Pia K. Hansen: Be thankful for our religious freedoms

The first winter I lived in this country, I was in Maryland, right outside of Washington, D.C. It was December of ‘91 – it snowed – and I went to see the lighting of the national Christmas tree on the White House lawn.

Not for a split second did it occur to me that the tree could be called anything other than a Christmas tree, but hey, I’d only lived here for a few short months so I hadn’t yet discovered the controversy surrounding anything Christmas-related.

At the time I was still adjusting from my native Danish to English, and every time someone said “Happy holidays” I thought “Who’s going on a holiday?” as in vacation, the British use of the word.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the culture that created Santa now found him controversial. I still don’t understand how a totally fictional character can end up competing with Jesus about anything.

Growing up in Denmark, a Lutheran state church first christened me and later confirmed me.

No, Denmark is not a religious police state so you are free to leave the church and many people do.

I wouldn’t say I grew up without awareness of diversity: There’s a tight-knit Jewish population in Copenhagen as well as several strong Catholic congregations. An influx of Muslims began in the ‘70s, and Jehovah’s Witnesses and groups of Hindus and Buddhists are settled across the country.

Religion – not just Christianity – as a subject was taught in elementary and high school. Yes it’s possible to incorporate religious texts of various origins in an ordinary government-run school system without indoctrinating people. That may be something to consider in this country instead of sterilizing our schools of any trace of spirituality.

Moving over here I found religious freedom, but I sure did not find a lot of tolerance and inclusiveness.

Religious and political fanaticism is so rampant today it’s threatening to kill the last little bit of civic dialogue we have left.

It doesn’t matter what you are fanatical about – politics, religion, organic farming, French pastries, purebred cats – the moment you claim to know the absolute truth about something, you’ve lost the ability to listen to anyone else, especially the people who don’t agree with you.

Hand-in-hand with fanaticism goes intolerance as we’ve seen this past week: Take down the SeaTac trees or get sued, don’t put up a menorah, bring back the trees, don’t get sued, light a menorah somewhere else, add a Nativity scene or get sued, no wait, don’t add a Nativity scene.

With all due respect, I would think we have more important issues to spend our collective energy on than arguing and suing over whose plastic holiday decoration goes up where.

To the Christians who feel persecuted, let me remind you that the president is pitching on your team, so I don’t think you are going to get run off the continent anytime soon.

No matter if your personal religious symbol is a Christmas tree, a menorah, a nativity scene, a Festivus pole, a holiday tree, a cross or Thor’s hammer, if you are strong in your faith other religious symbols shouldn’t offend you.

If, in order to feel good about your personal belief system, you must be surrounded by its symbols at all times, then you need to go back to your Sunday school. Or your sweat lodge. Or your synagogue.

The separation of church and state gives you exactly that option – to worship in whichever way works for you, and that is something to be very thankful for no matter what religion you belong to.