Unfortunately the website for the George Mason University student newspaper has once again ceased to update. The current articles posted on it come from last semester and from what has been heard those in charge of the website have gone elsewhere to work on other online projects. Given the present lack of online availability for articles I have written recently, it is my intention to present a couple of them via this venue. A recent article, the first to be published during the present semester, shall be put in full below, along with a proper citation. Minor note: the original title was "A Culture of Isolation"; the present title was their decision.

Culture of Isolation, From Kindergarten to College

By Michael Gryboski

As classes were ending last semester, the Diversity Committee of our Student Government held an on-campus event to celebrate the many holidays that happen to fall during the month of December. This event, titled Holiday Fest, was not as large in scale as originally anticipated. The projected number of ten organizations ending up being seven. Though a respectable number of people did attend, there was something missing. The most telling absence was not throngs of students or religious organizations in general but rather any representation of the chief reason we get time off from academic pursuits in December: Christmas. Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism were represented at this event, but no tables were occupied by Christian organizations explaining the significance of the one holiday that’s federally acknowledged. Although other reasons could be offered, the ultimate cause for the absence could be the culture of isolation found in many of the Christian sects of America.

Since 1870, Christmas has had a legal significance in America, being a time in which the government halts its activities and observes this sectarian event. The law code of the United States, § 6103, puts Christmas on a par with such universally practiced observances as the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving. This status has not protected the Christian holy day from assault, as organizations like the America Civil Liberties Union target references to the 25 of December as a violation of church and state. This is indeed an onslaught often aimed at Christmas, for the ACLU seldom takes up suits against non-Christian religious displays on government property. A good example of this have been their actions in the New York City Public Schools, where the ACLU sued to get manger scenes off government property all the while menorahs were completely untouched.

Yet Holiday Fest was different, as seen by the efforts of the Diversity Committee to get Christian organizations to take part. There was no effort to exclude Christianity from the tables lined up along the walls of the Student Union Building II ballroom and the missing symbols of Christmastime were unintentional. Excluding potential mishaps in communication a very feasible explanation for no Christmas at Holiday Fest was the culture of isolation. Many Christian sects have created their own societies, free from the civic involvement and dialogue found necessary by others with the world around them.

An example of this would be that of the empire created by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell. Considered the poster child for American Fundamentalist Protestantism, in Lynchburg Falwell was able to create a self-sufficient community. He not only had Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University, but also a widely listened to radio program, a foundation to aid recovering alcoholics, a nursing home for unwed mothers, as well as a powerful political front during the 1970s and 1980s called the Moral Majority. Rather than having to deal with the militancy of the ACLU and their allies, conservative Protestants (and Catholics as well) could send their children to Liberty, or move to Lynchburg itself, dubbed by some to be “the land of Jerry Falwell.” Rev. Pat Robertson is another example, with a strong media outlet, institutes of higher learning like Regent University, as well as the multimillion dollar charity Operation Blessing. Another world has been created instead of having to deal with a potentially hostile environment.

The evangelical subculture in general keeps to itself, having its own music, movies, books, websites, and radio stations. Occasionally products of this society will enter the mainstream, such as the monumental success of the Left Behind book series and the Billy Graham crusades televised by national channels who otherwise shy away from religious material. The conservative Christian communities of America have little reason to believe that public institutes like upper education would welcome them. Over the last couple decades, academia has apparently trampled on Christian elements within itself, removing all mentions to Creationism, Bible class electives, the word “Christmas” from the school calendars, and coming disturbingly close to taking “Under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance.

And then came Holiday Fest, a seasonal event meant to celebrate the multicultural observances during this time. The Diversity Committee of student government attempted to have Christmas represented along with the holidays that do not have federal acknowledgment. Unlike past public education affairs across the country, this one reached out to those often rejected. But when the Diversity Committee tried to, they were dealing with a population used to hostility from upper institutes. Those they invited already had all their own venues of expression and education, therefore possibly not seeing the open arms of student government for the event held on the last week of classes. There could have been other reasons for no Christmas at the Holiday Fest, such as the event itself not being as large as people wanted or complications in table reservation. But the culture of isolation is a valid possibility, and if it is the reason it is a pity.

Gryboski, Michael "Culture of Isolation, From Kindergarten to College", Broadside, Monday, January 28th, AD 2008, Vol 82(2), p.5.