Christmas is a religious expression, which is a part of culture, and so 
museums should interpret it as a cultural expression.

The (northern hemisphere) winter solstice is also a cultural expression 
and encompasses and is somewhat more broadly observed than the 
'Christmas' subset.

The Christian belief system is one way of viewing the world. Most 
people don't subscribe to it, but that is not the issue, is it?

The adaptation of the tree and the winter solstice period have nothing 
to do with the legend of Jesus, they have to do with the cultural 
diffusion of organized 'Christianity'.

Religion becomes political only under certain historical conditions. 
c.f. the Inquisition, the Bush administration, the Taliban government, 
etc.

Post-modernists may disagree, but I fail to see a problem with being 
correct. (and neither do post-modernists when its time to get paid...)

-L.D.


On Nov 30, 2005, at 12:22 PM, Dr. Christian Müller-Straten wrote:

> just imagine a museum in Istambul, in Bagdad, in Delhi or in Beijing:
> Can you expect this political correctness all over the world? I think 
> we
> have a right to be incorrect.
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