Debunked: Ben Stein's Christmas commentary

Just in time for Christmas, our friend Mike Hanley, proprietor of the very yummy Buffalo’s Reef in Fort Walton Beach, sent me an e-mail with “Ben Stein, Re: Christmas” as the subject.

“The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary,” the e-mail began.

Some e-mail hoaxes I receive are so poignant or meaningful, I fervently wish they weren’t hoaxes, and wish I didn’t have to debunk them.

Happily, “the version widely circulated via e-mail includes some transcription errors and modifications that were not part of the piece as originally aired,” assured Snopes.com, the very excellent urban legends debunking Web site. Which meant some parts—the best parts, as it turned out—indeed were true.

“I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish,” the e-mail said Ben said. “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.”

The actual commentary, which Stein delivered on CBS Sunday Morning on Dec. 18, 2005, was essentially quoted accurately. He also said:

“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.”

Now isn’t that perfect? But someone on the ‘Net wasn’t satisfied, so they tacked on to Stein’s excellent commentary some unrelated 2001 homophobic drivel from Anne Graham Lotz, Billy Graham’s daughter.

She actually was talking about the events of Sept. 11, but later someone, who still was not satisfied, reworked it even more and made it refer to Hurricane Katrina.

So when the Ben Stein e-mail pops into your e-mail box, if you should feel compelled to share it with your friends, do them—and the intent of Mr. Stein’s plea—a favor and delete the extra blather that detracts from his nice, concise commentary. It concludes:

“Where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and 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 used to know went to.”

What lovely sentiments. Merry Christmas!

Before you hit “forward,” visit www. Snopes.com. Excerpts by Ben Stein, “Confessions for the Holidays,” ©CBS News Transcripts, 18 Dec. 2005.