Santa and Eve
December 31, 2002 | No Comments
Catholic convert Eve Tushnet opposes telling children the Santa Claus myth (here and here) because “it unnecessarily complicates Christmas, and blurs the line between fun storytelling and, well, lying,” because it “makes Christmas about Santa Claus rather than [Christ],” and because “superstition is anti-Christian and magic-y.” This might be a respectable (albeit misguided) position to take if you’ve ever attempted to defend your Christianity on rational (albeit flawed) grounds. But Tushnet believes primarily upon faith, characteristically defending her Christianity with this sort of vague, sloppy romanticism:
Christianity best describes the world as I have experienced it. It best describes wrongdoing, beauty, and the heroism of Harry Wu. It explains the longing that suffuses a wanting world. It provides a basis for a non-selfish and non-Heloise-like “love is beyond good and evil” ethics. It might do all this and still be false, I know; that is where faith comes in, perhaps.
How would substituting “Santa Claus” for “Christianity” in this paragraph change its meaning in the slightest?