The Holiday Scandal

Ok, so how many people were surprised by me saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" (or "Happy Christmas" as they say over here)? This simple change of phrase has caused such an amazing amout of controversy, it would be unbelieveable if it weren't for the fact that it's the same old ideological camps in the same old turf war that's been going on for almost a half-century now. Let me highlight some recent incidents:

- The city of Boston decided to change the name of its "Christmas Tree" to "Holiday Tree." The man who cut down the tree said he would have thrown it into the chipper if he knew about the change before. Jerry Falwell has called it part of "a concerted effort to steal Christmas."

- Target decided to wish its customers "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

- A city in Florida denied a request by Mr. Koenig to display a private nativity scene in a public park.

Literally thousands more could be mentioned, but these represent three fundamental areas of the Christmas battle: government, business, and private. What do all three have in common? Every decision mentioned above has been reversed by the tactics of the Christian Right, who feel that, in the words of John Gibson, "The war on Christmas really is a war on Christians."

Instead of rushing to join the infantry on either side, I've taken the chance to back up a few paces from the nativities and the trees and reflect on what we Christians are really fighting about...

Otherworldy beings in the sky. Philosophers basing their decisions about the future of global politics on astrology. People basing their hope on a line of kings. Messages coming in dreams and visions. Promises of a reversal of the political order, where poor people take over the world.

If this were a TV show, we might be entertained. More amusingly, many Christians would boycott it for having occult influences.

But this is no TV show. It's one more symbol that conservatives are trying to make sure remains permanently attached to "American culture." Are we for real?

Let's pretend this story is new, without the 2,000 years of cultural baggage attached. Pretend you're walking down the street, trying to convince people that this story is true. How many people would believe you? More to the point, would you walk into someone else's business and demand that it recognize your story?

During a carol service last night, in spite of the cultural security that comes with a traditional holiday, beyond the traditional language and comfy sweaters and warm conversation, it really hit me: we're completely crazy! This story makes the "X-Files" look unimaginative, and yet we insist that it's true! I wanted to laugh out loud and pretend I was Jack Nicholson in "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest."

Let's just face it, we Christians are nuts. Really. At the very least, we're strikingly un-democratic and un-patriotic, since we belive in a king who's not American, and we'll be leaving this citizenship entirely when he comes.

I, as an orthodox Christian, recognize that I am over the edge. I am not normal. No normal person would believe a story like that.

Furthermore, I'm convinced that if Christians recognized how absurd their story really is, they would stop going around demanding that the rest of the world recognize it. Our real joy would come from revelling together in our crazy story, enjoying it as only a crazy story can be enjoyed. Our Christmas services would stop pretending to be a safe cultural haven, and begin to reflect the wonderment of the insane. And strangely enough, our story might become a little more appealing when we've given up shoving it down the nation's throat and started figuring what it means to live it for ourselves. Many people who thought they believed in Christmas might realize they really don't, and many who don't might realize that they really want to.

The stated goal of cultural conservatives is to "keep the Christ in Christmas," and yet the effect of their legislative and boycotting actions is quite the opposite. An authentic Christian Christmas consists of people who believe the Christmas story getting together because of that common faith. In fact, we need to get together in order to keep the normal people's sanity from rubbing off on us. We need to keep repeating the story. But when we begin enforcing Christmas on the rest of the world (the vast majority of whom are much too rational for this sort of thing), it neccessarily becomes divorced from Christ and attached to such things as trees, presents, and other, less offensive stories. Sound familiar?

To my fellow Christians: Wake up! You're kicking the football into your own goal!

To my also-fellow non-Christians: Please excuse us Christians. I know we're crazy, but we're often quite dull as well. I sincerely hope you have a Happy (and rational) Holiday.

And lastly, to all the believers in our loony Story, and sharers in the common Faith: Merry Christmas!

coming soon...

Hey everyone, due to a busy Sunday, including singing at a carol service and picking up a borrowed cello, I don't have time to organize my thoughts completely. But I will be posting an official "Christmas post" shortly.

Until then, I just wanted to say that our Christmas in York has been delightful, and filled with mince pies and mulled wine... at a church event, too!

Thank you to everyone who sent us a card, it's nice to have a connection with people at home.

As a sneak peak to my "real" post, I'll just say...

Happy Holidays!

Random Thoughts...

Hi everyone, it is Melissa again. I feel like I have so much to say, but have no idea where to begin. So I guess I will begin with my job. I started with the York City Council 2 weeks ago and I am really liking it. The Coucil is basically the local government, made up of many different agencies. I am an administrative assistant for Family Learning, a subset of Adult Education. We provide free education and free childcare for adults that do not have the basics. We provide english, math, and parenting classes and also fun classes that help you spend more constructive time with your children. We also teach computing skills and language to English Speakers of Foreign Languages. I am learning so much about their programmes and about the Council as a whole. My main duties are just keeping the office running and providing the tutors with supplies and course forms. Because we are funded by the government we have a lot of record keeping to do and I am involved with most of that.

England is more of a socialist country than America. When I first got here I didn't know exactly what that meant, but it means that the government provides many public services. Many people reading this blog probably dislike the idea of "big government," but I am here to try to rock the boat a bit. America has so many poor and uneducated people and the Republicans don't really care about that. They are more interested in the rich staying rich, and on cutting what little social programmes America has left. Granted, England also has many that are poor and uneducated, but the government is trying to raise the nation's education level and they are planning on doing this no matter what it takes. Unfortunately, the government has cut the amount of funding to each county this year, and in response the county might have to raise their own taxes, but they are trying to cut the more frivilous things in the budget so that they won't have to.

In the three months I have been here I have experienced that a more socialist government isn't necessarily bad. The 17% tax that comes out of my paycheck pays for healthcare for both of us, and pays for free courses and childcare if I meet certain qualifications; it also pays for everything else that the city provides: fire, police, trash, waste. In America 17% only paid my standard taxes, I also had to pay extra money on top of that for healthcare which took another big chunk from my pay. I think we can learn that welfare is good as long as we are providing a service that allows the poor to get a job and to continue to learn. That is what happens here: we provide education that will help these people be better parents, workers and people and that is what matters.

On a lighter note Chris and I saw the Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Which and the Wardrobe a whole day earlier than it came out there. HA HA have to brag!! I think we both agreed that it was worth seeing and being able to experience Narnia on film was really amazing!

I have experienced this really weird phenomemon here that maybe you can relate to. Chris and I have met many people in these last three months, and some of them are like clones of people we were friends with at home. The first person is this really sweet lady from church, she has us over for lunch and tea and has really welcomed us into York. She reminds us of Chris' aunt Sally. She looks like her and has the same sort of soft sweet way about her. I thought it was weird and then it started happening all the time. My boss at work reminds me of Michele DeHaas. They don't look the same per se, but they both have blond hair and have similar complexions and the personality and the way we exist as friends/collegues is just like Michele. It is really weird. The weirdest of them all is this guy from the university who is Drew DeHaas all over. Except for one thing: he is French-Canadian-Japanese and speaks all three languages. He is Japanese by birth and culture but has lived in Canada his whole life. Now he is getting his doctorate in York. He is the same height has Drew, same voice timbre, and same body movements. When I closed my eyes it was Drew!!! It was really starting to creep me out. It is kind of cool though, people we are close to and care about can be experienced by us through these other people.

Finally the last of my ramblings - church! We have settled in at St. Oswald's in Fulford and we are really enjoying the Chirch of England Liturgy more than we expected to. We are involved in an advent house group called Promises, focusing on the promises of God in the Old Testament. We are really enjoying that as well. In January we will be doing a 9 week study on Prayer based on the teachings of Ignatious of Loyola. You can read more about that here.

That's all for now!


[Postscript from Chris]

Yeah, you knew I couldn't go a whole week without saying anything.

Melissa might have stolen my thunder a little with the Socialism bit; I'd like to return to that at some point. But if you're interested, you can start the ball rolling now by contributing your thoughts or asking questions about American-style government vs. European, or Capitalism vs. Socialism in the more general sense. What I'd like to know is, 1) How capitalist is America, and how socialist is the U.K.? 2) Is hard-core socialism really dead? and the all-important question, 3) How do the respective economic systems relate to your moral/spiritual/religious sense? i.e. is one or the other more or less "Christian" or "moral."

Whether you know everything or nothing, post your thesis or your bewilderment as a comment and I'll try to incorporate it into a later post. C'mon, you Libertarians, I know who you are!

Bye for now...

The lesson of the Messiah

Hi everyone! Last night Melissa and I had an experience that I will cherish for a long time; hearing Handel's Messiah performed in its entirety... in the York Minster!

Now if you know me, you know that I often criticize "classical" enthusiasts for living in the past. ("Find out what good art is being made today! There's more to life than Mozart, people!") But this wasn't just a concert of classical music. As I looked at the tree-trunk sized pillars rising high above my head, and as I closed my eyes and heard the music existing and continuing through the cathedral, I came to the revelation that the building was an active participant in the experience. It was sound-in-space, it was architectural sound, a collaboration between the living performers and the long-dead builders and the inanimate rock. It was magic.

Besides the aesthetic experience, which I can only describe, there was an underlying tension that I picked up on that I wanted to share. To understand the tension, you have to be aware that the text of the Messiah is essentially a manifesto, a creed of Christian faith, from the incarnation, through death and resurrection, and into the commission of disciples. It is, in a sense, "The Bible for Dummies," firmly entrenched in a reformation mindset.

Before the concert began, a minister related this to the audience, and explained that "for some of the performers," the concert would be an offering of worship to God. With the understanding that this was an overtly Christian work, performed in a cathedral, and that the message of the music resonanted with some of the performers' own convictions, it would seem reasonable to classify it as a "Christian event," or at least I thought so.

You can imagine my surprise and intrigue, then, when I read the program notes, which informed me that, in order to understand the piece, one had to realize that there was a time in history when people actually considered the Bible to carry divine authority (imagine that!), or that the Gospels were accurate records of historical events. Apparently I needed that historical brief, because our current understanding of evolution and Newtonian physics (both of which were explicitly mentioned) have certainly made Handel's viewpoint look pretty silly by now.

Now, the program note in itself didn't bother me, or interest me; I'm used to people arguing that the law of gravity and Scriptural authority are somehow mutually exclusive. What piqued my interest was the coexistence of these two perspectives: classical faith on the one hand, scientific agnosticism on the other. Not only did they coexist, but they seemed completely unaware of the other's presence! I was left confused: is the Messiah an interesting historical artifact of an irrational religion, or is it a living confession of faith?

Maybe it's an embodiment of the current situation, that religion is allowed to exist as long as it promises not to challenge reason, and reason is allowed to remain an atheist as long is it doesn't challenge the faithful. Both camps have their proverbial heads in the sand, afraid of what might happen in the event of a confrontation.

If that's the case, I don't know what to say except that it's pretty funny. But what I really like is that both of these camps were forced to coexist for a few hours, and what brought them together was nothing other than a piece of music. What does that mean? It means that art can be a context for meaningful discussion. I've read many books, and heard many sermons and discussions about faith and religion, but hearing it in music is another thing altogether. And it's a necessary thing. It's more than "music with a message" that the modern music industry would sell to Christian youths; the music is the message. We tend to draw a sharp line between thought and feeling, art and philosophy. But the Messiah stands in the middle of the divide, reaffirming that our deepest understanding of life can't be confined to arguments or sermons, or even logic. It needs to be felt, seen and heard; and then, lived.