Christians Protest Halloween Then Push for Christmas

Christians Protest Halloween Then Push for Christmas
By Kirsten Anderberg (http://www.kirstenanderberg.com)
Written Dec. 17, 2006

The double standard of entitlement that most North American Christians exhibit irks me. They yell and scream protesting Halloween celebrations in public schools, while simultaneously brainwashing kids to pledge allegiance to their country, which is supposed watched over by “God,” and they pledge this allegiance to the country and God, basically, every morning in most public schools in the U.S. Christians want full access to Christmas (and Easter) festivities in public schools, claiming Halloween should be banned in books and activities in schools if Christmas festivities are banned. Christians have latched onto Halloween as the scapegoat for their Christianity being allowed into schools, but there are logistical flaws with the arguments Christians are making for Christianity and prayer in public schools. It is more than obvious that the Christian agenda is not about tolerance at all, but rather about hell and brimstone, about smiting and slaying the enemies of Christianity, etc...Christianity is in many ways a zero sum game. There can only be one winner and only one god.

Christians say it is their way or you go to hell, literally. You join their clan, mimic their rituals, recite their rhetoric, and let them teach their religious mythologies as fact in public schools or else you are doing the devil’s work...that is literally what we are dealing with and there is really no inclusion within that philosophy. Christians even claim to “save” people, like their missionary work “saving” African chiefs who have practiced local religions that predate the Christ myth, or Native American Indians who were “saved” from their own native languages and cultures for the white-washed Christian “saviors.” As they say, you will get two different stories if you ask the hunter and the hunted what happened in history. The idea that Christians have a duty to “save” predominantly non-white, non-Christian people from *themselves*, is reflected in America’s self-righteous presence in Iraq right now. And GWBush *has* said “God” told him to go to war in Iraq!

Colonialism, Imperialism, and Christianity, are linked. Christianity is more about politics and economics than spirituality. Christianity is very much about *conquering* other cultures, women, children, animals, the earth...Christianity is basically about oppressing anything that is not white, male and human, for the white male’s profit, which is really what “saving” means in this context. Instead of “Jesus Saves,” they could say “Jesus Conquers,” but what have Christians conquered? Animals, women, people of color, the earth itself...things Christians had no right dominating. Ah, but there’s the rub – they justify all they do as “God’s work,” not their own, thus somehow justify their obscene greed as not greed for it is for “God.” Many of history’s most notoriously violent and despicable dictators have been avid and outspoken Christians, such as Hitler, claiming a right to destroy the non-Christians as their Christian duty and destiny!

And let’s not forget the Patriarchal bias in Christianity, either. Children are taught misogyny early with the Adam and Eve mythology. Just as Greek men tried to asurp birth through the myth of Zeus giving birth out his head, not a woman birthing “God,” we see a similar situation with the myth of Mary giving birth to Jesus, as a “virgin,” somehow bypassing the sexuality and power of women and mothers, and making her merely a vessel of male work, in essence. Studies have shown that cultures with a male godhead have more sexism and more violence towards women. Societies with female or double gendered godheads have less inherent sexism and less abuse of girls and women on the whole. Or as Mary Daly so succinctly put it: “As long as God is male, males are God.”

The patriarchal roots of Christianity, the conquer and destroy, or smiting, philosophy of Christianity and the sense of entitlement Christians flaunt, all really explain their campaign against Halloween and pagans. Pagans allow female godheads. Most pagans reject the conquer mentality Christians have towards nature, and instead respect and revere nature, rather than trying to exploit it for monetary gain. Pagans threaten Christianity due simply to the inclusion of women as godheads and their reverence for nature. Just as feminism threatens sexism, paganism challenges Christianity at the root of its patriarchy and exploitive natures.

Many a Christian professes tolerance, but really, tolerance *is not* part of the Christian doctrine. *Intolerance* is more of a Christian edict. Our way or no way is the most common Christian war cry. Accept a white male God named Jesus, or go to hell, is their motto. The violently puritanical, evangelical Christian history of this country still shows. But even back at the time of this country’s conception, our governmental forefathers saw the reasonability, even the necessity, of the separation of church and state. That separation, in fact, is one of the most novel things about America. American forefathers saw the danger in letting hard core Christians dictate the government’s activities and took precautionary measures to limit Christians’ powers in American government.

Today a Christian friend of mine told me how mad she was that they wouldn’t let Christmas and prayer into public schools but they have books with witches in them about Halloween in the school library. She said WICCA is a religion and should not be allowed. My first response was “but you have the whole school pledging allegiance to “one nation under *God*” every single morning in most U.S. public schools!” Reality is that Christianity and the male Christian godhead mythology gets much more airplay than WICCA, and all other religions combined, in public schools. My son also pointed out witches are most often portrayed as bad people, ugly, old, wicked women, in kid’s books, unlike Christians in kids’ books. I feel my friend’s argument falls flat. She is saying since there are mostly fictionalized books that predominantly demonize witches (as Christians would complain about glamorizing witches if a WICCA-positive book was to go into their kids’ school libraries, I am sure...), and since Halloween is acknowledged in books and activities at schools, she is claiming that she should be able to go all out with her Jesus beliefs and Christmas. But the situation is not that black and white. For every positive portrayal of WICCA or a witch in a kid’s book in public schools in America, there are 100-1000+ references to “God,” using male pronouns for that god, in kid’s books in those school libraries.

Christians get away with a lot of name calling when it comes to pagans. The most common idiotic slur is to label pagans as “Satan/Devil worshippers.” It appears Christians view religions that include women as godheads or nature as a living being, as “demonic,” which leads us back to the Colonialism present within Christianity.

At this stage, Christians have dominated our public domain in the U.S. to our country’s detriment. They want special privileges. Recently a Rabbi asked the Sea-Tac Airport outside Seattle, Wa. to display an 8 foot menorah alongside the 8 large Christmas trees they had on display. The airport blew him off. He threatened to sue. Immediately a Sea-Tac employee went to the local media and made the Rabbi out to be a Grinch, if not anti-Christian. Outraged Christians lodged 500+ complaints with Sea-Tac and threatened the Rabbi with violence. Under public pressure, the Rabbi said he would not sue Sea-Tac so they have now put the 8 trees back up...but what about the menorah? Nope. Sea-Tac will not allow it to go up. One more example of Christians acting as though they have entitlements no one else does.

Christians often seem to be like children who never learn how to share. Like those kids who scream loudest when they don’t get what they want at all times. Like those temper tantrum kids. They certainly cannot take what they dish out, that’s for sure. Just as it is ridiculous for white people to claim reverse racism in a dominant paradigm of white privilege, and it is preposterous that more men have sued and won on sex discrimination charges than women have (in this patriarchy where women are still paid less than men), it is also crazy to claim Christians are being discriminated against on any level in the U.S. The Christian agenda dominates all over the place in the U.S., from the president, to the Supreme Court, to Congress and the Senate, to local politicians and local school boards. American politicians predominantly profess allegiance to Christianity and the Jesus myth, thus it makes news when a non-white, non-Christian, non-male makes it in politics. What really alarms me about Christian politics though, is their claim to be doing God’s work. When I hear GWBush say in public, out loud, without any embarrassment, that his God told him to go to war in Iraq, I shudder. And when I hear Christians whining about oppression, when the people they oppress, such as Native American Indian elders, or pagans, or Rabbis, or women, fight back, and the Christians then claim they are now victims of oppression themselves, well, that is simply stupid rhetoric. Sorry to be so blunt.

The Sea-Tac situation is a perfect example of Christians feigning oppression when they receive the smallest taste of their own medicine. Christians become enraged when treated like all other religions are treated, with exclusion. They pushed for their Christmas trees to be allowed back into Sea-Tac but no Christian organization emerged to support the Rabbi’s reasonable request to add a menorah. No religious solidarity there. Just the same old Christian entitlement. Due to the pervasiveness of Christian dominance, we must now take precautionary measures to promote ANY religion BUT Christianity in our public schools if we are ever to near equality. I support the menorah at Sea-Tac, if there are Christmas trees on display. I support positive and realistic, informative books on WICCA in all public school libraries. I DO NOT support children mouthing the word “God” in their pledges to military allegiance to this country, nor do I approve of that pledge in any way. I do not support Christian-exclusive ANYTHING in our public schools. I do not even support the use of the word “god” in public schools at this point.

Since we’ve used the Christian term for the Great Spirit, “God,” for the entire history of America’s public school systems, let’s now substitute the word “Allah” for the word “God” at all times, in all public schools, for the entirety of 2007. This includes changing the wording of “God” to “Allah” in the pledge of allegiance as well. Then let’s spend all of 2008 referring to this Great Spirit with only female pronouns and again, substituting the word “goddess” wherever the word “God” had been used in public schools before. Let’s actually PRACTICE inclusion for once by using multicultural terminology. If Christians want their religious doctrine in public schools, they’ll need to wait at the back of the line for their second helpings, as most religions have never even had their first helping of inclusion in America’s public schools. And Christians have been far too vocal and oppressive to now claim their lack of privilege, in and of itself, is an oppression. That is utter nonsense. Christians once again got special privileges this week at my local airport, and it makes me sick.