Foster Care - Atheist Jodie Foster Teaches the Meaning of Faith

"People are always surprised when I say that I'm an atheist...In my home, we ritualize all of them. We do Christmas. We do Shabbat on Fridays. We love Kwanzaa. I take pains to give my family a real religious basis, a knowledge, because it's being well educated. You need to know why all those wars were fought." ~ Jodie Foster (Examiner)

A truly talented actress, but does the ability to channel human emotion and embody story lend itself to the ability to think deeply?  Surely there are always exceptions, but Hollywood seems to give us many examples to make us think that these abilities don't often accord with each other.

Ah, the grand tradition of Kwanzaa over which many wars have been fought.  Or not.  Kwanzaa is an invented holiday with a fusion of traditions, some of which seem to be borrowed from Hanukkah.  Kwanzaa is not even properly a speculation but a whole-cloth invention to replace disparate traditions that the African slaves forgot and lost.  I've joined celebrations of Ramadan and Passover in traditional homes, and these have been very positive cultural experiences.  I love the idea of people celebrating traditions that link them to their ancestors.  There is something I find deeply sad about Kwanzaa's self-defeating lack of history and continuity.  It's sort o' like talking about that great vacation you never took with the father you never had.  It seems like the sort of thing only someone extremely uninformed or extremely progressive could get excited about.

During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga [who invented it] said that it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas, that Jesus was psychotic, and that Christianity was a white religion which Black people should shun. [Wikipedia]

Challah bread

I wonder, by "Christmas" does Jodie Foster mean that she celebrates the story of the birth of Immanuel?  Or does she simply mean that she gives her family a "real religious basis" by opening wrapped presents by the Tannenbaum shortly after the solstice?  Wow, I bet she even takes the fam on Easter egg hunts in order to introduce them to the hope of Resurrection that has sustained believers for millenia.  Awesome.

"Here, kids. Light the menorah, I mean, the kinara, put out some milk and cookies for Santa, and pass the challah.  This is why we fight wars, kids.  Kind o' stupid, huh?  That's why Mom's an atheist."  It's a Saturnalia miracle.

Deep. While she's at it, she might want to tell her kids about the ritual killings and crucifixions of theists by various sects of the Marxist religion.  If they really need to know how an Ultimate Concern inspires war and and terror and torture.

The communist torturers often [told me], “There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.” I heard one torturer say, “I thank God in whom I don’t believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.”*

It's a Communist Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown.