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

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

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