As you might expect, the curmudgeonly Christopher Hitchens was none too fond of Christmas and its religious connotations. The Independent has reprinted his essay “The true spirit of Christmas,” first published on Christmas Eve, 2011, in the Wall Street Journal. Hitchens had died nine days before that.
It behooves us heathens to not only read it, but spare a thought for that great rhetorical lion who departed four years ago.
An excerpt from the essay:
But what is all this clutter doing on the White House lawn or in the public rooms of the executive mansion, or on public property and in public schools? Quite apart from the clear stipulations of the First Amendment, this seems to me to violate the Tocquevillian principle that American religion is strictly based on the voluntary principle and neither requires nor deserves any taxpayer-funded endorsement.
It also offends – by being so much in my face, without my having requested it and in spite of polite entreaties to desist – another celebrated precept about the right to be let alone. A manger on your lawn makes me yawn. A reindeer that strays from your lawn to mine is a nuisance at any time of year. Angels and menorahs on the White House lawn are an infraction of the Establishment Clause, which is as much designed to prevent religion from being corrupted by the state as it is to protect the public square from clerical encroachment.
The “wall of separation” has to be patrolled in small things as well as big ones. When President Jefferson wrote his famous letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, assuring them of the protection of this very wall, it was because they had written to him, afraid of persecution by the Congregationalists of Danbury, Connecticut.
This now seems as remote to us as a Calvinist anti-Christmas protest outside a Catholic church in Manhattan. But it is only remote because such scruple and consistency were employed to defend the principle in matters great and small.
At this time of year, Mr Jefferson would close his correspondence in words dry enough to be characteristic of him, yet somehow convivial enough to be thinkable in the mouth of Mr Pickwick: “With the compliments of the season.” I wouldn’t want to be tempted any further than that.
And here’s Jefferson’s letter to those Danbury Baptists (more information here and here, including how the FBI managed to uncover some emendations), with a transcript below it. For political reasons, the blocked-off section was deleted in the final version.
This is, I believe, the first use of the term “wall of separation between Church and State,” a phrase now embedded in American culture and politics.
h/t: Barry
Always thought they should have edited this letter a bit and made an 11 Amendment about this time. Better yet – remove the 2nd and put this in its place.
The original US Bill of Rights had twelve articles. Articles 3 through 12 were ratified 15 December 1791 as Amendments 1 through ten. The original article two was finally ratified on 7 May 1992 as the 27th Amendment. The original article 1 has never been ratified and is still pending 224 years later, for which we can be grateful, since if it ever passes, the ranks of the House of Representatives would go from 435 to over 6,000.
Wouldn’t 6000 representatives have the potential to reduce some of the issues we have with gerrymandering? As the number of representatives increases, it seems like it’d be harder to have a ratio of representatives vastly different than the ratio of the popular vote.
Speaking of gerrymandering, have a look at the graphic in this article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/opinion/sunday/let-math-save-our-democracy.html
I can’t actually see the article. The NYtimes wants me to subscribe. But, I can imagine there are many simple ways to make districting a much fairer than it is. One way is to overlay a grid and assign each major party alternating squares. Democrats are even squares and Republicans are odd.
Aargh, I hate policies like that! I thought all articles were free within some monthly number limit.
I love the grid idea!
Maybe just the graphics url will work. Probably not, but worth a try:
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2015/12/04/wang2/4258d0691e75bf6751e7f95e44aaba707f7bc1d8/1206-web-WANG2-600.png
Well, crap. Forgot about the automatic embedding, but even worse, none of the associated legends came through.
Since I’ve already f’ed up, let’s see if a copy/paste works:
…and the answer is no. Well, each set of bars represents the percent of votes cast in the top line (paler colors) vs. the number of seats won (darker colors). So in the first set, the Pennsylvania US House voting in 2012, Democrats cast 50.5% of the votes cast but won 28% of the seats, while Republicans cast 49.5% of the votes but won 72% of the seats.
^^^All more trouble than it was worth, but I got a bug up my ass…
OK, I get it. I know that’s been a trend. I’m worried that when the Dems get control, (if ever), rather than fix the problem fairly, they will just take advantage of their control and kick things to their own advantage, again.
But of course.
A tip for reading NYT articles as well as many others such as the WSJ: Google the name of the article and the publication, e.g. “New York Times Let Math Save Our Democracy”
These publications don’t try too hard to lock people out and let links to the stories flow through so that Web crawlers on search engines can fine them easily. You’ll only get the request to subscribe if you try going to the page from a link that is either not from a search engine or directly opening it.
Thanks for the tip Chris.
True. Republicans are definitely odd!
The research is in. It looks like conservatives have brains wired a bit differently than the rest of us. Tests show they react more quickly to negative stimulus. A plate of worms, or the image of rapists coming across the boarder.
In the final analysis, if we strip away the Christian elements of Christmas, we are left with Santa Claus (no, he’s not a Christian saint don’t be stupid), exchanging gifts, a beautifully lit tree, a roaring fire in the fireplace, family, friends, feasting – a perfectly serviceable holiday, in other words.
Strip all those non-Christian elements away, and what do we have? A routine church service. Clearly, Christmas is cultural, not religious, no matter how much Christians want to require the rest of us to seek their permission and approval in order to celebrate it (and, of course, Christians will insist that only Christians have any right to celebrate Christmas, as it’s THEIRS and they OWN it). They can just go suck an egg.
Yeah, my Sikh and Himdu friends celebrate Xmas as well as me, the atheist.
When it comes to sharing and religious tolerance, Christians do not rank high.
Himdu = Hindu
Himdu + Herdu = Hindu?
In other words, they stole the celebration and affixed their name to it. It can be taken back, of course, simply by ignoring them and having a good ol’ time.
I just celebrated Christmas with my kids at Disney World. There was nary a mention of divine zombies or virgin births. It was also, I will admit, the first Christmas in my life where I didn’t end up attending some sort of church service. I didn’t miss it.
Excellent! Life is too short to spend some of it at a church service.
Wasn’t it Dawkins who said something along the lines of being fine with mumbling gibberish once in awhile? I’m fine with it too and a Christmas Mass with good music can be enjoyable. As for the regular services throughout the rest of the year? Please, spare me nauseating platitudes and drivel. Life is definitely too short for that.
Oh, that reminds me. Courtesy of “the German Delicatessan” (Lidl) and a taste I acquired from norwegian colleagues, I have some thinly-sliced and smoked Rudolf to tuck into for round 3.
Kanga steaks for tomorrow, if we work our way far enough down the mound of dinosaur.
I like that CH pointed out that “Yule” is a pre-Christian (Germanic) holiday. Nonetheless, it has become synonymous with Christmas.
The only song I can think of that mentions “Yule” without a Christmas context is the Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun”.
One could also mention that “Jingle Bells” was originally written for a Thanksgiving festivity at a Unitarian church.
Christmas is big stuff in San Francisco, but in mostly secularized ways, the annual Dickens fair, the annual Netcracker by the San Francisco ballet, the annual staging of “A Christmas Carol” by our largest stage company ACT, the Stanford Theatre’s annual big-screen showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life” and this year a live staging of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” by the San Francisco symphony. (However, Episcopal Grace Cathedral’s Christmas Eve is a big draw as well.)
But the best thing is that the Christmas decorations on people’s lawns are far far less kitschy than in much of America. I have silently loathed the mangers and stables on people’s lawns in other parts of America which shall remain nameless, and appreciated their absence during my high school years when I lived in a predominantly Jewish neighborhood, but good artistic taste seems to prevail over mawkish sentimentality re Christmas front lawns in much of the Bay Area.
British atheist composer Frederick Delius who loathed Christianity nonetheless (without giving many specific reasons) said ” “I think the only improvement that Christ and Christianity have brought with them is Christmas. As people really then think a little about others. Otherwise…The world has not got any better, but worse & more hypocritical.”
One of Delius’ best compositions is “A Mass of Life” with all the lyrics taken from Friedrich Nietzsche’s “Thus Spake Zarathustra”.
I no longer refer to Christmas, not even Xmas. I wish all my friends (mostly K9’s) a ‘Happy Yuletide’. Please, could we all do this?
I’ve come to loath Christmas because of 1) all the pressure to buy gifts for everyone, 2) the pressure to supply others with lists of things I want to they can buy something and wrap it up, and 3) attend gatherings with remote family members that I never see during the year because neither of us wants to.
One by one, I’ve resigned from these activities and this year I’m not even leaving the house.
High five, Scott!
I got up at noon today, had leftover pizza for breakfast and dinner, caught up a bit on some old newspapers, read a book, walked the dogs, cuddled the cats…very nice day indeed.
Thankfully for me, a couple of Starbucks’ were open. I don’t usually plan my food supplies more than a few hours in advance, so I was slightly anxious about having enough to eat. Although I hear Chinese restaurants stay open.
Scott, that’s been my xmas for many a year. It’s peaceful and quiet and a whole lot cheaper. 🙂
We for the most part avoid seeing the unwanted family members all at once but there always seems to be at least one or two in attendance. For the people we do see, a few years ago my wife and I suggested that we do secret Santa and everyone get one other person one gift. It was a brilliant idea, more brilliant was our idea for everyone to list their preferred gifts in the hat. Mine usually include whiskey, brandy and scotch. This helps should we be unable to avoid any of the aforementioned unwanted family members.
Sadly, our family gatherings have always been alcohol-free.
My mother suggested on a regular basis to do the hat-drawing thing, but she was always the one who shied away from it. Ironically, she’s the one who always railed against Christmas materialism, yet was the prime contributor to it in our family. Probably a common story.
It may be true that Jefferson was the first to use that exact phrase, but let’s spare a thought for Roger Williams, who came to the same basic idea 150 years earlier from an entirely different direction, writing of
The “wall of separation” metaphor was first used, in fact, by Roger Williams in 1644, as John Barry makes clear in “God, Government and Roger Williams’ Big Idea” (Smithsonian, Jan., 2012):
“Williams described the true church as a magnificent garden, unsullied and pure, resonant of Eden. The world he described as “the Wilderness,” a word with personal resonance for him. Then he used for the first time a phrase he would use again, a phrase that although not commonly attributed to him has echoed through American history. “[W]hen they have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of Separation between the Garden of the Church and the Wildernes of the world,” he warned, “God hathe ever broke down the wall it selfe, removed the Candlestick, &c. and made his Garden a Wildernesse.”
No doubt it was from Williams that Jefferson picked up the phrase and the concept. Barry writes, too:
“More important was Williams’ impact on thought. He served as the first exemplar to all those Americans who would later confront power. He also largely shaped the debate in England, influencing such men as John Milton and particularly John Locke—whose work Jefferson, James Madison and other architects of the U.S. Constitution studied closely.”
By employing the “wall” metaphor for the separation of church and state, Jefferson was not only promoting his own view that religion should be kept out of government; he was also cagily fostering support from the religious by playing off the tenet running through dissenting Protestantism (which is reflected in your Roger Williams’ quote) that religion must be protected from the corrupting secular influence of government.
Have I read or heard correctly, is it true beyond the least doubt, that Jefferson took his “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” from Locke’s “life, liberty and the pursuit of property”?
I gather that Jefferson et al decided that “property” just couldn’t pass scrutiny, just didn’t look and sound good and moral and noble, vis-à-vis “happiness,” though it seems that “property” is quite an “American Value,” eh?
“Life, liberty, and property” did later make it into the due process clauses of the Constitution’s 5th and 14th amendments (though, of course, not directly by Jefferson’s hand).
It seemed to me that Locke conflates the two meanings of property, too. I wonder when he started being read as only meaning the wealth kind, rather than the attribute kind.
Thank you. We should be reminded more frequently of statements by the progenitors of religious freedom in America. I’ve read a fair amount about both Thomas Jefferson and Roger Williams, but may now ask Santa to bring me John Barry’s book.
Rowena, see:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/god-government-and-roger-williams-big-idea-6291280/?no-ist
“Adapted from Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul, copyright © 2012 by John M. Barry. With the permission of the publisher, Viking, a member of Penguin Group”
I’ve often seen religious conservatives argue that the words “separation of church and state don’t actually appear in the First Amendment, and that the phrase existed solely in the imagination of Thomas Jefferson as he penned the Letter to the Danbury Baptists.
As to their first point, I like to remind them that the phrase “freedom of religion” doesn’t appear in the First Amendment either. It’s simply a shorthand summary of the “free exercise” component of the First Amendment, in exactly the same way that the phrase “separation of church and state” is a shorthand summary of the “no establishment” component. As to their second point, James Madison, the author of the First Amendment, was also a fan of the phrase “separation of church and state: “The civil Government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State.” (James Madison, March 2, 1819 letter to Robert Walsh).
It’s also relevant to consider the separation concept as part of the philosophical framework of both Jefferson and Madison. Neither were part of the dominant religions and were probably, at most, deists. There interest was to build a secular government in contrast to the problematic integration seen in Europe.
There are very few people, outside of family, who have died and, after the initial shock, or whatever, I really do miss.
Christopher Hitchens was one of those very few, and there is seldom a week goes by that I don’t find myself either reading him, or watching some YouTube video.
Excellent choice of entertainment. I grew up with this album, and pretty much every song is committed to memory.
I once horrified a record store clerk by buying an Electric Company soundtrack because there was 2 tom lehrer tracks on it. this was before the cd box set collection,which sadly, didn’t find that concert for the release.
Christmas presents were opened at our house, tree and lights and decorations…any neighbors with mangers or crosses…I’m certain they did not have as much fun. What a bore to see such insecurity adorning people’s yards.