By Sierra Barrios, Focus Editor
The holiday season is supposed to be a time of joy and celebration. In the U.S., Christian Christmas often takes precedence over other cultural and religious holidays that deserve the same treatment. It’s wrong for the government to favor Christian holidays over other religious holidays on both legal and religious grounds.”
The government recognizes Christmas as a legal holiday and grants people time off from work to celebrate since 65% of Americans identify as Christian. This privilege isn’t extended to other major religion holidays, which goes against Christian principles regarding law and tolerance.
Romans 3:31 states, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.” Disobedience of the law can’t be justified with religious principles unless the law calls them to betray their relationship with God. Obeying the law in the U.S. requires giving equal recognition to other religious holidays. But by recognizing one religion, they’re showing favor for one religion over others which violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
Matthew 22:39-40 informs that aside from loving God, the most sacred duty of a Christian is, “. . . . Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” By “law,” the verse is referring to God’s laws. Loving others includes showing respect, which applies to all people regardless of their religious practices. Inclusivity is one way the government can show basic respect to all people.
The government doesn’t make it clear whether it recognizes Christmas as a religious holiday or a cultural holiday. Nevertheless, the holiday’s religious roots distinguish it from other cultural holidays like Thanksgiving. Because the U.S. doesn’t have a national religion, recognizing Christmas as a whole means it’s only fair to recognize other religious holidays. Other religious holidays like Eid, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah go unrecognized even though there are 3.4 million Islamic and 4.2 million Jewish people living in the United States.
The U.S. recognizes Christmas and Easter, so the government should acknowledge at least two other holidays from other major religions. God calls his children to love non christians just as much as their Christian brethren. To be a child of God means to love all his creations, which includes loving all cultures despite personal prejudices.