Religion And Political Correctness

Sam Bierstock, MD, writes In Praise of Christians and Christmas

I’m an American Jew—100% full blooded with all four grandparents 100% Jewish as far back as you want to go.

I live in a Christian country—I know it, I recognize it, and I love it.
Please, please—have your Christmas parades, your house decorations, and your nativity scenes. I love New York City at Christmas and festive shopping store windows. I celebrate your joy and the spirit of your holiday season with you. I rejoice for you as you celebrate the birth of your savior.

And THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, for allowing me to celebrate my own religion and heritage. For allowing my children to grow up in a tolerant society that respects those of us who are in a minority. For allowing us to display our menorahs. For your good wishes in advertisements and station sponsored comments on various television and radio messages at the time of our holidays, and for allowing my children and grandchildren to explain to their friends the wonderful warmth and meaning behind Chanukah, Passover, and our high holidays.

This country was founded as a Christian country, but left the doors open for all of us to enjoy its freedoms. I am a Jew and I am a infatuated patriot who would put his life on the line for this country in an instant—and do so filled with gratitude for what it has given me. I am proud of the outstanding contributions of Jewish war veterans, and I will fight and die beside my Christian countrymen if called to do so. The majority of people who fought our wars, who liberated Hitler’s camps that slaughtered my people, who commanded our armed forces, who served as our presidents and leaders, and who have preserved our constitution were Christians. There are lots more of you than there are of us.

I am not offended by billboards, Christmas lights, school plays celebrating the birth of Jesus. I do not demand equal time for celebrating Jewish tradition.

As I write this, the morning news reports that a YMCA has banned Santa Claus. I grew up surrounded by Santa Claus and Christmas festivities. I know who I am—Santa Claus didn’t do a thing to make me feel like less of a Jew. You learn who you are from your family and in your home, not on the streets of your cities and at your YMCA.

Primarily, I am deeply grateful that in celebrating Christian holidays, a tacit recognition exists that we are a country based upon Judeo-Christian beliefs and morals—and that, in and of itself, is enough for me. We are brothers and sisters who share the same Ten Commandments, the same belief in tolerance, and the mutual respect that comes from a common heritage in a shared Old Testament.

If only our legislators would stop fearing the backlash of the moral purists, religious fundamentalists on all side, and the never-ending advocations of the politically correct. If only our town officials and school administrators would stop being fearful the threat of litigation made possible by a pathological need for across-the-board representation.

Any day now, I am expecting to hear of objections to holiday displays by vegetarians and animal protection groups. After all, Jesus, Mary and Joseph took up comfort space in the manger allocated to animals, some of which were quite possibly destined for human consumption after suffering a painful end via the knife. I am certain that there is no shortage of lawyers willing to make that case.

As far as I am concerned, my best wishes go to the Christian majority of my fellow citizens with heartfelt thanks for allowing me to be a part of our country, and for allowing anyone else of another faith to do the same – with a single caveat.

When your religious teachings advocate the destruction of my country, preach intolerance, domination, and death to non-believers, and harm to my country and fellow Americans, you have crossed a line that deserves and should receive no forgiveness. Deceive us by advocating tolerance but clandestinely supporting our downfall, and you have lost the right to our tolerance.

Support causes that result in death or injury to my countryman or my people, and you are my enemy for life.

My wish for a Merry Christmas to my Christian friends could not be more genuine, for with every Merry Christmas, I utter a silent “Thank you”. Thank you for my country, for your tolerance, for our constitution, for our battles fought and won together, for my freedoms, and for the life offered to my children. I am proud of the contribution my fellow Jews have made in the armed services, in the sciences, and in all aspects of American life, and I am proud to stand beside you as an American.

P.S. If your community leaders forbid the display of a nativity scene, house decorations, or the erection of a cross—you can come and put them up at my house and on my property anytime.

Me Casa—Su Casa

Sam Bierstock, MD, BSEE

December 27, 2013 | 56 Comments »

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50 Comments / 56 Comments

  9. honeybee Said:

    I called you a devil with angels and I didn’t get even get a giggle from you!!!!!!!

    Where I didn’t see that unless you mean the ‘chastity belts’? Look most of those angels are older than Methuselah & I prefer them a bit younger and less stoic. Now Charlies Angels is another story.

  14. alanmos Said:

    What extra-Biblical source did you find it in /or did you make it up yourself

    Gabriel, himself, whispered it in Yamit82’s ear!!!!!!Sugar.

  15. yamit82 Said:

    “‘And Israel saw the great hand of G-d’ – When the Almighty wished to drown the Egyptians, the Archangel of Egypt (Uza) said: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! You are called just and righteous… why do you wish to drown the Egyptians?’ At that moment Gabriel rose and took a brick and said: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! These who enslaved Your children such a terrible slavery as this, shall you have mercy on them?’ Immediately, the Almighty drowned them.”

    Yamit, this was an imaginative narrative. What extra-Biblical source did you find it in /or did you make it up yourself?

  16. alanmos Said:

    Yamit, I believe every verse written in God’s Word. I pray that the day will soon come that you will accept the truth of God’s written Word which will be for your benefit. You will make the angels rejoice when you do.

    Appreciate your concern for my benefit. “Surely, if you do well, there shall be reward, but if you do not do well, sin crouches at the door; and its urge is toward you, but you can rule over it.” 😉

    Me and the angles get along just fine thank you very much:

    “‘And Israel saw the great hand of G-d’ – When the Almighty wished to drown the Egyptians, the Archangel of Egypt (Uza) said: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! You are called just and righteous… why do you wish to drown the Egyptians?’ At that moment Gabriel rose and took a brick and said: ‘Sovereign of the Universe! These who enslaved Your children such a terrible slavery as this, shall you have mercy on them?’ Immediately, the Almighty drowned them.”

    We Jews have very powerful and protective angels,unlike some. 🙂

  18. yamit82 Said:

    alanmos Said:

    Then you agree with this verse? “I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the LORD, that doeth all these things Isa 45:7 Jewish Bible

    Yamit, I believe every verse written in God’s Word. I pray that the day will soon come that you will accept the truth of God’s written Word which will be for your benefit. You will make the angels rejoice when you do.

  19. alanmos Said:

    Christians believe in the God Who created all things.

    Ahem: Then you agree with this verse? “I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the LORD, that doeth all these things Isa 45:7 Jewish Bible

  23. alanmos Said:

    Christians believe in the God Who created all things.

    You believe in a deity who pee-peed and kahkah’d in his diapers for the first years of his life. That’s just for starters.

  24. yamit82 Said:

    yamit82 Said:
    We don’t even believe in the same god.

    Christians believe in the God Who created all things. Yamit, don’t you believe in the God Who created all things?

  29. @ ppksky:

    Jesus and the Great Spirit

    by Mitakuye Oyasin

    Christianity and Indigenous Peoples — Quotes from Act of Repentance

    From Bishop Desmond Tutu:

    When the missionaries came to Africa, they had the Bible, and we had the land. And they said to us, ‘Let us pray.’ We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible, and they had the land.

    From Seneca Chief Red Jacket, responding on behalf of the Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations in 1805 to missionary Cram, who had come to speak with them:

    We understand that your religion is written in a book. If was intended for us as well as you, why has not the Great Spirit given it to us, and not only to us, but why did he not give to our forefathers the knowledge of that book with the means of understanding it rightly? We only know what you tell us about it. How shall we know what to believe, being so often deceived by the white people? Brother, you say there is but one way to worship and serve the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it? Why not all agree, as you all can read from the same book?

    Brother, we do not wish to destroy your religion or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own. Brother, we are told that you have been preaching to the white people in this place. These people are our neighbors. We are acquainted with them. We will wait a little while and see what effect your preaching has upon them, and if we find it does them good, makes them honest and less disposed to cheat Indians, we will consider then again what you have said.

    From Chief Joseph Nez Perce:

    We do not want churches because they will teach us to quarrel about God as the Catholics and the Protestants do. We do not want to learn that. We may quarrel with men sometimes about things on this earth, but we never quarrel about God.

  32. yamit82 Said:

    For:

    Sam Bierstock, MD,who wrote “In Praise of Christians and Christmas”

    Primarily, I am deeply grateful that in celebrating Christian holidays, a tacit recognition exists that we are a country based upon Judeo-Christian beliefs and morals—and that, in and of itself, is enough for me. We are brothers and sisters who share the same Ten Commandments, the same belief in tolerance, and the mutual respect that comes from a common heritage in a shared Old Testament.

    There is no such thing a Judio-christian beliefs or values. There are christian beliefs and there are Jewish beliefs they are not the same; they are in fact the exact opposite in every important way. The concept is a christian fiction as a means of grafting themselves into Judaism in order to replace Judaism with christianity.

    We don’t share the ten commandments only those with a universal message. Read a copy of the ten and see how many are accepted and rejected by your christians.

    We don’t even believe in the same god.

    Judaism is not tolerant, anything but.

    America was and still is to a large extent a nation built on christian values and any freedoms and tolerance Jews enjoy in America was never freely given but fought for long and hard. In many states we Jews received freedom of religion and political rights piggy backed on other groups who also had to fight for religious freedoms like the Catholics.

    Seems you knowledge of history is just slightly more than your complete ignorance of Judaism.

  33. For:

    Sam Bierstock, MD,who wrote “In Praise of Christians and Christmas”

    I’m an American Jew—100% full blooded with all four grandparents 100% Jewish as far back as you want to go.

    That makes you a racist! But a Jew?

    Not only are you a racist by your definition of yourself as a Jew but your essay based from a Jewish POV makes you out to be an ignoramus as well.
    The Real Story of Christmas Audio

    The History of Christmas Text

    For millennia, pagans, Christians, and even Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.

    · Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to rescue mankind from the “curse of the Torah.” It is a 24-hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid.

    · Christmas is a lie. There is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really born on December 25th.

    · December 25 is a day on which Jews have been shamed, tortured, and murdered.

    · Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents, and Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced on earth.

    Many who are excitedly preparing for their Christmas celebrations would prefer not knowing about the holiday’s real significance. If they do know the history, they often object that their celebration has nothing to do with the holiday’s monstrous history and meaning. “We are just having fun.”

    Imagine that between 1933-45, the Nazi regime celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday – April 20 – as a holiday. Imagine that they named the day, “Hitlerday,” and observed the day with feasting, drunkenness, gift-giving, and various pagan practices. Imagine that on that day, Jews were historically subject to perverse tortures and abuse, and that this continued for centuries.

    Now, imagine that your great-great-great-grandchildren were about to celebrate Hitlerday. April 20th arrived. They had long forgotten about Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. They had never heard of gas chambers or death marches. They had purchased champagne and caviar, and were about to begin the party, when someone reminded them of the day’s real history and their ancestors’ agony. Imagine that they initially objected, “We aren’t celebrating the Holocaust; we’re just having a little Hitlerday party.” If you could travel forward in time and meet them; if you could say a few words to them, what would you advise them to do on Hitlerday?

  36. Quote from Dr. Marie Ralstin-Lewis (Wicazo Sa Review Spring 2005 Pgs 71-72):

    “Ironically, while middle- class white America applauded a newfound freedom over reproductive rights during the 1960s and 1970s, many policy makers and physicians targeted Native women for involuntary birth control and sterilization. Estimates indicate that, from the early to mid-1960s up to 1976, between 3,400 and 70,000 Native women— out of only 100,000 to 150,000 women of childbearing age— were coercively, forcibly, or unwittingly sterilized permanently by tubal ligation or hysterectomy. Native women seeking treatment in Indian Health Service (IHS) hospitals and with IHS- contracted physicians were allowed neither the basic right of informed consent prior to sterilization nor the right to refuse the operation. IHS also subjected mentally retarded Indian girls and women to a contraceptive known
    as DepoProvera before it received approval from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992.” (Note: to make things more legible I deleted a few endnote markers.)

    Another good article is by Jane Lawrence(2000): “The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women” American Indian Quarterly Vol 24, No.3. It says essentially the same thing. Both of these articles are hard to read. I’ve met women that I now think had been forcibly sterilized.

    NOTE: The sterilizations took place before my people gained the right to just EXIST in much of the southeast (in 1980-1981). The official number of Native Americans climbed as it became safe to admit to who we were, and also people like myself (whose family had passed as white three or four generations back) also discovered that they weren’t what they thought they were.

    Everything you wrote is true for those of us who passed as white as well. As I heard multiple times during the weekends of ceremonial gatherings, “last hired and first fired”. One of our medicine people has bullet scars from being shot. I’ve already mentioned the father of the wife of a medicine person… who was gut-shot (with a shotgun) and the shooter as of last account is still free and bragging about “shooting an injun”. We’ve been threatened with death (multiple times), had to carry weapons so the Klan wouldn’t disrupt ceremonies, and I think I know only a handful of people who have SES of lower middle class or higher. Most are poor, one elder only had two dresses, her moccasins, and one other pair of shoes. Extreme poverty is a real problem.

    The good news: we’re still here. Yeah, we’ve lost much and we’ve lost a lot of people, but to quote a line from Bill Miller’s album “The Red Road”: “The Eagle still remains!”

    Oh… and the Trail of Tears law came off the books in 1980 or 81. Finally.

  38. from a blog about Native Americans:

    My tribe (Muskogee or Creek) is one of those removed during the trail of tears. Most people don’t know that we’re called the five civilized tribes (Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole), and at one time the Cherokee had the most advanced schools in the country. The whites, while they recognized we had relatively advanced civilizations, still removed us from our homelands.

    Another point that is very little known (even among eastern Native Americans, who generally tried to pass as white and avoid being shipped to Oklahoma) is that the Indian Health Service forcibly sterilized many of our womenfolk in the 60s and 70s.

    Quote from Dr. Marie Ralstin-Lewis (Wicazo Sa Review Spring 2005 Pgs 71-72):

    “Ironically, while middle- class white America applauded a newfound freedom over reproductive rights during the 1960s and 1970s, many policy makers and physicians targeted Native women for involuntary birth control and sterilization. Estimates indicate that, from the early to mid-1960s up to 1976, between 3,400 and 70,000 Native women— out of only 100,000 to 150,000 women of childbearing age— were coercively, forcibly, or unwittingly sterilized permanently by tubal ligation or hysterectomy. Native women seeking treatment in Indian Health Service (IHS) hospitals and with IHS- contracted physicians were allowed neither the basic right of informed consent prior to sterilization nor the right to refuse the operation. IHS also subjected mentally retarded Indian girls and women to a contraceptive known
    as DepoProvera before it received approval from the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992.” (Note: to make things more legible I deleted a few endnote markers.)

    Another good article is by Jane Lawrence(2000): “The Indian Health Service and the Sterilization of Native American Women” American Indian Quarterly Vol 24, No.3. It says essentially the same thing. Both of these articles are hard to read. I’ve met women that I now think had been forcibly sterilized.

    NOTE: The sterilizations took place before my people gained the right to just EXIST in much of the southeast (in 1980-1981). The official number of Native Americans climbed as it became safe to admit to who we were, and also people like myself (whose family had passed as white three or four generations back) also discovered that they weren’t what they thought they were.

    Everything you wrote is true for those of us who passed as white as well. As I heard multiple times during the weekends of ceremonial gatherings, “last hired and first fired”. One of our medicine people has bullet scars from being shot. I’ve already mentioned the father of the wife of a medicine person… who was gut-shot (with a shotgun) and the shooter as of last account is still free and bragging about “shooting an injun”. We’ve been threatened with death (multiple times), had to carry weapons so the Klan wouldn’t disrupt ceremonies, and I think I know only a handful of people who have SES of lower middle class or higher. Most are poor, one elder only had two dresses, her moccasins, and one other pair of shoes. Extreme poverty is a real problem.

    The good news: we’re still here. Yeah, we’ve lost much and we’ve lost a lot of people, but to quote a line from Bill Miller’s album “The Red Road”: “The Eagle still remains!”

    Oh… and the Trail of Tears law came off the books in 1980 or 81. Finally.

  39. “The persecution of Native Americans in the Americas predates the foundation of the United States.”

    Are you serious?

  41. Not only are Native Americans not restricted to practice their religious beliefs, but they are occasionally given special license to activities like drug consumption because they are related to Native American spiritual practices.

    We in the United States are forbidden to place legal enforcement against any religion. This is what is meant by religious freedom. It also means that people are free to criticize and promote their own religious values, even in the face of those who have contradictory beliefs. It also means we cannot promote any religion.

    The persecution of Native Americans in the Americas predates the foundation of the United States. If we wish to criticize the United States in its treatment of Native Americans, it needs to be done in the context of the entire history of relations between Europeans and Native Americans throughout the Americas.

    Again,

    The author does not understand this country or its history. This country was founded on the principle of religious freedom. Nobody is “allowing” him to do anything. He is fully within his rights as a citizen to embrace and express any religion he wants. This country was founded by Christians, and they expressed their religious values in the laws and motivations behind our revolution against the Old Order in Europe, but they did not found a Christian nation. They founded a nation that made legal and cultural room for anyone of any religion to live, practice and advance their own religious beliefs.

    Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, but that’s what we got and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

  42. “They founded a nation that made legal and cultural room for anyone of any religion to live, practice and advance their own religious beliefs.”

    Except, of course, for the Comanche, the Apache, the Sioux, the Iroquois, etc. If you’re going to turn back the pages, then don’t forget to mention what happened to the original “native Americans” and “native Canadians.” Theirs is a history that has been conveniently obfuscated by generation after generation of historians and, even today, modern Western journalists.

  44. Laura Said:

    @ honeybee:
    Shy guy was born in America. That makes him a native American. You and I are also native Americans.

    “Native American” typically refers to the people here before the Americas were found and colonized by the Europeans, the indigenous people of North and South America. This is better than calling them “Indians” which perpetuates the error of Columbus and followers who thought they were somewhere around India when they first stumbled on to the Americas in a quest for a Western route to India.

  48. And THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, for allowing me to celebrate my own religion and heritage. For allowing my children to grow up in a tolerant society that respects those of us who are in a minority. For allowing us to display our menorahs. For your good wishes in advertisements and station sponsored comments on various television and radio messages at the time of our holidays, and for allowing my children and grandchildren to explain to their friends the wonderful warmth and meaning behind Chanukah, Passover, and our high holidays.

    This country was founded as a Christian country, but left the doors open for all of us to enjoy its freedoms. …

    ….

    The author does not understand this country or its history. This country was founded on the principle of religious freedom. Nobody is “allowing” him to do anything. He is fully within his rights as a citizen to embrace and express any religion he wants. This country was founded by Christians, and they expressed their religious values in the laws and motivations behind our revolution against the Old Order in Europe, but they did not found a Christian nation. They founded a nation that made legal and cultural room for anyone of any religion to live, practice and advance their own religious beliefs.

    Maybe this wasn’t a good idea, but that’s what we got and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

  50. I can pinpoint where I disagree with the author but as a native American now a longtime Israeli citizen, I still feel much in common with appreciating the freedom I grew up with there. I will always be thankful to America and will keep hoping that some day it returns to be a better place than the direction it has been hurtling towards these past decades.