An Open Letter About Christmas

Dear easily offended American Christians,

There is no anti-Christian conspiracy regarding the holiday greetings expressed to you publically by commercial organizations and/or their employees.

I could stop there, or just point to last year's rant on this topic, but I'm afraid you've shown me that you're very, very thick, so I feel a need to expand on this:

When someone wishes you "Happy Holidays", it's not an insult to you or to your religion. As a commenter on a blog I read recently pointed out, it's actually someone wishing you well for basically the entire month of December and a bit of January to boot, in fact, but even leaving that aside: it's not them prejudicially choosing to use a generic greeting from some secular humanist plot, or some liberal atheist snobbery about the word Christmas. It's them choosing to use a greeting that doesn't presume to tell people what they should be celebrating. That's the opposite of prejudice.

Get this through your heads: not everyone in this country is Christian. Not everyone in this country is even nominally Christian. And unless you're awfullly ostentatious, your Christianity is not visible to people, nor is someone else's lack of Christianity. The people who aren't Christian look and dress and talk and act just like you (barring any cross you might be wearing, and be honest: you probably aren't). So those store employees? They don't know which holiday you're planning to celebrate, if any, and therefore, it has nothing to do with your religion.

(As to the random wingnut who posted on their blog that "holiday" is somehow an insulting word: the word 'holiday' derives from "holy day", as in "what Christmas is". Seriously. That was pretty stupid even for this brand of stupidity.)

As I said last year: Get over it. No one is stopping you from religiously celebrating Christmas by not making sure they use the word regularly. Or, if they are, your faith is pretty fragile.

Which, come to think of it, it must be, if you think that other people not celebrating your holiday properly somehow damages your faith.

Maybe you should be thinking more about that.

Love,

Me

The Lord's Prayer (interpreted)

The Lord's Prayer, as intepreted by Right-Wing American Christians:

Our Father in Heaven, hallowed by thy name,
(You know, unless we need to use your name to justify the things we do.)
your kingdom come,
(Preferably just soon enough that I can see the smiting.)
your will be done,
(As we interpret it, of course.)
on earth as it is in Heaven.
(Excepting that 'love thy neighbor' crap, amirite?)
Give us today our daily bread.
(Me first! Me! Me!)
And forgive us our debts
(And sins and stuff, too, okay?)
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
(Not their debts. We've just forgiven them... for being lazy.)
And lead us not into temptation,
(Or at least ignore us when we dive after it.)
but deliver us from the evil one.
(Obama, right?)

Some things you should read

First off, I wish I'd seen this interesting blog post quite a while ago. For those of you who don't like clicking links for whatever reason, let me sum up: some researchers found some evidence of church-sanctioned (and that means Catholic church, given the age) same-sex marriages. I don't know why I haven't seen this thing linked a hundred times by now, or why it isn't being taken up by liberal Christians everywhere and widely disseminated, but I can at least do my small part to help draw attention to it.

And now I want you to put aside your dislike of clicking links and read this sorta-recap of last night's Glee. Because the vast majority of what's written in it shows exactly why I think it's important to support same-sex marriage, and to oppose all bullying and discrimination against gays.

This is important. My religion is about love. Denying its expression to other people is wrong. Denying brotherly and neighborly love to people because of who they fall in love with is wrong. There's no argument you can make that will stop me believing this is something all Christians should think is important.

neighbors

So, I was thinking again about universalism (that's a small 'u' there), and you know what? I don't even care if it's Biblically justified. I mean, I should, and I guess I do a little, since my last post on it bothered to quote the Bible and talk about it in that context, but to be honest? I care more about the fact that I know a lot of people who are not Christian that I'm pretty darn sure Jesus would be happy to have as a neighbor.

Amongst my friends and acquaintances, both online and off, are Jews, Wiccans, pagans of various types, Buddhists, and a few people who don't fit so neatly into a category, plus of course a fair number of Christians, agnostics, and atheists. I don't run into Muslims as often, or at least not ones that mentioned they were (not so strange given the way people often react to that), but I've certainly known a few.

Of that list, every group has had people in it who were strongly for acceptance and tolerance and support for everyone who needed it... just the kind of beliefs and actions that Jesus would want to see from people. How could he not want them as his neighbors? As to what God Himself would want, well, if He sent Jesus down to us with that message about love, I'm pretty sure He'd be pretty happy to have them around as well.

Ultimately all the arguments about whether or not you said the magic words or followed the right rituals or voted on the right issues or love the right kind of person or whatever it is any give particular Christian church wants to argue is the "right" way to be a Christian really seem pretty small in comparison to that thought. (I suspect a lot of those people on my list from other religions would agree with the principle of the thought, even though their details would, of course, be different.)

Of course, it's not up to me. As one of my favorite bloggers once said, that decision's above my pay grade. But the nice thing about that is it's also above everyone else's, too. No one on this earth gets to decide who gets to go to Heaven, or who would be welcome to go should they wish.

Not Less of a Person

Here's what I've been trying to get at in my other posts on homosexuality, distilled: Someone doing something you feel is wrong or immoral does not make them less of a person.

It occurred to me today that that's what I've been really trying to say. Last night, on Project Runway, one of the designers came out as HIV+, a secret he's been hiding for 10 years because he was afraid of what the reaction would be. His mother knows he's gay, and told him to hide it from his father. She had not, at that point, known about the HIV status. (I'm gonna assume she and the rest of his family know now, because they've been watching the show.)

He's had to deal with the HIV+ status without any support from his family, because his family would not be able to deal with the fact that he's gay, because it's against their morals. Think about that for a bit.

What if you woke up one morning and realized that, yes, you have a problem with alcohol... but you can't tell anyone, because that would mean admitting you were drinking in the first place, and the people you love most in the world, who should love you unconditionally, think that drinking is wrong (and there are a lot of Christians who do), and have shown evidence that they may not love you unconditionally after all. You worry that if you admitted you were a drinker, they would cease to love and support you. That they would see you as inherently flawed, and that it would change how they see you as a person. You would no longer be "my child", but "my alcoholic child". You would be the label, not the person anymore.

Love should not work that way.

But for people who are gay, it all too often does. I will say it again: most Christians do not turn people out of their churches and their hearts for adultery or drinking or lying. They show willingness to accept those flaws, to accept that people are flawed, but that they're still people. "He's a great guy, this is just something we all have to deal with," they say, when their pastor admits to adultery. But that doesn't happen very often for gays. They're seen as something so inherently flawed that they don't deserve that consideration anymore. "Gays aren't welcome in our church. Murderers and thiefs and adulterers and drunkards, sure, but not gays."

And that's the tragedy. The tragedy is a man who for ten years, has known he has a medical condition that could easily shorten his lifespan, that we still don't know how to effectively treat and that in any event can get very expensive to treat, and who has been living in terror that he will no longer be able to count on the support of the people he loves if he admits this. That he will no longer be the person, just the label.

The tragedy is that people think that that's acceptable.

It's not.

ETA: This seems like a good post to link to the It Gets Better Project.

You're not HELPing....

[Note: I had not heard about the definitive canceling of the book-burning before writing this. I am glad it was canceled, but I think the sentiment in here is important anyhow (because someone else out there is surely contemplating something similar), so I'm leaving this up.]

Dear Pastor Book-burner,

I know that's not your name, and that you, strictly speaking, haven't burned books yet. (Or at least not the books you're getting known for wanting to burn. Who knows what you've done in your spare time before?) But that's what you're currently getting famous for. Whether or not you go through with it, right now what you're mainly known for is: "The guy who thinks burning a religion's holy book will accomplish anything meaningful."

I try to avoid political posts...

Dear Easily Offended People of America,

The words "Muslim" and "American" are not antonyms. There were American Muslims who died at the towers on 9/11. So calling building a mosque in the vicinity of the former towers "an insult to the memories of the 3000 Americans killed" is kinda, you know... stupid. There really isn't another word for it. Well, that's not true. There are lots of other words: short-sighted, hateful, bigoted, insulting, and ignorant come to mind.

"It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero." No, what's insensitive and uncaring is refusing to admit that Muslims are not some monolithic hive-mind where everyone in the religion agrees with the actions of the extremists. Of course, if it were really true that all Muslims should be considered extremists and terrorists because of the actions of a few, than all Christians likewise should be considered extremists and terrorists as well, because it's not as if there has never been an act of terrorism committed by a Christian.

Christians have also stolen, murdered, abused, and otherwise harmed their fellow man. Does that mean that Christianity is to blame for those acts? Or do you accept that in every religion, there are people who are capable of heinous acts, and blame the individuals instead of the religion? Because those are your choices... and if you choose the latter choice, then you must include Muslims in that acceptance as well.

As usual, I am deeply disappointed that some of the worst comments on this issue come from people who claim to be Christian. Jesus would not call that love for your brother, and neither do I.

The Camel and the Needle

Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." —Matthew 19:21-24

This seems fairly straightforward to me. It's not the only time Jesus suggested giving away money was a godly thing to do, of course, but this passage seems to sum it up nicely. The message I take from this is that concentrating on keeping wealth—caring about doing so—is detrimental to your relationship with God. Note I say "detrimental", not "an absolute bar", yet either way, I'm not sure I understand why so many Christians seem to be amongst the most greedy wealth-seekers, and I definitely don't understand prosperity preachers.

Brotherly Love

Via a comment on slacktivist, I was pointed to this post, reporting on a Christian "demonstration" at the Gay Pride parade in Chicago... one where the Christians wore shirts saying "I'm sorry". They were apologizing for the years they and/or their churches have treated gays like... well, the way too many Christians treat gays.

The article links to the blog Love is an Orientation, maintained by the founder of the group The Marin Foundation, which is a non-profit outreach group trying to work towards a better relationship between churches and the GLBT community. I recommend taking a look at both, because we all could use some more love and acceptance in our lives.

As a side note, the founder's blog mentions that he and his wife live in the Boystown neighborhood in Chicago, which, for those of you who don't know Chicago, is where the most open GLBT community in Chicago is centered. It's the neighborhood I first saw pairs of men and women openly together back when I was much younger, and it was just a couple miles up the street from there I first worked with three openly gay people... which is how I learned that the only difference between me and a gay woman was who we were attracted to.

Universalism

I've written before about how I can reconcile being a Christian with believing that non-Christians aren't doomed to either eternal punishment or exile from Heaven, but I've felt a need lately to talk about it some more. Maybe it's because I keep seeing so many people—both Christians and non-Christians—talking about how exclusivity is a major hallmark of Christianity.

Prayer for... Everyone

This year seems to be attracting a lot of disasters. Some have been natural (tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes), some man-made (mine disasters, the BP platform explosion). For the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones in those disasters, as well as for everyone else who is suffering right now, I pray for peace and the strength to carry on through all of life's troubles, and hope that they can find happiness again, even if it seems it's been lost to them right now.

A couple of links

Via one of my old friends, the moderate voice of American Muslims regarding a recent attempt by non-Muslims to be stupid about how Muslims feel about visual depictions of Muhammad. (No, they didn't call it stupid. I am calling it stupid. Going out of your way to offend people of a specific religion is stupid... and it violates the "don't be a dick" rules of many religions.)

Via another friend, a liberal Christian shared blog, bearing witness (dreamwidth|livejournal). From their profile:

Jesus Christ lived and preached love and acceptance of all, but it increasingly seems like the most vocal Christians are preaching intolerance and hatred. So we, as Christians who believe in Christ's true message, think it's past time for us to exercise our right of rebuttal.

Note that our aim is not to evangelise to non-Christians about our religious beliefs, but rather to evangelise to other Christians about our political beliefs, and to strengthen ourselves in fellowship with others who take these beliefs as not merely compatible with, but actually required by, our faith.

Sounds good to me.

Modest dress and the law

I feel somewhat disturbed by the number of countries in Europe which have banned, in part or in whole, Muslim head coverings.

I am apalled. Again.

I'm about thisclose to taking back every single good thing I've ever said about Catholicism.

I disagree with their doctrine and their positions on a number of things, but I've appreciated the beauty of their rituals, their dedication to education, and their charity work. Yet all of that seems tainted now in light of recent responses to public outcry about priests abusing children.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. That means not going against the consensus of psychological studies regarding any alleged link between homosexuality and child molestation. That means not accusing the people who have been outraged at the Church's coverup of child molesting priests of being part of some Zionist plot, conveniently ignoring the number of Christians (including Catholics!) who have expressed outrage. That means not accusing Jews of being the secret overlords of the world, deliberately giving fuel to the minds of conspirators you know would love an excuse to lash out at Jews. And it also means telling the truth about the crimes you know were committed... because covering up a crime is also false witness.

The fact that these things are being said by priests, by people who have sworn a lifelong commitment to God and His works, is completely disgusting. Deliberately breaking a commandment is not a way to show one's dedication to God's word. It is inexcusable.

Easter

If Jesus were alive today and preaching the message he preaches in the Gospels, he would be crucified.

It wouldn't be literal. We don't do that anymore, at least in our society. But the word has become metaphorical for harsh, often angry criticism. And in the U.S., people who ask for charity and love for one's fellow man generally find opponents in plenty who will attempt to verbally crucify them.

But no matter how harshly such messages are criticized, people continue to try. In the face of such metaphorical crucifixion, knowing that criticism and anger and even violence may come their way, people still spread this message: to love their neighbors, no matter how different, and to help those in need. Like Jesus, who knew that sooner or later his words would lead to his death, these people do not let the knowledge of their opponents' likely reactions stop them. The message is too important to them.

These people are not all Christians. Some are, but others are Jews or atheists or Muslims or agnostic or pagans or Buddhists. And some of their most strident opponents do claim to be Christian. Many who do not believe in Christ have much more in common with him than those who do. And I believe it is not which beliefs they hold but what they do from those beliefs that matters most.

This Easter, I celebrate not only Jesus's resurrection, but also the continuing efforts of those who act in a way he would surely approve of, no matter what the reasons are that those things are done.

Only Human

"There is none righteous, no, not one."—Romans 3:10

"For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God."—Romans 3:23

One thing I find interesting about how people view religion and faith is how the same thing can lead to such wildly different conclusions. For instance, one or both of those quotes above, or the summary of them, is frequently cited by people as a reason they have issues with Christianity. Yet, for me, they're one of the things that form the bedrock of my belief.

A gospel song I like

One of my favorite gospel songs is one I was introduced to via Babylon 5.

Yes, really.

What I like about Jesuits

I would make a horrible Catholic. I don't agree with many of the Church's positions and teachings, and I don't think I ever could. There are things about the Catholic church I like, and I find some of their ceremonies and rituals beautiful, but they just aren't for me.

But I've always had a soft spot for Jesuits.

Keep the Sabbath Holy

So, apparently, certain right-wing television and radio pundits are really, really upset that the healthcare reform bill vote is going to be on a Sunday, because it's an affront to God to work on the Sabbath.

Strangely, I'm of the opinion that doing something one believes will help the sick is not only God's work (and therefore holy) but also something Jesus would explicitly approve of doing on the Sabbath. I wonder where I got that idea?

Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."

Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent. —Mark 3: 1-4

Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"

He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." —Matthew 12:9-12

God's not the inflexible one

Via Sadly, No!, I was linked to a post basically complaining about the word homophobia and how it's all wrong because Christians don't fear homosexuals, they just... something. I'm not clear on what the "something" is because the article being discussed is really poorly written. I'm not going to get into the debate on the word here because that would distract from my main point, which was brought up in the commentary to the Sadly, No! post, wherein several people highlighted this quote from the original article:

We trust the God who cannot lie, not to change his mind and give us a whole new set of rules just because the times they are a changing. In fact it is God's promise that he will not change his edicts, statutes, restrictions or commands that assure us, even though the world is in a great storm; God is always an immovable rock.

Spurred by a blog comment

One of the purposes of my reading blogs is to give me an idea of what people think. Sometimes I find that a paragraph, a sentence, or even just a phrase gives me something interesting to think about.

In this particular case, the comment mentioned how some Christians feel that only religious- or spiritually-based approaches to address certain behaviors is appropriate, and believes it is tied to the idea that to the idea that redemption comes from God alone.

Christianity and Politics

One of the things I've increasingly noticed of late is the way that so many people assume that you cannot possibly be both Christian and centrist-to-left politically. This seems to be particularly true when it comes to online comments on news stories, blog posts, and other "new media". I find it uncomfortable to participate in many moderate-to-left blog comments because of that perception. (I'm very unlikely to participate in the more conservative ones; I've yet to find a really conservative blogger I can tolerate.)

I'm not sure what else I want to say here. I could make a list of things that not all Christians believe, and get into why some of them do support some of the more moderate or liberal views, such as keeping abortion legal (even if possibly with restrictions), same-sex marriage equality, ceasing to use torture under any circumstances, health care reform, and probably half a dozen other things. I could point to my theories on how evolution and creation can maybe be reconciled, and note that I'm not alone in feeling that way... or point out that there are scientists who do have a faith, some of whom are Christian. I could note that some Christians wince at Young Earth Creationists. I could show examples of interfaith discussions, ones that show respect for non-Christian beliefs and not incidentally serve as statements that not all Christians are knee-jerkingly against Muslims.

I don't know if it would do any good. The far-right Christians (and the outright wingnuts who are also Christian) have some pretty loud voices. And right now, political arguments in the U.S. are running pretty hot, with a lot of people who are fed up or scared or just plain hostile to anyone who doesn't agree with them 100%. I'm not sure anyone's really listening much right now, and that's kinda scary, and really saddening.

Acceptance

In December, I wrote in support of an evangelical church that welcomes gays as they feel homosexuality is a God-given trait like any other. I noted that if sexual orientation isn't a choice, that's the only logical conclusion.

I had a comment (!) noting that even if it were a choice, it wouldn't make gays any less of God's children. The last few days I've been thinking about that, which probably means I should write more on the topic.

First of all, I agree completely. Even if homosexuality was a choice, and even if one thinks it's a sin, that doesn't matter; everyone sins, but that doesn't make them any less of God's creation.

The point I was trying to make is that there are people who do believe sexual attraction isn't a choice and yet still have trouble accepting openly or actively gay members in their churches... and that makes very little sense to me. Seeing someone like Reverend Tidd make the logical conclusion is a welcome change from that attitude, and I really wish more people would follow it.

What bothers me most about it is that churches single out gays for this treatment. Even if one truly believes that homosexual behavior is a sin, why is it the one and only one that can bar someone from membership in the church or the Christian community? As I've said before, no one seems to bar adulterers from their churches (and sometimes not even from their pulpits). No one quizzes anyone on if they've ever coveted, or stolen, or failed to honor their parents, and churches never turn anyone away on the basis of committing those sins—sins that, unlike homosexuality, are actually mentioned in the 10 Commandments, which most Christians believe to be an important part of their faith.

So when I see a Christian church with a more welcoming attitude, I think it's a wonderful thing... and a church that goes beyond simply "welcoming" to actually "accepting", even more so. We could do with some more accepting and less judging in this world.

Insert Title Here

I haven't been doing much writing of any kind, but I've still got a few things in the "to be posted" folder, so I probably should post one of them. *rummages through folder* Ahh, here we go: the perfect post for right before I go read the latest critical post over on slacktivist.

Dear... Too Many People

Are you a Christian? In the U.S.?

Have you opposed health care reform? Said we shouldn't take in Haitian refugees? Said that people should stop throwing money at Haiti? Opposed proposed extra funding for food stamps?

If you answered "yes" to the first two questions, and any of the remaining ones, I'd like you to do me a favor. Go get your Bible. Open it up to Matthew 25. Start reading at verse 31, and finish up the chapter.

I'm not going to say anything else. I think that really about covers it.

Happy Epiphany

I skipped right over Christmas, but since this holiday is frequently forgotten even by some observant Christians, I figure I might as well post something today.

Epiphany, for those who aren't up on their Christian tradition, is more or less the celebration of Christ's, erm, Christliness. Interestingly, though Christmas celebrates his birth, this day also celebrates his birth, along with the revelation of his (literal or symbolic, as you will) son-of-Godness to the magi or three wise men who brought him gifts and possibly his baptism.

Since the U.S. is the major source of the complaining about secular Christmas, it's interesting that there isn't more widespread celebration of Epiphany, which would give such people a purely religious holiday. Not that it isn't celebrated here at all (if not today, at least this coming Sunday), but at this point the gift-giving is over (no myrrh in sight), the tree may already be down, and anyone who went to visit their family over the holidays is probably home. (And, of course, it's not a bank holiday.) You'd think the existence of a purely-religious holiday would be marked with more fuss if people are so upset that their Christmas is too secularly oriented. Plus at least this day doesn't seem to have co-opted any former non-Christian seasonal celebrations...

Eh, I shouldn't expect it to be logical.

In any event, Happy Epiphany! It's a day of joy for anyone who believes in Christ.