Mailbag: Christmas & Christianity

From: Major B.
Subject: Re: Christmas

I read you piece with some interest. You use facts and arguments that make me think you are or were a Jehovah’s Witness. Or, perhaps, you are using source material without actually researching its origin. In any case, your ideas are somewhat simplistic and your material seems to be of a secondary nature and lacking in seminal value.

This is an easy accusation to make, but it’s a harder one to support. If Major B. thinks that any of my articles contain errors or problems, why didn’t he step up to point them out? Such insinuations without serious support are unworthy of a chaplain and an officer of the United States Army.

Then again, maybe they aren’t — perhaps my expectations are simply too high. Maybe Major B’s email is just simplistic, of secondary value, and lacking in seminal value. Why, it doesn’t even reference which of the dozen or so pieces I’ve written about Christmas — a minimum requirement to take his, uh, “comments” seriously.

 

I’m sorry that I don’t have the time available to dialogue with you about various historical facts and interpretations.

Translation: you’re wrong, but I don’t have time to explain to you how and why. I have the time to surf the web, find your article, read your article, think about your article, conclude that it has errors, find your email address, and write an email full of insinuations about how wrong your article is, but I don’t have the time to even mention what some of those errors might be, much less explain how and why they are errors.

Yes, that’s mature.

 

I think a little criticism, even if it is shallow, will help you think harder and dig deeper.

I always seek to think harder and dig deeper. At this point, though, Major B’s “criticism” merely serves to reduce my opinion of military chaplains. How can I possibly think well of a person who prefers insinuation to serious discussion or supporting their claims? Until now, his emails have been a complete waste of time.

After this, though, Major B decided to at least try to offer a meager defense of his claims, saying that I “persuaded” him to do so. What kind of person needs to be “persuaded” to support their claims? This suggests that it’s out of the ordinary for Major B to support what he says. Is it because he’s an officer, because he’s a chaplain, or simply a part of his natural personality that he expects people to accept whatever he says?

 

You’ll have to identify the specific article in which you interpreted the Isaiah 40 passage to forbid decorated Christmas trees.

Major B. doesn’t even know what article he disagrees with, but either his memory is lousy or he didn’t read an article on my site because I don’t mention Isaiah, any chapter, with reference to Christmas or Christmas trees. I point out that Jeremiah condemns the cutting down and decorating trees as part of a larger explanation that the trees people associate with Christmas are ultimately pagan in origin, not Christian.

 

That is exclusively a Jehovah’s Witness piece of exegesis. Including that in your article will identify you as part of that sect to many readers whether you are or not.

Major B. must be thinking about a Jehovah’s Witness argument that Christmas isn’t truly Christian, using some passage from Isaiah or Jeremiah or someplace (he might not even know what he means). Once again, I doubt that he really read any of my articles — or that he read them very carefully — because that’s not an argument I make.

 

Fighting Christmas is like spitting into the wind.

Who’s “fighting” Christmas? Again, he must have been reading someone else’s articles, not mine. That, or he is simply reading his own personal prejudices into what others write.

 

PS. I suggest that you get to know a few Chaplains first before rushing to judgment. I may be the worst of the bunch!

If that’s the case, I suggest that perhaps Major B should resign before he brings further shame to the profession. This conclusion was supported when he responded with nothing more than “Sorry Austin, you still have it wrong. Goodbye.”

An intellectually serious person would have the sense to do more than simply say “you’re wrong.” An ethical person would acknowledge the errors specifically pointed out to them. Frankly, I suspect that he may have realized that his misread and arrived at faulty conclusions, but just didn’t have maturity to admit it.

 

More selections from the Agnosticism / Atheism Mailbag...