Misinformation posted officially at work - how to handle?

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losh14

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In my company’s break room, there’s a bulletin board used by various organizations. The Multicultural committee wanted to put up information about holidays at this time of year - including Chanukah, Kwanzaa and Christmas. The below was written about Christmas:

"Christmas supposedly marks the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25. But there is no mention of December 25 in the Bible and most historians actually believe he was born in the spring. December 25 was probably chosen because it coincided with the ancient pagan festival Saturnalia, which celebrated the agricultural god Saturn with partying, gambling, and gift-giving…

The well-known reason we give presents at Christmas is to symbolize the gifts given to baby Jesus by the three wise men. But it may also stem from the Saturnalia tradition that required revelers to offer up rituals to the gods."

I read this half an hour ago and I’ve been chewing over what to say. I finally just asked for a meeting with the head of the committee and said simply “I feel like I’ve been misrepresented and I wanted to clarify that misrepresentation.” There’s no reason to throw shade like that on a religion that has a number of adherents using that break room. I’d like to tell her that it would have been sufficient to note “Christians observe the birth of Jesus Christ on December 25th in many parts of the world, although some observe it on January 7th”.

I’m honestly offended by the link back to Saturnalia. Historians can pundit all they want, it has nothing to do with modern celebrations of Christmas, secular or religious. The tone of the piece feels dismissive, and there was no doubt cast upon the origins of Kwanzaa or that the Maccabees held out for 8 nights in the temple.

What would you say to the person who organized this board, and keep in mind they’re a director-level answering to a vice president.
 
Perhaps this qualifies for religious persecution in the workplace, or something like that? I’m not an expert on law, but if it really bothers you, maybe make a claim?
 
You can just tell them that as a Christian, you feel hurt and affronted by the board conflating your important holiday with a pagan feast day that has not been associated with your holiday for thousands of years.

Say that if the Multicultural Committee wanted to talk about the pagan holidays such as Saturnalia or solstice or whatever, it should have done that separately from the discussion of Christmas so it doesn’t throw shade on why people today in 2018 are celebrating Christmas.
 
Salmonslayer said:
Type up an accurate one tape it over it.
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^this. Saturnalia was over before the 25th, none of the ancient documents discussing the data give any hint that it was chosen because it coincided with some other festival, and it’s an absolute falsehood (and irrelevant) that “most historians actually believe he was born in the spring”.

I’m sure that if you search catholic.com you can find an excellent synopsis that you can use to counter such ignorant ravings.
 
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This is especially interesting to me because we have pagans in the office and they’d enjoy having something posted about Yule.
 
It might, I know attorneys are willing to sue over anything, but I do enjoy my job and it’s not pervasive. It was much worse at a former company when I was told not to take a lunch break to go to Ash Wednesday Mass because “the Pope would forgive me and I don’t need all that crap on my forehead”, referring to the ashes. My boss at the time then started talking about the movie “Luther” which had just come out. I was tempted to quit on the spot, then, but held out because the money was good.

This feels much more like a situation of education. Our company is making a big push on revealing hidden bias and acting against prejudice; I consider this an instance of bias and possibly prejudice.
 
I would indeed think the pagans would like to have something posted about their actual holiday and wouldn’t want to be mixed up with Christmas any more than you want Christmas mixed up with ancient Saturnalia.
 
losh14 said:
… there’s a bulletin board used by various organizations.
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When you say the bulletin board is “used by various organizations,” do you mean that certain employees, acting on behalf of certain recognized organizations, have been authorized by your employers to post things there while other employees, including yourself, do not have that right? Anybody here wishing to make a suggestion needs to know, I think, what the company would allow and what it wouldn’t allow. After all, as you say, the nonsense about “historians” and Saturnalia was not posted there by the company, but only by someone representing a named association.
 
I nice thick black Sharpie marker makes a nice addition to that announcement…🤓
 
Well, Ash Wednesday is not a Holy Day of Obligation so you were not required to attend Mass at noon.

Anyway, I’d likely sit down with the Multicultural Committee and show them:

 
BartholomewB said:
When you say the bulletin board is “used by various organizations,” do you mean that certain employees, acting on behalf of certain recognized organizations, have been authorized by your employers to post things there while other employees, including yourself, do not have that right? Anybody here wishing to make a suggestion needs to know, I think, what the company would allow and what it wouldn’t allow. After all, as you say, the nonsense about “historians” and Saturnalia was not posted there by the company, but only by someone representing a named association.
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This is a fair question. My understanding is that anything posted on this bulletin board has been reviewed by two directors in two parts of the organization - facilities and HR - and that employees who are members of recognized affinity groups (LGBTQIA, Women in Leadership, African-American Colleagues, etc) or who are members appointed to or who have volunteered for specific committees (MCA, Environmental Awareness, Healthy Living, etc) can submit items to be posted. So the nonsense about historians and Saturnalia, to put it honestly, isn’t a top-down ie “this is policy” nor is it democratized such that anyone can post it; it’s a combination of official need and official review.
 
Irishmom2 said:
I nice thick black Sharpie marker makes a nice addition to that announcement…🤓
Click to expand...
Salmonslayer said:
Type up an accurate one tape it over it.
Click to expand...
These are tempting, but I think the posting is a symptom of underlying ignorance. I appreciate the discussion, though, it helps me think out loud.

Also I could probably get in trouble for altering an approved posting. Right thing, wrong way to go about it.
 
I take it, then, that there is no recognized “affinity group” for Christians. If there was one, you wouldn’t need to be asking this question!
 
Did the post describing Kwanzaa say that it was invented in 1966 by an ex-convict named Ron Karenga who was active in the Black Power movement, or did it describe it as an authentic African “harvest festival?” Just wondering.
 
BartholomewB said:
I take it, then, that there is no recognized “affinity group” for Christians. If there was one, you wouldn’t need to be asking this question!
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That’s correct. No religiously-oriented affinity groups. This isn’t uncommon, none of the employers I’ve had in the past fifteen years has had religiously-based affinity groups (although there’s an ethnic affinity group that’s about 90% coequal with a religious group)
 
Pitcairn17 said:
Did the post describing Kwanzaa say that it was invented in 1966 by an ex-convict named Ron Karenga who was active in the Black Power movement, or did it describe it as an authentic African “harvest festival?” Just wondering.
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It noted it was created in 1966 and celebrates African unity. Any mentions of Pan-African or Black Power were omitted.

Likewise, no scholarship was noted about Chanukah traditions being developed hundreds of years after a bloody civil war (another claim by an unspecified quantity of historians).

I’m not a fan of slaying people’s heroes, though that is a running theme in recent years to denigrate anyone of any historical standing. One of the tenets of multi-culturalism is (or should be) encouraging belonging and helping people to celebrate their affinity. Casting Chanukah, Kwanzaa or Christmas into a negative light goes against that, and the fact that only the Christmas posting was cast negatively isn’t lost on me.

No word yet from the director of MCA.
 
Pitcairn17 said:
Did the post describing Kwanzaa say that it was invented in 1966 by an ex-convict named Ron Karenga
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@losh14 already answered that question, I think. The disinformation about Christmas was posted by the “Multicultural Committee”. Everyone knows what to expect of any organization with the name “multicultural” in it. Maybe from time to time a half-truth, but never the plain truth.
 
BartholomewB said:
@losh14 already answered that question, I think. The disinformation about Christmas was posted by the “Multicultural Committee”. Everyone knows what to expect of any organization with the name “multicultural” in it. Maybe from time to time a half-truth, but never the plain truth.
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I hate to think this but it’s frequently been my experience as well that MCA tries to favor some viewpoints or cultures over others. I think my company is more receptive than my high school was in terms of understanding that it has people in the organization who identify strongly with their European descent. It’s nice to see Germany and Italy reflected in food and dance events (we do like to throw parties, it is a fun workplace).
 
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