Secular Appropriation of Religion

[alixtii]

This post (on the "Non-Christian's Christmas") linked by metafandom (to be linked? I follow the del.icio.us account) is making me think, as posts so linked are liable to do. I'm on the record as being in favor of secular appropriation of religious holidays, while being uncomfortable with the Christocentricism at work in the way secular Western society actually works in appropriating religious holidays. (Which makes my thoughts about something like yuletide very complicated.) I am in favor of said appropriation for three main reasons:

1.) I do not believe that there is any such thing as a "core truth" to any religion, and thus the breaking apart of ritual from the oppressiveness of doctrine is viewed by me as an overall beneficial shift.

2.) I believe the secular forms of religious holidays are rich cultural forms that have merit in their own right.

3.) I believe, as a Christian, that the Holy Spirit works in complicated and mysterious ways. 

I know, however, that there are people on my flist who quite strongly dislike said appropriation, at least some from a sense that the resulting cultural forms are somehow inauthentic. Y/N?

Comments

[not-purrrfect.livejournal.com]

Yes and no. I'm Agnostic. I believe in taking a bit from all religions.
I'm also wiccan/pagan. So I kind of sit on middle ground.

Good point though!

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

out of curiosity, what do you mean when you say you're both pagan and agnostic?

[not-purrrfect.livejournal.com]

im non bible based so i say i believe in a higher power but NOT just one god I believe in there are multiple gods and goddess not just one and only sole source. I also do NOT believe that Paganism is satanism.

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

OK, I've always heard the definition of agnosticism is not having a definite opinion on the existance of a god/gods - yours sounds more like polytheism. I'm a Pagan-turned-Atheist so yeah, I'm down with it not being Satanic!

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Not that there is anything wrong with Satanism, of course.

[amyheartssiroc.livejournal.com]

Personally, I find the idea of celebrating a holiday from a religion you don't follow to be slightly offensive. I realize it gets fuzzy when you acknowledge the fact that people can be culturally religious but not practicing, but in general I find it ridiculous when people appropriate a religious holiday and then get upset when people acknowledge that it is, in fact, a religious holiday, and of deep significance to the people of that religious faith.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I follow what you mean when you talk about "following" or "practicing" a religion.

[amyheartssiroc.livejournal.com]

"Follwing" as in believing in a religion and "practicing" as in being active in your religious faith or community. For example, Muslim is not a follower of Christianity, and a Christian who only goes to church on Christmas and Easter is not practicing.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, any religion permits a huge diversity of belief and practice. As a Christian who holds some unorthodox beliefs, I'm extremely uncomfortable legislating anyone's authentic Christian-ness.

[amyheartssiroc.livejournal.com]

I'm not talking about it in terms of orthodoxy. "Following" could be following your interpretation, even if it's not orthodox.

Ugh, I feel like I'm not expressing myself well here. What annoys me is people who celebrate Christmas and then get offended when they hear religious Christmas carols instead of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." If you celebrate another person's religious holiday, you can't expect them to strip out the religious meaning to make you comfortable. That's what I don't like about secularization.

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

You're still talking about "the religious meaning" as if it were unitary or obvious.

[lanair.livejournal.com]

Hmm I think it would be weird to celebrate something like Christmas without including a reference of Christ (unless you called it plain "mas" or something). =D

2.) I believe the secular forms of religious holidays are rich cultural forms that have merit in their own right

First of all, how much culture is found in these religious holidays that they could stand alone? Then, didn't the culture arise because of the religion. Wouldn't divorcing one from the other make the cultural aspect worthless?

After all, we do have secular holidays (like that President's Day thing and Thanksgiving). Why not leave those secular, and keep the religious holidays to commemorate religious events?

For the record, the commercialization/de-religionization of holidays like Christmas and Pascha annoy me... but if you wanna do something about the other holidays, like Hannukah, I wouldn't mind (c'mon, how cool would it be to have a guy dress up in a rabbi suit, sit under a big menorah in the mall, and give out presents). ;)

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

First of all, how much culture is found in these religious holidays that they could stand alone?

I don't know how to quantitate.

Then, didn't the culture arise because of the religion.

They seem to be in some type of causal relation.

Wouldn't divorcing one from the other make the cultural aspect worthless?

I don't see why it should.

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

From my British perspective, Christmas is already pretty much a secular holiday - I know Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and atheists who are all quite happy to send out cards, give presents, go to parties, put up decorations. Most of the cultural trappings of the festival have little or nothing to do with religion anyway: decorating a fir tree with sparkly tinsel, or pulling a paper tube with a small gunpowder charge and a silly hat inside have no significance in Christian doctrine that I'm aware of.

Besides, everybody knows that the Christians appropriated a pre-existing Midwinter holiday anyway, and a lot of the symbolism - [re]birth, light in the darkness, family coming together - is just as appropriate to a festival whose purpose is simply to mark the longest night of the year. Which doesn't, of course, explain why secular Australians still celebrate Christmas too. :-)

But when it comes to cultural appropriation, I'm pretty democratic. If enough people follow a tradition, then it becomes "their" tradition by definition, and any quibbling over its original derivation is irrelevant. It's as authentic as any other thing people do.