Christmas And Easter Messages

James Crossley shows how political leaders present nuanced Christmas or Easter messages (plural):

sometimes, Christmas must be protected from a perceived (or imagined) cultural threat;

at other times, these festivals express values held by people of all faiths or none;

or, slightly less inclusively, they express values held by Christians and also by people of other faiths or none.

Slightly different wordings reflect shifting attitudes. Politicians speak with the presumed prejudices of their electorates in mind but how often do they challenge prejudices?

In "The Season of Forgiveness," Poul Anderson speculates that the celebration of Christmas on an extra-solar planet might overcome the natives' mistrust of Terrestrial merchants who, initially, had seemed to hold nothing sacred. Let us hope that the sharing of festivals does have such a positive outcome in the future history that, hopefully, lies ahead of us.