The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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December 26, 2009

Your View: Keillor voices religious intolerance

Hal Walberg, Mankato

The values of this holiday season —- families of all sorts, love, peace, hope, joy — are shared ones that we ought celebrate. But Garrison Keillor, in a recent column, uses Christmas to justify a mean-spirited attack on those who celebrate in a way different from his.

He directs his virulent religious bigotry at two groups : Unitarian “elitists” are “spiritual pirates” because their values are more inclusive than his. Then there are “those Jewish guys who trash up the malls every year” with songs that are not Christian enough for him. Concludes Keillor, “we Christians have stood for it long enough.”

Inane songs are not his target, or he would attack “Little Drummer Boy” as much as “Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” Christmas baubles appear around Halloween, but commercialization doesn’t faze him.

Keillor’s rage at the “trashing” of Christmas is focused solely on those who go to a different church. As he charmingly puts it, “if you’re not in the club buzz off.”

Apparently, with the loss of the Reverends Falwell and Robertson, Keillor feels the need to take up the banner of religious intolerance.

Our Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in last Sunday’s service sang “This Little Light of Mine,” “Silent Night.” “O, Come Emmanuel” and “Joy to the World.”

But we must confess to subverting his version of Christmas by ending with a beautiful song about the Maccabees — (who were not Christians) written by one of those ”Jewish guys” who churn out “drek.”

I suggest Keillor meditate on its lyrics, which call on us to “light a candle to bring us together with peace as the song in our heart.”

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