Not everyone is wrapped up in the crush of Christmas
Secular humanists will celebrate solstice, and some confess to putting up trees, giving gifts and even excitement. But not this one.
By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published December 14, 2003
ST. PETERSBURG - Don't wish Tom Flynn a merry Christmas, happy holidays or even a warm solstice.
He doesn't want to hear it. Flynn doesn't believe in God, isn't celebrating any holiday and believes that even acknowledging the solstice reeks of primitive superstition. But it's the pervasiveness of Christmas that really rankles him.
"I do not celebrate it," he declares.
"I've been yule-free since 1984."
Despite his aversion to all he labels supernatural and superstitious, Flynn, author of a book The Trouble With Christmas, will be in town next Saturday to speak at the solstice celebration of area secular humanists.
The year-old Center for Inquiry-Florida Inc., based in St. Petersburg, has invited Flynn to its holiday party. The center is one of four nationwide whose mission includes encouraging critical investigation of the paranormal from a responsible, scientific viewpoint.
The Florida group, which has about 400 members, has a mostly white membership that includes college students as well as older members, executive director Toni Van Pelt said. The newest college members come from St. Petersburg College and Pasco Hernando Community College, she said.
Flynn, who is editor of Free Inquiry, a magazine published by the Council for Secular Humanism that is for and about the nonreligious, says the title of his talk Saturday will be "Ho Ho Ho, NO NO NO: Confessions of an Anti-Claus."
Fellow nonbelievers who attend the solstice gathering shouldn't expect to escape Flynn's biting criticism. Celebrating the solstice, traditionally considered a pagan festival, is just as bad as celebrating Christmas, he said during a telephone interview from his office in Amherst, N.Y.
"As secular humanists, we don't believe in Christianity, and we also don't believe in the pagan religion, so in my opinion, solstice is not terribly appropriate for us either," he said.
Participating in the pageantry of the Christmas holidays, with or without religious symbols, is disingenuous, he said.
"If Jesus is not your savior, Christmas is not your holiday. ... Nonreligious people make themselves disappear when they participate in the holiday season," he said.
"Christmas is this big boisterous holiday that you don't get invited to. You get drafted. ... There continues to be a lot of pressure and a lot of social expectations to get involved, especially for couples with children," said Flynn, 48, who explained that he and the woman with whom he has lived for 17 years are "child free by choice."
But Flynn does not speak for all secular humanists when it comes to the Christmas holidays.
"The way that I feel about it, I'm really happy and excited about the season itself and what it represents, the spirit of giving, and that is what we celebrate at our house," said Ms. Van Pelt, 56.
"You'd see a tree and all these special ornaments that my child has given me and my mother has given me. You wouldn't see any religious ornaments, and there are no angels happening there."
Jan Loeb Eisler, a Madeira Beach grandmother who organized the group that evolved into the Center for Inquiry-Florida, also celebrates the holiday in some form.
"I have darling little trees made of rosemary. They are fragrant and because they are evergreen, they are symbolic of the ongoing quality of life. And I also have a wreath. ... My wreath is made out of olive branches," said Ms. Eisler, who will give gifts to her two daughters and six grandchildren.
Brought up Roman Catholic, Flynn said he began to "outgrow" his faith in high school. By the time he graduated from college, he no longer believed in God.
America's increasingly diverse society makes the emphasis on the holiday inappropriate, he said.
"Christmas is too Christian, too white and too Anglo to continue much longer as a universal festival," he said. "I'm predicting it moving from something that everybody does to what some people do."
He suggests that more non-Christians should become "firm but respectful nonparticipants" in the holiday season.
"That's probably the best way to encourage the majority of Americans to realize that America is more diverse than they think.
"What I have in mind is a good old-fashioned consciousness raising."
Flynn, who celebrated the holiday for a while after he became an atheist, said he realized during the first two years of not observing Christmas that the season is pervasive.
"I try to avoid going to the mall," he said.
"If someone comes up and says, "Happy holidays,' I just smile and say, "I'm not celebrating any holidays.' "
If you go
Solstice Celebration, 7 p.m. Saturday, Lee Roy Selmon's 4302 W Boy Scout Blvd., Tampa. Speaker: Tom Flynn, editor of Free Inquiry. Call the Center for Inquiry-Florida Inc., (727) 209-2902.
Center for Inquiry-Florida Inc.
- Speaker Series: 12:30 p.m. third Saturday of the month, Pinellas Park Library, 7770 52nd St.
- Philosophy reading group: 10 a.m. first Saturday of the month, East Clearwater Library, 2251 Drew St.
- Secular Organizations for Sobriety meetings: 6 p.m. Mondays, Caldeco building, 1721 Howard Ave. N, Suite 201, Tampa.
- Tampa Bay Skeptics meeting: quarterly, Tampa Hillsborough County Public Library, Jan Platt Regional Branch, 3910 S Manhattan Ave.
