December 9th 2007

The Lilith eZine Sunday Edition

Letter from the Editor

Tis the season for sleigh bells jingling and I just noticed something.

There is quite a number of holiday songs out there that are played on the radio that make no mention of Jesus (or Santa Claus sometimes), and these songs are one's that are increasingly played in public places such as shopping malls, etc. Why? Because everyone enjoys the festive music and appreciates it, and it doesn't offend people who are either another religion or are simply non religious.

After all if we played Christian music that is more specifically about Jesus then other religious groups would want their religious music played during their holidays. Fair is fair after all. But can you imagine the uproar if we started playing Jewish or Muslim religious music during the relative holidays? It would happen, but it would be muted. I imagine and hope some places already make an effort to play more of a multicultural mix.

A similar issue came up not that long ago here in Ontario when the conservative party leader John Tory suggested creating separate publicly-funded schools for different religious groups (and therefore segregating people). The issue was rather controversial, it was election time and John Tory lost the election in a horrible defeat due to that one issue.

Obviously people want multicultural schools and tolerance, so it then becomes a matter of how do we share that multicultural attitude in schools and other public places and make everyone feel welcome. For me I think it is time we (people in North America) learned more about other religious events and traditions in an effort to be more welcoming and accepting. Sharing music with other cultures is an easy and understandable way to do it.

If we don't then we are limiting ourselves to the politically correct festive songs, which we atheists may enjoy, but frankly are rather boring.

Sincerely,
Suzanne MacNevin
Editor of the Lilith eZine


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