Want to see where the "War on Christmas" is? It isn't liberals like me who don't like the idea of state-sanctioned religion, even if it is my own religion. It isn't people respecting the traditions of non-Christians or non-religious people by wishing "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas," or calling the two weeks off of school a "holiday break" instead of "Christmas break." It isn't non-sectarian holiday cards, or failure to quote Scripture every time Christmas is mentioned.

The real war on Christmas is crap like this.

Only when evangelical Christianity ceases to be complicit in the massive orgy of consumerism that has come to represent the humble birth of God Incarnate in a stable, will I even consider their arguments about a liberal "war on Christmas."

Only when I can go to an evangelical church during the Advent season and find preachers speaking against the Christmas retail and consumer-crap industry, will I even accept the possibility that our attempts to make the public square respect people of all or no faith somehow constitute the persecution of Christians.

Only when evangelical Christianity ceases to be a willing and eager co-conspirator in the slaughter of this poor man at the hands of the heretical system of free-marketeerism, the culture industry, and usurious consumer credit capitalism, will I accept that they could possibly understand even one iota of the Gospel.

This death makes me sick to my stomach - and making me even sicker is the knowledge that if American Christianity speaks at all about the ideologies, mindsets, and profit motives that led to this man's death, it will speak in favor of them!

It's time for Christianity to start saying no. No to the ideology of "more more more." No to the idea that Christ's birth is best celebrated by buying your bourgeois friends and family more crap they don't need and won't remember getting a year from now. No to using our precious resources on more crappy decorations and an ungodly (literally!) amount of energy for needless decorative lighting while our brothers and sisters around the world are starving.

In short - it's long past time for Christians to say NO to Christmas as it's celebrated in America, and again start making it a holiday about the meek and mild Savior born in a cold and dirty manger in a stable in the middle of nowhere to paupers.

I urge everyone in my audience to say no this year. Do not give presents. Do not accept presents. Do not put up decorations or trim a tree or hang up lights. Celebrate this Christmas by taking time to be quiet, rather than by standing in a too-long line in a too-crowded shopping mall. Spend it eating and drinking and enjoying family instead of racing to find that last gift for that last person who probably won't even remember it in a year's time. Donate to a social justice organization like Heifer International.

But most importantly - SAY NO TO CHRISTMAS, at least in the corrupt way it's celebrated in America today.

Labels: Economy, Justice, Politics, Religion

From Patricia Roberts-Miller's Voices in the Wilderness:

Hence, although we tend to describe people like John Endicott, John Winthrop, or Cotton Mather as persecutors, Puritan authorities - even when acting qua authorities - typically described themselves as victims of a persecuting majority. [...]

As the New England authorities banish someone, or order the execution of a Friend [Quaker], or defend judicial anarchy, they feel sorry for themselves and describe themselves as martyred by a noble commitment to duty and persecuted by the Devil. They are persecuted by being forced to bore holes through tongues, cut off ears, and listen to the counter-arguments of their victims. [ 1 ]

The reason I post what seems like a bit of a non-sequitur here (I'm in the midst of procrastinating on a paper about John Winthrop's "City on a Hill" speech, so I'm in Puritan-land right now) is that this website reminds me so much of what was going on back in the earliest days of our nation.

For those whose nausea tolerance is insufficient to withstand the bloviations of the hypocritical "Christian" Right, I'll tell you what it is: a message from some of the leaders of that movement, including reprehensible human beings like Jim Dobson, Don Wildmon, and Tony Perkins, proclaiming their solidarity with the LDS church after that church spearheaded the gay hatred movement in California.

Of course it's the right-wing Christians who are persecuted. How awful, that a minority whose basic civil rights were just legally denied them thanks directly to the actions of these bigoted demons should call them out for their bigotry. How terrible, that we who stand with our LGBT brothers and sisters should actually call out and name those who seek to enshrine their hatred into law. Why don't we just stop persecuting them by demanding that they respect the humanity of all people?

This kind of stuff just pisses me off. These persecutors - who if they had their way would see LGBT individuals thrown to the lions, who are all too willing to make their heretical hatred of LGBT individuals into the law of the land - are claiming that it is they who are persecuted? That somehow their freedoms are being denied because we dare call them out for their bigotry?

This pathetic attempt to make conservative Christianity - which has been a politically powerful force in this country since its founding and has always enjoyed a privileged space in the public sphere - into some kind of persecuted victim-group would be laughable if it weren't so dangerous. That they call any word spoken against them persecution is evidence that (a) they don't know the meaning of that word, and (b) they will not rest until they have in fact ended their "persecution" by establishing their own heretical version of Christianity as the law of the land.

As the passage of Proposition H8 in California demonstrated, these people are a force - and as such, they must be taken seriously, and must be stopped. Their hate, bigotry, hypocrisy, and opposition to true Christianity must be exposed to the light, so that people of conscience can see what charlatans speak in their name, and their organizations wither and die. Perhaps then they will see the error of their hateful ways and repent of the sin of bigotry against their brothers and sisters.

Labels: Christian Right, GLBT Rights, Heresy, Politics, Religion

I've had a day or so to ruminate over this now. Here are my thoughts.

1. I was very impressed with John McCain's concession speech. He completely departed from the "be afraid" tone he, Palin, and most of all his audiences were setting in the last month of the campaign and gave a gracious, honest, heartfelt speech. I've heard people say that if he'd have spoken like that during the campaign he might have won; while I don't agree with that, I did see on Tuesday night what made him appealing to a lot of people.

2. I was even more impressed with President-Elect Obama's (I don't know if I'll get over writing that before I have to start writing President Obama on January 20) speech. One of my professors said that in form it was more like an inaugural address than a victory speech, and I don't disagree with that - and, given the deep divisions this election has sown in America, I think a uniting inauguration speech, rather than an overly-celebratory victory speech, was absolutely appropriate for the situation.

3. The long knives have already started to come out in the GOP, with McCain insiders dishing out all the dirt they'd kept in for so long about Sarah Palin - the spending sprees that were even bigger than we'd previously known about, her not knowing who was in NAFTA or that Africa was a continent and not a country, that she wanted to speak on Tuesday night before or after McCain. As a Democrat, I'm popping some popcorn to sit back and watch the civil war for control of the GOP; it'll be interesting to see which of the major interest groups (East Coast plutocrats, Southern theocrats, Gingrich-ite old-schoolers, Giuliani-ite neocons, and younger moderate centrists) wrests control of the party, and which (if any) of those groups decides to take their ball and go home. I don't think the Reagan coalition can hold now that it's been 20 years since Reagan. What will the new Republicans look like?

4. Finally, a note of extreme disappointment, in that the antigay bigots seem to have won the day in California, voting to strip LGBT citizens of one of the most basic of civil rights. There are a number of people to blame here - a No On 8 campaign that wasn't all that well organized and a pathetic 53% voter turnout in San Francisco among them - but the unavoidable fact is that it was groups claiming to be Christian that led the anti-civil-rights fight. This is utterly shameful. The Church needs to stand up for civil rights - regardless of what individuals might say or feel about homosexuality on a social or moral level - not stand in the way based on pathetic and hateful bigotry. The fact that my so-called brothers and sisters in Christ supported this hateful proposition disgusts, offends, and shames me. There is absolutely no excuse for their stance. They need to repent immediately of their attitude and begin working to right the wrong they have helped to commit.

I'm sure I'll have more to write about as the transition continues; right now, the reality that we will be celebrating the inauguration of President Obama in just over two months is still sinking in. A new day is beginning for America; let us seize it and return our country to its ideal of equality, opportunity, prosperity, and peaceful friendship with all.

Labels: GLBT Rights, John McCain, Politics, President Barack Obama, Proposition 8, Religion, Republicans

Some election day humor...



...but seriously. If you haven't voted yet, vote. This is the moment we've been waiting for.

Labels: Funny, Politics