Christian Affiliate Marketers Blog

Ben Stein’s Confession

Dec 17, 2007 Faith in Culture

My dad forwarded this over to me. It’s the transcript of a Ben Stein essay recited on the CBS SundayMorning commentary. It has nothing whatsoever to do with Affiliate Marketing, but has some awesome stuff to say about the holidays, Christmas, God and America. Check it out:

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors
was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when
people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees.
I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against.
That’s what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to
me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me
in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all
brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year.. It
doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at
a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu If people want a
creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred
yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a
Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for
being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired
of getting pushed around, period.. I have no idea where the
concept came from; that America is an explicitly atheist country. I
can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved
down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the
idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we
aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a
sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who
are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the
America we knew went to. (more…)