Topic category:  Other/General

On a United States Postal Service brochure reminding customers to purchase holiday postage stamps there is a Hanukkah stamp with a menorah, a Kwanzaa stamp with its assorted candles, and what passes as a Christmas stamp with a gingerbread house.

An online photo of the advertisement was captioned that one of these things is not like the other.

The unsuspecting might at first be puzzled.

After all, each of these celebrations seems to have one of its symbols philatelically represented.

Hanukkah and Kwanzaa each are depicted with decorations conveying their spiritual message and meaning.

Christmas, on the other hand, is not extended the same degree of respect.

The menorah and the candles represent the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days rather than one.

The candles surrounding a Black person on the Kwanzaa stamp represent the radical communalism propagated during that particular festival.

And while one cannot help but feel a sense of joy at seeing a decoration like a gingerbread house and that pastry's festive cuteness, the desert does not convey the true meaning of the holiday in the same sense as the other two stamps.

This gingerbread house would be more akin to using a car bomb as a depiction for Ramadan.

To be consistent with the essence of the holidays conveyed on the other two stamps, a rendition of the so-called Christmas star should be depicted in keeping with the theme of light.

Interestingly, should the curious proceed onward to the website where the stamps can be purchased, one does find just such a stamp of the Magi following the yonder Star.

So if one with such a scene is available, why is it not good enough for the mailing?

Multiculturalists and pluralists will contend that any artistic renderings of Jesus as the Son of God are inherently exclusivistic.

But of the three holidays, Christmas is technically the only inclusive one of the entire bunch.

For example, Hanukkah celebrates the triumph of the Jewish people admittedly with the assistance of God over Antiochous Epiphanies with the Greeks representing the primary Gentile power of that day.

Hence, even if not expanionistically hostile, an underlying principle of Hanukkah is that Jews must defend their interests against the outside world.

And as an ethnographic religion for the most part, these walls must always remain up to an extent in suspicion of those from outside the group. Kwanzaa is even more ethnocentrically focused than Kwanzaa.

For whereas Hanukkah is a celebration of what God is believed to have done on behalf those who were of His covenant people at that particular point in world history, Kwanzaa deliberately downplays both reliance upon God and the worth of the individual in the favor of a COMMUNITY based on racial superiority through emphasis upon values such as unity, collective work, and cooperative economics.

Interestingly, the day of faith commemorated by Kwanzaa is not so much faith in a divine power that exists transcendent to man and society but rather in the people as embodied by their mere human leaders.

Ultimately, all that Kwanzaa cares about is Blackness for the sake of Blackness.

With these observations in mind, if there were certain elements within society that flew into vehement outrage at the sight of the paraphernalia of these particular celebrations to such an extent that they demanded that these decorations be kept out of site behind a metaphysical locked counter or in a brown paper bag, does that mean that the government or Congressionally authorized semi-public corporations should comply with such demands?

Galatians 5:15 does indeed teach that the cross is an offense to those preferring to stay mired under the muck of their own sin.

However, in proclaiming the birth of Christ, the angel proclaimed, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.”

That free gift of salvation is available to any irrespective of background, ethnicity, or status willing to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.

By Frederick Meekins

Frederick Meekins
Issachar Bible Church & Apologetics Research Institute

Biography - Frederick Meekins

Frederick Meekins is an independent theologian and social critic. Frederick holds a BS in Political Science/History, a MA in Apologetics/Christian Philosophy from Trinity Theological Seminary, and a PhD. in Christian Apologetics from Newburgh Theological Seminary.