Traveling in Place

Standing with Arab Christians

On Christmas Day, Islamic extremists attacked a Christian church in Nigeria during worship.  Twenty-six people were killed.  This kind of tragedy is an all-too-frequent result of the otherwise promising “Arab Spring” that is sweeping the Middle East and Northern Africa.  In October, extremists in Egypt opened fire on Christians as the Egyptian military turned a blind eye.  Twenty-four Christians were killed and 300 wounded.  Over the past year, Egyptian Christians have been under relentless assault.  Jihadists have destroyed churches, vandalized homes, and disrupted Christian neighborhoods.  In Iraq, the plight of Christians has grown worse every year since the toppling of Saddam Hussein.  The Wall Street Journal recently reported that since 2003, 54 Iraqi churches have been bombed and 905 Christians have been killed.  Christians in Syria, Iran, and Pakistan also live in constant fear.  Across the Middle East and Northern Africa, Christians are fleeing by the hundreds of thousands.  Ironically, the day may come when no Christians live in the land of the Bible.

All those repressive regimes that are falling like dominoes in the Arab world had been giving protection to minority Christian populations in order to win the favor of Western nations, especially the United States.  Now that popular revolts are taking down those regimes, the protections enjoyed by Christians have been swept away.  Here in the U.S., reaction to the Arab Spring tends to fall into one of two broad categories. 

Christmas Sunday

Note: This post was updated on 12/26/11

Christmas doesn’t fall on a Sunday very often – only ten times every 100 years, but not in regular intervals.  (The next time will be in 2022, and then, not again until 2033.) This makes no difference to Catholics and high-church Protestants who always hold worship services on Christmas Day.  But going to church on Christmas morning is a bit of a novelty to most Protestants, including me.  I love our Christmas Eve services, especially the late one that ends with the lighting of the Christ candle at midnight.  Because we “sing in” Christmas with that service, we don’t normally worship together the following morning.  But when Christmas falls on a Sunday, we don’t cancel church.  We hold only one service.  The crowd is small, but those who come want to be there.

One reason Christmas Day worship is nice is that some carols are written specifically to be sung on Christmas morning.  For instance, the third verse of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” begins, “Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning,” and “Good Christians Friends, Rejoice” includes the line “Give ye heed to what we say: Jesus Christ is born today.” 

And then there are the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow set to music in “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.”  Longfellow penned this poem in the depths of the Civil War, contemplating the dissonance between the gunshots of war and the

A Gray Winter Solstice

It’s the first day of winter – the shortest day of the year.  It’s also pretty dark.  The rain is steady; the sky is overcast.  We have been uncharacteristically bereft of snow this December.  While many long-time residents of Central New York reflexively say they are glad for every day without snow, they seem unaware of how crabby they sound with this meager expression of thanks.  Snow in December and early January lightens the landscape and reduces the effect of having so little light.  Without it, the world is gray.  There is no crispness in the air.  And it doesn’t look much like Christmas.

So on this winter solstice, our affect is more seasonally disordered than usual.  We can appreciate to a greater degree the need of our ancestors to fashion elaborate ceremonies of light to cope with this dark moment of the year.  In ancient Rome, the festival of Saturnalia (“birth of the Sun”) was observed by exchanging gifts and dancing around evergreen trees.  In Northern Europe, peasants lit fires to chase away the evil spirits and bid the god of light to return.  Later, Christianity embraced elements of these pagan festivals to celebrate the birth of Christ – “the true light that enlightens everyone.”

Christmas in the "Service" Economy

When I was in high school in the late 1970’s, I worked part-time as a disc jockey for a local radio station whose policy was not to play any Christmas music until December 10.  Listeners actually called us earlier in the month begging us to cue up “Frosty the Snowman” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” but our program manager never budged.  This was actually good for business.  People knew they had to wait to hear their holiday favorites, and the anticipation increased attention to the station’s playlist.  Starting on December 10, we DJ’s were allowed to program two Christmas songs each hour.  Then, on Christmas Eve at 6 p.m., the station (whose format was Top 40), broadcast Handel’s “Messiah,” followed by continuous commercial-free Christmas music until noon on Christmas Day.

How quaint.  A few years ago, radio stations started playing round-the-clock Christmas music on the day after Thanksgiving.  At the time, only one station in any given market would program wall-to-wall holiday fare.  Then, multiple stations in the same market adopted the same strategy, the only difference being who switched to this format first.  Now, one station in Central New York starts playing 24-hour-a-day Christmas music on November 1.  By Thanksgiving, four stations are offering nothing but Christmas music.  If I were a (compact) disc jockey at any of these stations, I would lose my mind by the middle of December.

Exploiting Injustice

Today, the most unpopular person in Central New York has to be Gloria Allred, a celebrity attorney who tries cases in the court of public opinion before they ever go to trial.  Allred has convinced stepbrothers Michael Lang and Bobby Davis, both of whom have alleged they were abused as boys by Syracuse University assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, to sue the head coach, Jim Boeheim, and the university for defamation of character.

Boeheim initially defended Fine and accused Lang and Davis of lying and hoping for a monetary settlement.  Then, confronted with evidence that got Fine fired from the university, he apologized.  A few days later, he apologized again and pledged support for a local agency that advocates for child victims of sexual abuse.  Officials at the agency have praised Boeheim for his sincerity and his support of their work.  But at a press conference in New York yesterday, Allred mocked Boeheim’s apology, calling it “too little, too late.”  She alleges he had already done irreparable harm to her clients.

The case against Boeheim is pretty thin.  I’m not making that judgment on my own.  It’s what legal experts have already concluded.  But that doesn’t matter to Allred.  The aim here is not to win, or even try a case, but instead to create enough public embarrassment for Boeheim and SU to force a settlement.  Ironically, two men are suing Boeheim for saying they were only interested in a monetary settlement, which is exactly what they are now after.

Why the Pink Candle, Pastor?

This year, more people than ever have asked me to explain the meaning of the pink candle in the Advent wreath.  Why not four purple candles?  What’s so special about that third Sunday of Advent?  I regard this interest as a positive sign that folks are paying close attention to the visual symbols and practices of Christian worship. 

For more on the origin of the Advent wreath, I refer you to an earlier post entitled "Bearing the Light in Advent."  Here’ what I have learned about the pink candle.  In the Middle Ages, Advent was a season of penitence – a somber time of fasting and brooding over one’s sins.  On the third Sunday of Advent, Christians paused from this rather severe observance to notice that the time for repentance was nearing an end and the festival of Christmas was fast approaching.  That Sunday was called “Gaudete” Sunday, or “Rejoice” Sunday. 

Dealing with Disillusionment

Last night, our beloved Syracuse University basketball team looked flat, but they came away with another win.  They’ve already beaten one Top 10 team this season and are ranked 3rd in the nation.  The experts say this year’s team might be the most talented SU has fielded in decades.  To channel Chris Berman: they could – go – all – the – way!

But a pall hangs over the basketball program because Assistant Coach Bernie Fine is under investigation for sexual abusing young boys.  Before the university fired him last week, Fine had been in his position for 36 years.  He was the wordless fixture anchoring the bench during games, a symbol of the program’s stability.  For the last month, however, he’s been absent as local and national media report every sordid detail of “the Syracuse scandal.”  At first, it all seemed so unbelievable.  Lots of fans nervously consoled themselves that someone was trying to take advantage of the Penn State scandal.  But as details have dribbled out, it seems more and more likely that terrible crimes were being committed in the shadows of this high-profile program that gives people in cold, gray Central New York a reason to cheer every year.

Not in the Bible

Recently, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney rallied behind President Obama’s push for a jobs bill by appealing to Holy Scripture. “I believe the phrase from the Bible is, ‘The Lord helps those who help themselves,’” he said.  Ouch.  I’m not sure how this statement supports Carney’s point, but even if it does, it is nowhere in Scripture.  At least the White House noted Carney’s error in its transcript of the press conference.

But a lot of people don’t know that Carney was wrong.  According to a Barna Group survey reported by Religion News Service, 75% of all Americans believe that the proverb, “God helps those who help themselves” comes from the Bible.  Actually, the phrase as we quote it first appeared in the writings of English political theorist Algernon Sydney in 1698.  Sydney may have been paraphrasing George Herbert, who wrote in 1651, “Help thyself and God will help thee.”  The saying became popular in America when it appeared in Ben Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1739.

The proverb fits well with the American philosophy of self-reliance, but it actually runs counter to the teachings of Scripture.  It implies that God’s favor must be earned, which is in direct contradiction to the New Testament teaching that we are saved by grace and not by works.  It also clashes with numerous biblical texts that command God’s people to give freely to the poor without expecting anything in return. 

“God helps those who help themselves” is not the only phrase mistakenly attributed to the Bible.  Here are a few more bits of verbiage that are often, and mistakenly, quoted as Scripture.  In each case, I have cited (as far as I have been able to ascertain) the correct attributions.