Agnosticism / Atheism: Comment of the Week: Seeing Yourself Reflected In Your Culture

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Comment of the Week: Seeing Yourself Reflected In Your Culture Dec 13th 2011, 08:00 Many Christians in America not only object to diversity in their community, they object if their community fails to reflect their own assumptions and prejudices right back at them. That's the conclusion I and others reach when we see how some Christians react to the possibility of American culture doing things slightly differently from what they personally expect or assume. Liz writes: I am really struck by some people's desire to see their beliefs reflected in the culture around them. I imagine some people think that all Christians celebrate Christmas the same way and invest the same acts with the same meaning and take comfort from this idea and feel validated by it. I bet a lot of people would be surprised to learn that different Christians treat this holiday differently. I remember being surprised to learn that some people didn't have advent calendars and advent wreaths. My family also celebrated Saint Nicholas Day - it's German tradition that was not shared by my Catholic friends of Irish descent. I am sure some Christians would be surprised to learn that some Christians do not celebrate Christmas at all. Some think the tree is sinful. There is a lot of variation among Christians. I still have to wonder why what I do is invalidated by someone doing something different? [original post] I think that one of the key problems is that so many Christians in America attach a moral quality to various behaviors then treat that moral quality as essential or necessary. Thus it's not merely "odd" for a person to celebrate Christmas differently, but also "immoral" to some degree. It's at least immoral enough to be objectionable if the wider culture actually takes those differences into account instead of treating one way of doing things as the One True Way. The question I keep having is: what will it take for Christians in America to finally learn that their way of doing things -- in politics, economics, religion, etc. -- not only isn't the only valid way of doing things but isn't even necessarily the best way of doing things? When will they learn that their Christmas traditions aren't the only Christmas traditions and aren't the only legitimate Christmas traditions?

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