A very important question has been posed this week by one of the foremost religious thinkers of our time: What do infidel atheists celebrate during the holiday season?
Manitoba’s leader of the Opposition, Progressive Conservative Brian Pallister, has been taking some heat for a recent video in which he wishes his constituents a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah and to “all the infidel atheists out there, I want to wish you the very best also.” He continues: “I don’t know what you celebrate during the holiday season.”
The rest of his statement (which seems to be an off-the-cuff thing, shakily recorded in lo-def) makes it clear that this was intended to be a good-faith gesture, a statement made to convey that he understands that not everyone who celebrates Christmas is a Christian. He wants us to know that he understands and respects that. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to know that “infidel” is not the best word to convey these respects, since the word isn’t particularly, you know, respectful.
As a political figure, Pallister should know that you just don’t say stuff like that, and since he’s a political figure, I get to call him out on it. Because seriously, who says stuff like that?
I’m perplexed as to why he didn’t just stick with “atheist.” It’s a good, serviceable word, if a tad clinical. (Petition to change our label to the Comfortably Confused? Those Who Have Made Peace With the Absurdity of the Human Condition?) An atheist is a person who does not believe in any gods or deities, clean and simple, and it suits Pallister’s purpose perfectly, so I’m not sure what he thought he was doing with “infidel.”
Infidel refers to a person outside the faith, usually Christianity or Islam, depending on context. It has been bopping around since the 15th century, and it has gathered some significantly negative connotations along the way, especially when “outside the faith” was code for “extremely dangerous.”
Infidel isn’t a word that particularly upsets or offends me, but as a white person, I don’t get to tell people whether or not they are allowed to be offended by a word that has, for most of its life, been used as a dehumanizing tool, often in conjunction with racist dialogue. So, you know, use with caution and all that. And probably don’t use it if you’re a politician in a country whose citizens include both Christians and non-Christians.
Besides, what’s wrong with just “atheist?” It’s what we call ourselves. Nobody self-identifies as an infidel, because that’s a word that’s used by someone in a group to describe someone outside that group.
Since Christmas has morphed from a Christian celebration using co-opted pagan rituals into a capitalist consumer holiday, it might be appropriate to talk about Christmas as a different entity than CHRISTMAS! They’re two circles on a Venn diagram. They might overlap perfectly in some people’s lives, but they probably don’t, and for many of us they don’t overlap at all. And that’s OK. All ways are OK.
I hadn’t planned on diving into the Christmas identity angst so early this year, but I couldn’t pass up the “infidel” thing, and in any case, I seem to go in cycles: Despite my usual aggressive indifference to the holidays, the Christmas spirit hits me really hard every three or four years, and 2013 is one of those years.
For me, the holidays mean decorating the house, watching Lord of the Rings, drinking too much and arguing fiercely about identity politics, but I understand that your holiday ritual might look different from mine. To each their own. As Pallister says: “I myself celebrate the birth of Christ, but it’s your choice, and I respect your choice. If you wish to celebrate nothing and just get together with friends, that’s good, too.”
Cool. Now let’s make this sentiment of mutual respect a reality, which means not casually throwing around labels like “infidel.”
I’m so excited it’s December: Let the identity politics begin. Happy Holidays, everybody!
