Comments (13)

Who is Claire Hoffman - and why should we be concerned with her confused comments on religion?

WAPO -- thank you & good show!!

A FESTIVUS FOR THE REST OF US !!!

Hoffman wrote: "So: What am I and all the other non-religious, non-spiritual, non-atheistic people who have inherited a desire to mark rituals and experiences to do on Church holidays?"

You have it backwards Hoffman. The Church imposed its christian rituals on a pagan holiday of the Spring Equinox, which in Europe was celebrated by fertility symbols such as eggs, bunnies and flowers, none of which are biblically derived. And Christmas was imposed over European celebrations of the Winter Solstice, when days begin to get longer and warm weather, and food production, were on their way back. That was celebrated with food and a visit to the children by Father Frost/Santa Claus. Find them in the bible if you can.

So while you wonder how non-religious types should feel watching the religious celebrate with dying eggs, eating chocolate bunnies, christmas trees and gifts, remember that these were all pagan celebrations that everyone should celebrate, then let the religious go to chuch to celebrate the resurrection of a dead man, or the birth of a hero. The religious celebrations have nothing to do with the celebration you witnessed. All you witnessed was the imposition of the religious celebration on the much older pagan celebration. I wonder if the church can be sued for copyright infringement?

So don't feel guilty when you see pagan rituals and celebrations that you would like to be part of covered with religion. You have every right to celebrate these rituals as a tradition much older than the religion that has claimed it as its own. Like a groupie, christianity works hard to make itself popular by laying claim to popular culture. Do you feel guilty listening to christian rock? I feel sorry for the bands, but if the music is good, enjoy it. God no more owns christian rock than the devil owns heavy metal. The music stands on its own. So should you Ms. Hoffman, and celebrate the traditions you feel like celebrating without the need to feel religious or part of a religion.

Claire - you make a good point. Many folks have been steeped in Christianity for a lifetime and yet find themselves to be quite non-religious - I've studied religions for over 40 years and am not in the least bit religious.

On the other hand, I'm guessing that many non-practitioners of the faith find a certain appeal in observing religious holidays for purely nostalgic purposes. In our younger years, a certain feeling of unity and collective membership arose during these times, and the sense of sharing began to take shape - a need that is still with us today.

Opportunities to experience these feelings are particularly strong during times of religious celebration - but do we need to buy the underlying theology involved?? Not in the least, since what we are craving is a purely human phenomenon....confusion with the 'divine' is unnecessary altogether!

By extension, it should be said that fundamental spirituality doesn't necessarily desert the non-religious, non-practitioner of religion. Our essential nature is no different from the devout and pious religious believer or the raging born-again fundamentalist, since beliefs of all kinds are simply artifacts of living - acquired appendages of what is really the same 'spiritual' substance in each and every one of us.

If one has it, we all have it....the difference being that not all are not burdened by iron-clad, unchanging belief systems that defy both common sense and obstruct the real pursuit of spirituality. As you say, transcendence is available at any moment in time - for some, it's more likely to occur on the shores of Walden Pond than in St. Peter's basilica.........

Dear Claire: You are so deeply confused, I'll pray for you.

I remember a story that took place one Christmas Eve during during WWI. Entrenched German and American troops, upon hearing each other singing carols, spontaneously abandoned their digs and met out in "no man's land" to share song and schnitzels. (Until their commanders caught wind of it and ordered them back into their respective trenches to prepare for the next days slaughter.)

But that's what I recall most fondly about that particular holiday--the feeling I still get every year at Christmas despite my non-belief--the "peace on earth" bit. Beneath all the commercial crap and whatnot, I always pick up a vibe of people just wanting to let their guards down, just wanting not to have to compete, a sort of collective, deliberate release of each other's throats (at least when they're not actually shopping.) For me, that doesn't speak so much to "some transcendent truth in the structure of religion" as much as it does to some transcendent angst that religion might help alleviate.

I don't get it...oh I get the non Religious..But non spiritual? Spiritual as in connected to nature or your own meaning of life?

And there are those of us that are religious, are spiritual..and the majority religious holidays do not include us. But we make do...We have our own holidays.

We go to roof tops and parks.. to circles, woods, and lake shores.As a Wiccan I have learned that I have to create my sacred places to go to on those special times.

terra

"So: What am I and all the other non-religious, non-spiritual, non-atheistic people who have inherited a desire to mark rituals and experiences to do on Church holidays?"

Keep the world going till everyone else gets back.

Back when I was all exiled by my Christian family, I always used to make it a point to go to hotel and airport bars on Christmas Eve...Solstice would be done for me, ....everything else tends to be shut down, and anyone there is probably feeling pretty lonely.

(And bad cess to anyone thinks that's a time to go try and get converts in a weak moment. It's about *company,* not proselytizing.)

But, in human terms, it's a strength of diversity, I think. Everyone deserves a festival, not everyone gets their regularly-scheduled one.

God's Plan is for ALL to be with Him in His Kingdom [the new heavens and the new earth] and His Plan will come to Fruition at the dawning of the seventh day.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

candide,one thing for sure,if He ain't your going to know it.

The dead carpenter is still dead.

TO CLAIRE HOFFMAN:

You wrote, ""But are you religious?" is what people usually ask when they find out I went to Divinity school. No is my answer, usually to reassure them that I'm not judging them,"

Would you actually read what you wrote in the above sentence?

There are many judgemental people in this world and by what you wrote in the above sentence you have very clearly described, at least that is what it sounds like on the surface, yourself as judgemental or have you described all of the "religious" people out here as judgemental?

You also wrote, " Is it so wrong that for many of us transcendent experiences are more likely to take place on a rooftop or a lawn of grass than in the clearer confines of a church or a mosque or a temple?"

So many people want to put God in a box, well no matter what kind of box that someone wishes to put God in, I can tell you that it does not work that way.

How God works, in other people's life, is not my business but is God's business, but how God works in my life is my business and God's business.

We are all individuals and we are ALL made in the Image and Likeness of God, whether anyone believes that or not, it it TRUE.

I am a Catholic and I cherish my Catholic Faith and when it was time, God's Time, God the Father came into my heart and I was driving a car at the time.

I have had other experiences too and whether anyone believes what I say or not I am a messenger of God, not God, just a messenger.

I can understand how you came to write the first sentence that I made a comment about because some people are "religious" in the outward sense of the rituals but do not have the inner "religious" as in, as it says in the bible, "True religion is taking care of widows and orphans".

The above quote from the bible, "True religion is taking care of widows and orphans", does not even mention God, does it?

The word "religious" can mean different things, both positive and negative, and the negative aspects of "religious" is exactly one of the things that Jesus spoke very unnicely about, to put it mildly, did He not?

I have met God and He is a Trinity and He is Pure Love and I use the pronoun He, even tho God is not a He, a She or an It but pronouns can come in handy sometimes and also the PC of today sometimes seems to be just another mask for some people to hide behind, does it not?

Take care, be ready, see you and the rest of humanity in the Kingdom [the new heavens and the new earth].

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.