Our Gift to the Christians

Multi-faith Christmas Sweater

There are some people who want to blame the decline of a genuinely Christian holiday season on multi-culturalism. I've never been able to figure that one out. Canadians with a Christian background are still the vast majority in this country with a little over two-thirds of us claiming this heritage. The second largest religious group in the country is Muslim at about three percent, so hardly a threat. Nearly a quarter of Canadians claim no religious affiliation, so combine this group with the nominal Christians and we get to the real reason that this season is Commercial rather than Christian.

In fact, many who follow other faith traditions are quite supportive of Christians celebrating the birth of Christ, often in very practical ways. There was a nice Global News piece over the weekend about the doctors in Toronto who will be working over Christmas because they don't observe Christmas. Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist and Hindu physicians will be taking care  of patients during a time when those with a Christian background want the time off. Here is a portion of the Global article:

“The majority of doctors working on Christmas are not Christians,” says Dr. Joel Lexchin, a Jewish emergency room physician in downtown Toronto who will be working on the holiday...

Dr. Tanu Sharma, a physician in Cambridge, Ont., says seeing patients on the holiday has become “somewhat of a tradition” over the years. Many of her colleagues celebrate Christmas, but Sharma doesn’t. She says the situation motivates her to offer to work on the holiday so co-workers can spend time with their families. “I was raised in a Hindu household, my family has never formally celebrated Christmas, so I always volunteered to work on Christmas Day,” she says. “The spirit of Christmas and the concept of family unity still holds strong for me. This is one of the reasons I work on Christmas … It enables my colleagues, all of whom work so hard and sacrifice other holidays, evenings, and weekends away from their children, to be with their families.”

Many who volunteer to work on Christmas say colleagues return the favour when other religious holidays come around. Dr. Firas Al-Rawi, a Muslim emergency room physician says that “Working on Christmas is like our gift to the Christians.”

I find this quite touching, a lovely example of the spirit of generosity which we hope our Christian faith would bring to flower in our lives and our communities. Perhaps if we hear someone carping about how other religions are shaping our celebration of Christmas we can share this story.

Comments?