With increasing rapidity, we hear references to the coming of the “21st Century” and the dawning of “THE new millennium”. For me, however, this is an example of what I have termed “Christianism” or “Compulsory Christianity,” which I define as the system of advantages bestowed on Christians; it is the institutional response to religious oppression which assumes that all people are or should be Christian, thereby excluding the needs, concerns, and life experiences of non-Christians.

Among the definitions of “millennium” in the “Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary,” definition #2a. is: “a period of 1000 years” (but let us not forget that the year 2000 is in reference to the birth of Jesus Christ, and it is therefore the beginning of the next “CHRISTIAN” Millennium). In fact, definition #1a in the same dictionary defines “millennium” as: “the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth.” Therefore, let us view the year 2000 A.D. as one milepost, though, for many of us, it also marks a heightening of our invisibility.

Warren J. Blumenfeld

Northampton, Mass.