By Hunter Wallace | 1 Comment | 
Print
Whose Christmas Is It?
In the New York Times, Michael Feinstein (a Jewish Op-Ed contributor) contests the Christian ownership of Christmas in America’s “newspaper of record.” He argues that the “spirit of the holiday is universal” and that Christians should understand “this encroachment.” Feinstein claims that we live in a “multicultural time” and the “mixing up” of traditions is the “inevitable result.” Is it really?
In a moment of candor, Feinstein draws attention to the various Jewish writers who have “eroded” the Christian “religious tradition” and contributed to the secularization of the holiday. He speaks of his “barely concealed rage” at the audacity of an orchestra board representative who told him his concert program was “too Jewish.” In response, he defiantly promised the second night’s show would be “even more Jewish.”
I can’t imagine an offensive Christian article about Jews, one written in such a condescending and contemptuous spirit, ever getting published in the pages of the New York Times, especially in the holiday season. Apparently, NYT editors don’t believe their multiculturalist sensitivity is applicable to America’s Christian majority, but this is hardly a revelation.
It could serve as a starting point, however, for a much needed discussion of “Jewish Privilege.”
And here I thought Miss Manners (aka Judith Martin) settled the question of the appropriate greeting at Christmas time. In her egregiously disturbing rant yesterday, 12/20/09, she characterized greetings of “Merry Christmas,” particularly if such language was insisted on, as “nastiness.”
She went on to say, “…do not allow the misuse of religion to browbeat others to make you doubt yourself. ‘Happy holidays’ is the general greeting because, as you know, not all your customers are Christian, but they all do get legal holidays for Christmas and New Year’s Day.”
My friends and I have wondered about Miss Manners since she indulged in the use of “scotch” as a verb, something confined to a relatively small section of society.
She cleared up the mystery about her origins and bigotries yesterday when she merged “Happy Kwanzaa,” “Happy Hanukkah,” “Merry Christmas,” and “Happy New Year” into one generic greeting, “Happy Holidays,” partly by switching from Kwanzaa and Hanukkah to Christmas and New Year’s Day, and throwing in a reference to legal holidays.
In my youth, we would have called that Jesuitical argument, nowadays we know it for Talmudic pilpulism.