Categories: uncategorized
Date: 16 December 2005 09:34:09
Ekklesia has this article, which is talking about Christmas & the way the Christmas story was used by a back bench MP highlighting how unjust the asylum laws in this country have become. The article also touches on the way that Christmas is becoming increasingly political, particularly with the rise of secular fundamentalism and the way that some Christian organisations tie actions into the season.
Questions it raised in my mind were about what the link between Christianity and politics should be, how much of the secular fundamentalism is actually fuelled and amplified through inaccurate media reporting and religious scare mongering, how should scripture be used, are churches guilty of promoting a sanitised version of the Christmas story which primarily focuses on Jesus divinity without properly addressing his humanity, and are Christian campaigning organisations using Christmas in an appropriate way.
These are questions with no easy answers and I think they show what an ethical minefield Christmas (as opposed to "material fest") has become in our largely secular society.
Taking the sanitation of the Christmas story for example. If we are trying to make Christianity attractive to the wider population, and Christmas is still one of the times we get close to managing it how would we put forward a more realistic reading of the gospel without alienating people and actually turning them off the Christmas story?
Your average Daily Mail reader is not going to be particularly happy if they go expecting a fluffy "feel good story" and they get a story highlighting a young unmarried mum, refugees, mass murder of children aged under 2, gifts predicting state sponsored execution and so forth thrust in their face. Personally if I was in their position and it was a choice between that and Santa's grotto I'd go for "material fest" any day.