Christians are proselytizing in the U.S. via their so-called nonsectarian, secular symbols: Christmas Tree, Christmas lights, Wreaths, etc… Christians are creating a U.S. society where Pagan-Christian-based symbols are acceptable in public settings while other religion’s symbols are judged to be non-secular and unacceptable for public display. This has been happening for many many many years now, probably since the founding of the U.S. The one place on Earth (said the founders or the U.S.) where people were free to believe what they want actually turns out to be based on and to privilege Christianity almost exactly like the British society these founders were trying to escape.
The latest example involves my step-son’s public school and a Christmas Tree. It looks like a Christmas Tree. Has Christmas colors. Has gifts under the tree like Christmas Trees have. Has an angel on top of the tree like a Christmas Tree. Students refer to it as a Christmas Tree. And yet, the principal and superintendent state that “the tree in the front of the school does not promote any religion.” What gives? Is this not a Christmas Tree and the principal and superintendent are against Christmas, so they mock it by displaying a tree that looks like a Christmas Tree but is not? Or, is it really a Christmas Tree and they’re trying to allow it to be displayed by using semantic arguments stating that it’s not a Christmas Tree?
U.S. courts have supposedly deemed the Christmas Tree to be a nonsectarian, secular symbol. So, it’s now built into the fabric of U.S. law that the Christian (and Pagan) symbol of a Christmas Tree (Yule Tree or Yule Log for Pagans) is secular. That is, one need not believe in Christianity or be Pagan in order to display these symbols.
Having grown up in a Jewish home, I know how it feels to be told that the Christmas Tree is secular. It’s like, “Go ahead, put one in your home, it’s secular.” And I say, “But wait, Judaism doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas. Hanukkah is based on the Macabees ability to overcome the oppression they were experiencing. The main holidays for Judaism are Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, and they’re not in December.” The person says, “Well, now the Christmas Tree is called a ‘Holiday Tree’.” “Oh,” I say, “I see. Is this the same as changing the name of a Swastika to “Happy Symbol” and saying it’s a symbol of happiness?” And on and on and on…
But, the point I want to make here has nothing to do with Christmas Trees or Swastikas, well, not specifically. Rather, I want to point out an example of how oppression, exploitation, and domination is spread from society to society. The settlers from Brittain wanted religious and economic freedom. But, they created a society that has neither. Some of their very first actions in the North American continent were to enslave and kill the indigenous people. This should have been a sign of things to come, don’t you think?
And yet, public school history books continue to tell us that the U.S. was founded on a desire for religious freedom for all. And in the case of Anti-Semitism (that is, anti semitic people) in Europe, that’s still a big problem today. Semitic people experience the same kinds of oppression in Europe that black people in the U.S. experience. So much for destroying antisemitism by destroying the Nazis.
Those of us who fight against oppression, exploitation, and domination can use the above examples to better understand how to create a better world. We can learn from those mistakes. I’ve been in a few groups that have oppressed, dominated, and even exploited it’s members and others, unintentionally and mostly subconsciously. The absence of Black, Latino, Muslim, Jewish, Older folks, disabled folks, etc… all should have been a sign of potential things to come.
If those groups were to have gained momentum for ending oppression, exploitation, and domination, they may have ended up spreading oppression, exploitation, and domination instead. The oppression might have looked and felt different, but it definitely would’ve been present and acting on people.
I guess the most appropriate example for Rethos.com is the Rethos, Inc. corporation that runs the website and the ongoing debate regarding Corporate Social Responsibility. If the Rethos “community” is going to change the world, then we need to look at ourselves and make the changes necessary so that the oppression, exploitation, and domination so often associated with corporations, companies, and businesses ends with us and is not spread further.
The first step is for the owners of Rethos, Inc. to step forward and engage in dialogue on how they are NOT going to oppress, exploit, and dominate the members of the Rethos.com community. This needs to be made very explicit and Rethos.com “community” members must hold these owners accountable. If we are unable to do this first step, then Rethos.com is doomed to become just another corporate-based website trying to capitalize on the Green wave that is consuming the world’s economic markets at this time. Would it not be a sign of things to come to all Rethos.com “community” members if this first step is not realized?
Activist groups, Christmas Trees, Swastikas, Oppression, Exploitation, Domination, and Rethos.com all in one, all together in the same sentence. It’s unfortunate. So far, many groups in the U.S. are simply following the tradition in the U.S. to start a group and try to make change. It’s time for us to break free from this tradition, which often includes complicity in certain practices and beliefs that support oppression, exploitation, and domination. It’s time for us to truly look at ourselves and change ourselves so that we no are no longer complicit in ANY form of oppression, exploitation, and domination. If we cannot do this, then a better world is not possible, for as Martin Luther King Jr. pointed out: injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere.
