{"id":337,"date":"2004-12-19T05:26:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-19T05:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=337"},"modified":"2004-12-19T05:26:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-19T05:26:00","slug":"337","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=337","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Seasonal confusion, hard feelings, and so on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Evidently the struggle over who gets to define the solsticial holiday continues. The Bureaucratic Mind, confronted with competing claims, tends to retreat to blanket negativity . . . and is then accused of promoting “secularism.”<\/p>\n

Punditry ranges from ramblings about “druids”<\/a> to curmudgeonly rants like this one<\/a> from Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post, muttering that everyone should “just leave Christmas alone.” (Registration required.)
\n<\/p>\n

To insist that the overwhelming majority of this country stifle its religious impulses in public so that minorities can feel “comfortable” not only understandably enrages the majority but commits two sins. The first is profound ungenerosity toward a majority of fellow citizens who have shown such generosity of spirit toward minority religions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He is right about one thing: no one has a constitutional right not to be made to “feel uncomfortable.” But in my experience, while some Pagans might feel that Christmas is “shoved down their throats,” others are more likely to take the approach of Asatru blogger Robin Runesinger and “take back Yule,”<\/a> enjoying the Pagan roots of the whole celebration, from the fir tree to Santa’s possible relationship to Odin the shaman god. <\/p>\n

Even a novelist whose main qualification is that she wrote a thriller <\/a>about Catholics versus “The Goddess” (and guess whose side she was on?) gets to pontificate<\/a> on the reason for the season. (Registration required.)<\/p>\n

Regardless of how we<\/em> feel, I am afraid that the impulse to bureaucratic blandness is winning. Rather than think deeply about American tradition, as Krauthammer suggests, mayors, school principals, and the like are more likely to forbid anything that looks “religious.” <\/p>\n

And some Christians are able to talk out of both sides of their mouths: America, they say, is a “Christian nation,” yet somehow these Christians are the victims, no less, of secularism (whatever that is), the so-called liberal media, the Hollywood film industry, and so on.<\/p>\n

Yet the admittedly Christian bloggers at GetReligion remind us that Christmas used to be a low-key holiday<\/a>, when it was celebrated at all. (Seventeenth-century Puritans banned its observance when they could.)<\/p>\n

Lucky for us Pagans, trees are religious symbols, as are five-pointed stars.<\/p>\n

PS: Why newspapers make online readers is pointless to me. Protect your privacy and get an instant login and password from BugMeNot<\/a>. Thanks to Wildhunt<\/a> for a couple of the links above.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seasonal confusion, hard feelings, and so on. Evidently the struggle over who gets to define the solsticial holiday continues. The Bureaucratic Mind, confronted with competing claims, tends to retreat to blanket negativity . . . and is then accused of promoting “secularism.” Punditry ranges from ramblings about “druids” to curmudgeonly rants like this one from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-337","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4392,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4392","url_meta":{"origin":337,"position":0},"title":"Europe’s Oldest Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"At Forging the Sampo, a link to a short documentary video on the revived Pagan religion of the Mari people of the former Soviet Union. (Wikipedia entry on Mari-El.) Massive sacrificial feasts, accordions, sacred oaks and groves, priests in tall woolen hats, even a sort of Bigfoot reference \u2014 what's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Europe\"","block_context":{"text":"Europe","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=europe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8126,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8126","url_meta":{"origin":337,"position":1},"title":"Demons! Swastikas!! Witches in Ireland!!!","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00b6 The Washington Post runs a non-snarky article about a psychiatrist who thinks that demons are real. So began an unlikely partnership. For the past\u00a0two-and-a-half\u00a0decades and over several hundred consultations, I\u2019ve helped clergy from multiple denominations and faiths to filter episodes of mental illness \u2014 which represent the overwhelming majority\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Ireland\"","block_context":{"text":"Ireland","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ireland"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9750,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=9750","url_meta":{"origin":337,"position":2},"title":"Central American Pagans, Wicca and #MeToo, and Good Writing","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 31, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u2022 Costa Rica now has a Pagan presence: Asatru, Witches, and Druids: Think paganism [sic], and you probably don\u2019t think of a conservative, Catholic-majority country in Central America. But Costa Rica, with its beautiful beaches and tropical charm, is emerging as an unlikely base for a growing pagan movement battling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Asatru\"","block_context":{"text":"Asatru","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=asatru"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1710,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1710","url_meta":{"origin":337,"position":3},"title":"Should You ‘Out’ Yourself as Pagan?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Over at Pagan + Politics the call is for everyone to \"out\" themselves for the good of the movement or something: I did notice that those who are in the \u201ccome out, come out, where ever you are\u201d camp are becoming more vocal about the need for the majority of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Paganism\"","block_context":{"text":"Paganism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=paganism"},"img":{"alt_text":"Subaru plastered with Pagan bumper stickers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/wiccacar1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=542","url_meta":{"origin":337,"position":4},"title":"No costumes, please, we're teaching\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"No costumes, please, we're teaching to the testSome Colorado \"educators\" are going to great lengths to show how hard they are working to raise standardized test scores. The latest gimmick at some schools is to ban school Halloween parties.I think for the most part the real reason schools are doing\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":704,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=704","url_meta":{"origin":337,"position":5},"title":"Morwics and Mormon magic","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"John Morehead (of Sacred Tribes, mentioned earlier) blogs about his discovery of \"Morwics,\" Mormons who have adopted Wicca. (He lives in Salt Lake City, it should be noted.)It seems that ex-Mormons not only gravitate toward evangelicalism and atheism as their religious choice options, but also toward Paganism. This makes sense\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}