I always get a little sentimental this time of year. Two years ago, I wrote a post titled “Are we celebrating Christmas or celebrating our humanity?” Frankly, I can’t think of a better expression
of my feelings about the holiday season and what it means in American society
-- a society without equal in its ability to integrate other cultures and
religions. My words then:
The Christian values of
tolerance and love for our fellow man are powerfully attractive to Christians
and non-Christians alike. People of all faiths can embrace the
annual celebration of Christmas. People respond to the sense of charity,
love and forgiveness espoused by Jesus Christ because those values and the
emotion we attach to them are fundamental to us as human beings.
The angel who announced
the birth of Christ to the world said, “I bring you good news of great joy that will
be for all people….”
All
people…
Earlier that year, I
passed on a quote sent to me by my brother.
It was from Reinhold Niebuhr. It
began “nothing worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must
be saved by hope…” Concluding that post,
I expressed my:
“Hope that civil society will prevail in accordance with humanist
tradition. Hope that we will continue to evolve according to the
tenets of tolerance and self-rule. Those ideas are part of our
DNA. That they have been expressed in so many ways for thousands of
years is ample evidence.”
The hope that Americans embrace comes not only from our
founding fathers but also from the waves of immigrants whose aspirations drove
them to our shores.
And, we will always be saved by hope.
Happy Holidays to all.
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