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Minneapolis, MN (November 25, 2009) - As a regularly featured blogger on the Washington Post/Newsweek's "On Faith" blog, Dr. Aseem Shukla, member of HAF's Board of Directors, has the opportunity to provide a Hindu viewpoint on various issues.  Below is Dr. Shukla's latest blog.  Please post your comments directly on the "On Faith" site by clicking here.

 

 

Believe in God, many Gods, a merciful God, a wrathful God, impersonal God, personal God, Goddess, or no God at all. The pluralism of of America guarantees you your space. Intensely personal or wear-it-on-your-sleeve, we express our faith or no faith with abandon and celebrate our choice in our homes and sometimes in public.

 

It is human nature to flock together and seek out those of like mind and shared philosophy. It seems that many are given to a certain hubris: I have found my faith; it is the ultimate; all should follow my way; utopia will be achieved. Some justify this need to convert, evangelize or proselytize in the language of a divine compulsion--a mandate to grow their community. 

 

In some ways, it is this very exigency to gain converts that I see in the American Humanist Association's (AHA) latest campaign. The zeal of the convert--"we have found the real truth, that there is no Truth, and we now want everyone to see the light that we have seen"-- is evident as the humanists begin an advertising campaign to spread their message. Billboards to drive the curious to their website and spread a message of good work and charity in a world bereft of a God. 

 

Now I grant the AHA full rights to create awareness, improve an understanding of their little known belief system, fight intolerance and misunderstanding and even draw the like-minded into their ranks. Their commitment to secularism and America's separation of church and state will find ready partners among millions. 

 

But I simply take issue with intruding upon the space of Christmas to spread this unique iteration of good cheer. There are 365 days in the year and several weeks not strongly affiliated with any other faith. I understand that when Walmart and Macy's appropriate Christmas for retail dividends, it is hard to argue that humanists should not appropriate symbols or sentiments associated with Christmas to sell a very different faith/non-faith product. A Santa hat is not a Christian symbol, but it is strongly identified with the cheer and merriment of Christmas. And having a Santa hat clad woman extol the virtues of Godless goodness provokes as much as it educates. 

 

The devout should also have their time, their due and their moment. I could argue that it is an inequity that everyone gets a week off for Christmas but not an hour of vacation is paid for Diwali, and certainly we do not celebrate Buddha Jayanti--the date of Buddha's birth and nirvana. But then two weeks of vacation for Diwali is standard fare in mostly Hindu India, and so we accept these quiet privileges for the majority. Jews have Hanukkah during the holiday season to divert attention--sans the Santa caps, and the rest of us can find days to celebrate in late December as we wish if we are humanists or hedonists. But why take the expedient and disrespectful road and borrow Christmas themes and Christmas cheer to sell a non-Christian message. 

 

I am sure that the humanist ad campaign is a response, in many ways, to the vitriolic denigration they face from too many Christians and others that view those reposing faith in a non-Abrahamic God, or in secular humanism as amoral, damned and unworthy. As a Hindu American, I understand the AHA's need to add its own voice to the national dialogue forcefully and unapologetically. To fail is to reconcile to misinterpretations and misrepresentations of a belief system that happens to be unique.

 

Building awareness is important for little-known humanists, but doing it on the back of a holiday so important to millions of their neighbors seems a little less Santa and a little more Scrooge.

 

Views expressed here are the personal views of Dr. Aseem Shukla, and do not necessarily represent those of the University of Minnesota or Hindu American Foundation.