Christ-free Christmas in the Cards

Current! In Carmel - #7 – Christmas Cards
Spirituality column – Dec. 26, 2006

Christ-free Christmas in the Cards
By Bob Walters

“It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.” —Calvin Coolidge

If you think the reverse of this statement would rightly be, “when men don’t worship, they don’t grow,” you might agree that where the Christmas holiday season is concerned, our mates across the pond have Scrooged themselves.

From Albert Mohler’s Dec. 18 Christian blog, via Jeff Jacoby writing Dec. 13 in the Boston Globe, reporting on a Dec. 8 column in London’s Telegraph, describing a recent survey and report issued by British employment law councilors Peninsula, we learn that 99 percent of “Holiday” cards in the UK not only don’t mention Christmas, angels or Jesus, they don’t even refer to the holiday traditions – Christmas trees, Santa Claus, etc. No Peace on Earth. No Silent Night.

Further, the survey informs, nine of 10 British firms don’t have Christmas parties for fear of being sued by their offended employees. One in 15 Brits attends church.

They can’t be afraid of losing God. He’s already gone.

Christmas-less England. The soon-to-be land of “Winterval.” Prince Charles, a couple years ago, mused that the British royal moniker “Defender of The Faith” should instead be “Defender of Faith” to remove the offending “The Faith,” referring to Christianity. This in a country where the monarch is head of the Christian church.

I wonder what his mum thinks.

Let’s not play Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) and somehow congratulate our American piety. We all have great reason for humility, but we mustn’t miss this very teachable and scary moment.

The good news on this side of the Atlantic is that most people in the U.S. – 80-85 percent – whether they go to church or not, think they are Christians ... and that's a very positive thing. Any believing, practicing, church-going Christian should nurture all those de-facto Christians and all the rest of our neighbors. We too often condemn them rather than needlessly and indiscriminately love them, as we would have them love us.

That might sound familiar (Luke 6:31 and Matthew 7:12).

Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims in a country of 60.5 million, just 2.6 percent, aren’t the problem. It is the Seculars, the post-modern “right and wrong is a matter of opinion” crowd, that destroys Christianity. Don’t think it isn’t happening in America, and don’t blame believers of other faiths. Christmas is up to you: resolve to be a better Christian.

Now, those Christmas cards still hanging in your house? Those are all from people who, to one degree or another, love you.

Do them the honor of making a New Year’s resolution to grow in 2007.

Walters, a Carmel resident, has never been to England but he kinda likes the Beatles. Contact him at rlwcom@aol.com.

Elton John's Yellow Brick Breakdown

Spirituality column #3
Nov. 21 (written Nov. 14)
Current in Carmel

Yellow Brick Breakdown
By Bob Walters

Maybe the greatest pathway to sin is “convenience.”

So much of our religious life, or lack thereof, is a referendum on our personal “convenience” (a word, incidentally, that does not appear in the Bible, not even The Message). Whether we are very churched, very unchurched or somewhere in between, convenience too often plays a gate keeping role in our faith and religious practice.

This notion popped into my head when I was reading Elton John’s comments last week that he would “ban religion completely” because “it doesn’t work” and “religion turns us into hateful lemmings.”

Sir Elton is certainly free to declare religion disappointing. Religion, when it reflects human passions instead of God’s glory, can be a real mess. We are flawed humans and we get religion wrong all the time (OK, maybe you don’t). Anyway, Elton might have a point.

On the other hand …

Elton went on to compare himself to the Queen Mother (re: his place in British culture), says people treat him reverently, and that he and spouse Dave are the acceptable face of gayness.

Religion, declares Sir Elton, is generally hateful and lacks compassion. In the next sentence, he calls on religious leaders solve the world’s problems. He’ll fight for gay rights and “can’t sit back and blindly ignore it.”

C’mon Elton. Sing your songs and shut up already.

This is a huge, teachable moment; not about gayness or inflated self concept or crippled logic, but about bad personal worldview editing. The common tragedy of celebrity is that one occupies a center that should properly be occupied by God.

When you are Elton John, filled with so much talent and capable of expressing so much love, I suspect religion is especially befuddling because in its best form its divine peace is so desirable, its human failings so disappointing, and especially-times-two, its humility and discipline so utterly inconvenient.

We should examine our “Sir Elton” moments when our faith is a function of convenience; or worse, when our “religious” actions validate Sir Elton’s assessment.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com), a Carmel resident, wonders if the Queen Mother ever thinks she is Elton John.