see nontheists and free thinkers banding together to counter the influence of the "Religious" Right. I have seen moderate and progressive Christian churches react in similar fashion, and encourage this as well. The Catholic Church for its part has remained dishearteningly quiet in the face of the growing influence of radical "Christianity" here in America. I fear this is due to the fact that the Church's agenda currently shares more in common with evangelicals than it does with its more progressive Protestant brethren. The Vatican remained silent in 2004 when American Catholic bishops refused to give communion to pro-choice Catholic legislators, most famously Democratic presidential nominee Senator John Kerry. I've been straining my hears waiting to hear a peep of protest from these same bishops against Republican legislators who have supported the war in Iraq, who support the Bush tax cuts, who vote in support of gutting environmental and workplace safety regulations.

This is all to say that I wish to offer the "Christian" Right and radical "religious" extremists of all faiths a hearty and well-deserved congratulations and job well done. Your efforts have served to sully the name of religious faith and to galvanize a growing number of people in opposition to faith/belief in God. The societies where you strive to exert your influence are more divided for your efforts, while social problems such as poverty, crime and violence and environmental degradation continue to persist unabated. One closing question for you to reflect upon is: Do you honestly believe that this is what God wants from you? Have your efforts contributed in any way to the "peace and justice" that your faith presumably teaches and preaches?

- Doug L.

FOR FURTHER REFERENCE:

"In Europe and U.S., Nonbelievers Are Increasingly Vocal." (Washington Post, September 15, 2007)

"In America, Nonbelievers Find Strength in Numbers." (Washington Post, September 15, 2007)

Rabbi Sherman T. Wine, 1928 - 2007 (Society for Humanistic Judaism.org)

"Time to Become Pre-Emptive Peacemakers." (Washington Post On Faith, September 14, 2007

"No Atheists (Still) Need Apply." (Washington Post On Faith, December 28, 2006)