Jews: First We Were Anti-Christs; Now We’re Just Anti-Christmas « Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Jews: First We Were Anti-Christs; Now We’re Just Anti-Christmas

You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Jews: First We Were Anti-Christs; Now We’re Just Anti-Christmas”.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 26th, 2004 at 1:57 AM and is filed under Jews & Judaism, Seattle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

7 Responses to “Jews: First We Were Anti-Christs; Now We’re Just Anti-Christmas”

mohamed says:

December 26, 2004 at 5:57 AM

Hello sir: I’m Mohamed , an Algerian journalist. I read your articles every week and sincerely, you’re a talented journalist but also a honest one. I want to send you some comments–as for your article about Christmas, I agree with you that celebrating religious holidays should be an opportunity to practice and improve the teaching of values that religion teaches us and not to waste money on gifts and nonsenses (miserable people deserve it more, no?!!!)

We have to recognize that America is a nation of freedom and technology but it’s also a nation of decadence of religious values. I think the best way of honouring prophets is to follow their teachings (I’ve said “prophets” because as you know we Muslims consider Jesus as a great prophet but he’s neither god nor son of god). Thank you.

Reply
Cap says:

December 26, 2004 at 6:09 PM

I also enjoy your blog. However, I don’t think the fact that Americans spend on average $1000 for Christmas is any reason to be upset.

And to Mohamed: Jesus claimed over and over he was the son of God. Either he is guilty of blasphemy, or he is exactly who he claimed he was. I don’t see how you can say he is a great prophet. 10 of the 12 Disciples (those that knew Him best) were killed and all had the chance to recant to save their lives. None of the 10 chose that. Do you think 10 out of 10 would die for a lie?

Merry Christmas.

Reply
cs says:

December 26, 2004 at 9:08 PM

Hello Richard — Happy season of reflection and renewal to all of you.

Reply
Richard Silverstein says:

December 26, 2004 at 10:34 PM

First, regarding Cap’s comment–I’m amazed that anyone at freerepublic.com “enjoys” my blog. But I’ll take you at your word and say thank you all the same.

Cap, he of the hypercapitalist freerepublic.com isn’t phased by Americans wasting $1,000 each year? That’s because all that money spent over a single month fuels the American economy for virtually an entire year. But think about the crap that people are spending that money on. Does the true strength and value of the American economy have to be based on the sales of the gilded gadgets, gizmos, tchotchkes and notions so popular at Christmas time?

And no, Cap, Jesus himself did not say he was the son of God. The writers of the gospel (only a few of whom even knew Jesus personally), writing well after Jesus’ death may’ve made such a claim, but as an academic student of Jewish life in the Biblical & Talmudic period I know that it would’ve been the height of blasphemy and megalomania for any Jew (of which he was most decidedly one) to make such a claim. It was left to Saul (or Paul to you) to market Jesus to the world as a divinity (something I’m sure that the ever humble Jesus would’ve found repulsive).

I’m totally with Mohamed on this one. Jesus is one of the world’s great teachers and certainly a great prophet. But God? I think not (though you, Cap are welcome to your own view of it).

Reply
Garrett Fitzgerald says:

December 27, 2004 at 5:38 PM

When wishing a friend of mine of uncertain religious provenance generic happy holidays the other day, he wished me a Merry Christmas in return, and commented that he had no issues with being wished a Merry Christmas: just because he didn’t celebrate it was no reason it shouldn’t be merry. :-)

Reply
Richard Silverstein says:

December 28, 2004 at 1:50 AM

Garrett: More power to your friend. I’m glad the subject wasn’t freighted for him. But for me as a student of Jewish history, our history of relations with our Christian neighbors has been fraught with hatred, violence & just plain bad blood. So while wishing someone a Merry Christimas is a no brainer for some like your friend, for me it resonates in other complicated ways. As I wrote above, Jesus the person, Jesus the teacher is a figure I respect. But as for the iconic Jesus at whose helm Christians marched into the Crusades slaughtering thousands of Jews as they went–well, that fellow is someone whose birth I can’t exactly get excited about.

Reply
who throws a shoe? says:

December 26, 2004 at 5:28 PM

Only 364 shopping days til Festivus!

This post inspired me to finally write about Christmas, though I’ve been thinking about this for a while. It’s now the 26th, and although the shops are still filled with Christmas merchandise (now heavily discounted) and all the houses still…

Reply