Celebrate

 Celebrate The Season

 

The celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ is here once more along with Kwanza, Hanukah, the Winter Solstice, and many other year-end celebrations. Although I was raised in the Episcopal Church, I no longer subscribe to biblical Christianity. I favor a spirituality based on protecting Mother Earth and all of those who are blessed to live on her. My beliefs are allowed under our pluralistic democratic government which welcomes all beliefs and faiths, including none at all. 

 

There are some among us who believe the United States is, or should be, a Christian country. While many of our founders were practicing Christians, they clearly believed our democracy was better served by allowing all faiths and beliefs to exist, side by side. That explains the absence of references to “God” and an explicit prohibition of any state sanctioned religion in our founding documents. The separation of church and state was so important to the founders that the very first amendment to the Constitution found in the Bill of Rights starts with, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…..”

 

Subsequent interpretations of the Bill of Rights by the U.S. Supreme Court made the First Amendment language prohibiting state sanctioned religions enforceable against state and local governments as well. 

 

We join with those who celebrate any or all these year-end holidays wishing for peace and joy to all in the coming year. 

 

Celebratory aspirations in mind, we need to continue to resist those who would do away with our pluralistic democracy in favor of white Christian nationalism led by an authoritarian wannabe dictator. 

 

We now live in a perilous time where those claiming to be called by some higher power would undo centuries of pluralistic self-government in favor of their specific belief system to the exclusion of all others. We cannot vote based upon President Biden’s age. We must vote to preserve what we already have, not what some want us to believe the authoritarian savior will bring. 

 

If you cherish women, vote to preserve their bodily autonomy and freedom to choose whether to bring a child into her life. If you cherish women, vote to continue their march towards economic and social equality with men.

 

If you cherish children and the adults charged with their care, vote to end the scourge of gun violence that takes far too many way too soon. Vote for paid family leave and universal healthcare. 

 

If you recognize gender is fluid and not binary, vote to allow all those to live the lives they must in the gender roles best suited to each.

 

If you value diversity, equity, and inclusion in all its iterations, vote for those who support teaching and learning from history to help prevent mistakes made in the past.

 

If you value the ability to read books that will expand your horizons and add to your knowledge of human history and the human condition, vote to end book bans, and support free expression of ideas. 

 

If you value helping everyone reach their full potential, vote for those who support public education for all and not those who would starve our public educational institutions in favor of private religious ones. 

 

If you value those who work, vote for those who support collective bargaining rights for working people so they may level the playing field with their employers and come to enjoy a living wage and safe working conditions. 

 

If you value your home on Mother Earth, vote for those who would protect her from the ravages of climate change.

 

If you want state and federal governments that work for all of us and not a privileged few, vote for those willing to do that and turn those who want to dismantle our governing bodies out of office. 

 

The upcoming elections loom large over our collective holiday celebrations. Celebrate how you choose and follow the traditions you choose. Always remember that you get to choose how you celebrate your faith because of where you live and under a government that does not dictate how you must make that choice. 

 

Happy Holidays.