What's Going On?

In the small town where I live there was a recent brouhaha when the city council tried to be politically correct and rename the Christmas break, winter break and the Good Friday break, spring break. From the screams of outrage you would have thought they cancelled Christmas, closed all the churches, and sold all the children into slavery. I could not believe some of the reactions. Some of the council members received death threats. A special town meeting forced a change and the old names were restored. What was the cost? I think one of the victims was the reputation of Christianity. How can anyone call themselves a Christian and still threaten to kill someone because they voted to call something a winter break?

I have a real problem with people calling themselves Christian when their actions are totally contrary to Christ's teachings. Do they really think Christ cares what you call a holiday? Don't these people think he cares more about what is in our hearts? Have they heard of something called "The Ten Commandments" which quite clearly states "Though Shall Not Kill?"

I think too many people are concerned with externals and not enough about reality. It is more important to take care of our fellow human beings then whether something is displayed. When the Constitution was made one of the things that was put in there was the separation of church and state. That quite clearly means that there is no official religion established for the United States Government. It means that all men have the right to worship or not worship God however they see him or her.

One of the complaints I heard about the city council’s decision was "what about the rights of the majority?" Reality shows that if you take all the Christians in the world and then add up all the other religions and those who do not believe Christians are NOT a majority. Others have the right to worship according to their beliefs too. It is something that the Fundamentalist Christians fail to realize. They are in the minority and I for one am tired of them tramping all over my rights as a Catholic and the rights of other people to worship as we choose.

I had an insight once during an art class I took when we were drawing from a live model. The model was in the center on a platform and the art easels were in a circle around her. Every drawing was different in spite of them being of the same person because we were looking at her from a different angle. I believe God and religion are the same way. God is so vastly complex that no one religion can understand the totality of him/her. Each religion is looking at a different aspect or angle of God. It means no one religion is right because they are only seeing one portion of the totality that makes up the entity we call God.

From a practical standpoint it means that there is a place for nativity sets but not on government lands because the government is for everyone no matter what religion. As long as the government does not prohibit displays on private land then we have no right to complain. Put up the biggest nativity set you can find. Put up a menorah. Put up whatever symbol of your religion you want and celebrate. If a break encompasses a time period of more then one religion call it winter break. Call it Christmas Hanukkah Kwanzaa Winter Solstice break. The important thing is hold in your heart and practice that we are supposed to be on this earth to help and love our fellow man. We are not here to threaten to kill someone who uses a different name than Christmas for a break. God has to be ashamed of the behavior of some of his creatures. We are very lucky he/she is a loving God.

The picture is called "The Star."