So, Iâve seen a lot of fanfics about Tina and Queenie Goldstein celebrating Christmas. Â Iâve also heard that people are using Christian theology in their tributes to Carrie Fisher. Â When called out, people do a few things; claim that they just wanted to write a nice fic or tribute and didnât mean to erase the personâs Jewishness, state that the character or person wasnât really Jewish because they werenât that religious, or state that religion shouldnât be considered important.
So letâs talk about this. Â Whatâs going on here is Christianormativity. Â This refers to the fact that those of us in the US live in a society based on Christianity. Â This doesnât mean that everyone believes in Jesus; it means that mores and customs are based in Christianity, and that peopleâs idea of what âreligionâ is is based in Christianity. Â It manifests in people having Jewish characters celebrate Christmas because to them, Christmas isnât a Christian holiday, itâs just a holiday. Â Everyone celebrates it, right? Â And using Christian theology to publicly mourn isnât Christian mourning, itâs just mourning, right?
To understand why Jews see it differently, we need to understand the difference between Christianity and Judaism.
According to Christianity, a person is Christian if they accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior. Â As far as I understand it, if someone ceases to believe this, then they are no longer Christian, no matter how they were raised or what holidays they celebrate. Â They now are just a regular, non-religious person. Â Since you can stop being Christian and still celebrate Christmas, that makes Christmas not a Christian holiday, right? Â
If we define religion based on Christianity, the definition of a religion is âa set of metaphysical beliefs about the worldâ and an adherent of a religion is âsomeone who believes those beliefs.â  Christians look at the world and see many other religions:  Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism⌠and say âokay, I understand this, those are different sets of beliefs that people have.â
But the thing is, that definition of religion is one of the beliefs of Christianity. Â People from different religions donât define their religion that way.
Judaism/Jewishness is an ethnoreligion. Â Being Jewish involves heritage more than anything, and culture second to that. Â Religion is inextricably tied in, as Iâll discuss, notably in that conversion to Judaism is a religious process that confers virtual Jewish heritage on the convert. Â Judaism is a religion in the sense that it is a set of beliefs and practices, but Jewishness is about heritage and culture.
Confusing? Â Okay, letâs break it down a bit more. Â Jews, before anything else, were a tribe. Â We were a tribe with a religion, and our tribal narrative is inextricably tied to that religion. Â Anyone part of that tribe is Jewish. Â And not everyone in that tribe chooses to practice religion. Â Judaism â the religion â believes that everyone in the tribe should practice the religion, but even if someone doesnât, theyâre still Jewish. Â Itâs kind of like how your mom wants you to do your work, get exercise, and go to sleep early, but youâre still her kid even if you donât do those things.
But itâs still not even that simple. Â For one thing, the definitions of terms Iâve given arenât clear-cut or universally accepted: Â A practitioner of Judaism could accurately describe themself as Jewish. Â Another is that whether someone is a practitioner of Judaism isnât clear-cut either. Â The first thing to know is that, as the word âpractitionerâ should imply, whether you are one depends on what you do rather than what you believe. Â Which isnât to say that Judaism doesnât have a belief system, but again, you can still practice Judaism without that. Â Itâs sort of like how you can do your homework even if you donât accept the views your professor is teaching. Â And even with that, there is a pretty wide range of theological belief that can fit into the Jewish system if youâre clever (I once managed to pray the evening prayers, which talk pretty explicitly about an omniscient, personified God, while interpreting them to be about an abstract Force-like God, convincingly enough that I had a legit spiritual experience.)
But itâs⌠still more complicated!  Because Jewish practice isnât a simple binary, 0 or 1 (unless youâre a Jewish robot, but I think thatâs beyond the scope of this post).  You can participate in some practices, but not others.  You can participate constantly throughout the day, or once a week, or once a year.  You can do something by yourself in your house or publicly at a synagogue.  Also, Jewish culture is inextricably tied to religion.  So you can choose to participate only in the culture, but if you celebrate the holidays, youâll be engaging in practices that, according to Judaism the religion, have religious meaning â even if the religious part is not what itâs about for you.
So, what does all this mean about Christianity and Christmas? Â It means that according to Judaism, there is no such thing as a non-religious holiday, no matter how many non-religious people celebrate it. Â Beyond that, Christianormativity means that Christians see their own holidays as universal, and everyone elseâs holidays as Other. Â But to someone who is Jewish, itâs the opposite! Â Our own holidays are familiar to us. Â Christmas comes from Christian culture, and to many of us it is fundamentally foreign and Other. Â We have a taboo against celebrating it, because of what it represents â assimilation into the majority culture and giving up our own. Â That perception is changing now, but it is still very present for many of us.
And it means that from our perspective, non-religious people with Christian heritage who celebrate Christian holidays are Christian.  We donât mean theyâre religious, we mean theyâre secular Christians.  Wait, what?  But that makes no sense!  âSecular Christianâ is an oxymoron!  Well, yes, intellectually I know that.  Which is why Iâve avoided the term and instead referred to âpeople with Christian heritage who celebrate Christian holidays.â  Thereâs no term for these people because to most Americans, they donât need a name, because theyâre Just Regular People.  And in that vain, secular Jews are Just Regular People too, right?  Well⌠many do see themselves that way, after decades of living in a Christianormative culture.  But many donât.  Many see themselves as Jewish.
Basically, because of the info I mentioned before, a person can be a Jewish atheist or a Jewish agnostic. Â And because of the different ways Christianity defines itself and Judaism defines itself, saying âshe wasnât Jewish, she was agnosticâ is just as nonsensical â and just as culturally ignorant â as saying âsecular Christian.â
So. Â Tina and Queenie Goldstein do not have a Christmas tree and they do not host Christmas dinner.
And Carrie Fisher, may her memory be for a blessing, was an amazing agnostic Jewish mentally ill activist feminist strong beatiful Space Mom who drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.
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