The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on
CBS Sunday Morning 0n December 18, 2005.
a few confessions from my beating heart:
I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important? I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is, either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise’s wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. Is this what it means to be no longer young. It’s not so bad.
Next 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.
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5 comments on “Ben Stein’s Remarks On Christmas From CBS Sunday Morning”
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Mr. Stein gave a great comment on the family fighting among them selves on Sunday Morning . I don’t know the date . Sorry this is my first comment to anyone ever so please forgive me if I’m doing it wrong . I think it was sometime early in the year.
I am grateful for any help I may receive . Thank You.
Hi David,
I sure like Big Ben. Don’t know if I heard that comment you mentioned. If you run across it, feel free to post it here.
Thanks for stopping by.
MR
Ben Stein: I have always wanted to answer Oprah’s Show for sooo many things. I never did e-mail or send a note, until now. WOW…You put the whole situation in Our Beautiful United States of America and All of those Men and Women representing Our GREAT Country we Live in to Have ALL our Freedoms to believe and choose the way we want to Worship OUR AWESOME GOD…..Thank You and May the Promise of Numbers 6: 24-26 be to you this day a blessing for You and your Family, With ALL of GOD’s perfect will for Our Lives…..AMEN !!!!
If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
Mr. Stein, as a Christian, I think I speak for many Christians when I say: right on. I thank God for the Jewish nation! I read the stories of Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Daniel, and Elijah, just to name a few, and I rejoice in their God and my God and what He has done. To us Christians, the Menorah and the creche, the Passover and the Cross are all part of the same story!
May the Lord of hosts bless you and keep you. I love your work.