Ten days to Christmas.
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Something caught my eye today. It was a short article in the Sunday Star, 10 December 2006. Here I quote excerpts:
Pastor upsets flock with Santa remarks
SYDNEY: Australian Christians were in uproar yesterday after a church minister labelled Santa a "false god" whose greed-is-good gospel runs counter to the Lord's message of peace and love
...
"Santa has usurped the love and devotion and faith of little children," [Pastor Steve] McNeilly [of New Life Christian Church] said.
Instead they busy themselves in the run-up to Christmas with "making lists of 'what I want' and building up expectations of what they will get."
...
Psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg told the Herald Sun newspaper that Santa Claus was a much-loved figure.
"These claims are an absolute outrage," he said. "Were these comments true, we would have generations of children who are just greedy little consumers."
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Just when I thought Christmas materialism couldn't get any worse, I read an e-mail sent by Johnny Ong to The Agora yesterday, about the slaughtering of Christmas in the United States. Again, I will quote excerpts:
Administrators told members of a student club in Westminster, Maryland, they couldn't promote a Christmas child project because it contained the word Christmas.
A senior citizens center in Melrose, Massachusetts, prevented regulars from hanging a "Merry Christmas" banner because of its religious connotations.
Teachers in a Forsyth County, Georgia, school warned pupils not to wish each other a "merry Christmas," instructing them to say "happy holidays" instead.
A school in Texas changed the song "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" to "We Wish You a Swinging Holiday" for a musical performance, while a Wisconsin school completely rewrote "Silent Night." The new lyrics included: "Cold in the night, no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite, how I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm." The lyrics' revision stirred up so much controversy the school later switched back to the original version.
[The moment I saw the new lyrics of 'Silent Night', one of the first thoughts that struck me was, "What the fuck?!"]
"Our society is changing," says John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. "Christianity, which used to have a grip on Western culture, has lost the high ground. Now it's an easy target."
Even the Christmas tree is being driven from public places. When a tree is allowed in a public school or community square, it often is called a celebration tree or community tree.
"That's like saying a duck is a chicken," Whitehead says. "It doesn't even make any sense. People are afraid to even say 'Christmas' or 'God.'"
Whitehead points to the example of a public school in Michigan that eliminated the word 'God' from its holiday concert. Whenever the word appeared in song lyrics, children were supposed to remain silent.
This is madness. Of course, these are only some examples, and should not be assumed to represent the entire United States. But they are nonetheless indicative of certain trends of late. I've never heard of such problems in Malaysia. Makes me proud of my country, indeed.
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On 26 November, I wrote a short piece called 'Reverse Entropy: Thoughts on Christmas'. It was a Sunday, and LS and I weren't on good terms that day. (Sorry!)
The interest of putting it up on this blog waned as time passed, but reading the Star article reignited the flame, and I was convinced I ought to do it.
Reverse Entropy: Thoughts on Christmas
A number of thoughts came to me today, which I thought of blogging on after STPM. But they are the sort of thoughts that may never be recaptured again, so I have decided to set them on paper, in ink.
Today the MPO Family Fun Day was themed 'A Festive Family Fun Day'. The programme notes, written by Marc Rochester, were very secular in nature. But I am not about to condemn him; in these circumstances it is often best for a programme-writer to maintain neutrality -- it wouldn't be good, for instance, if he attempted to critique a piece about to be performed, either. But I digress.
While in the toilet (all the best ideas come there), I wondered: do Christians really know what it means to attack the secularisation of Christmas? Once commercialism is torn down, what will take its place? I wonder if we really understand the magnitude of Christmas.
I think it was Michael [writer's note: Michael William, not Michael the archangel] who, in his sessions on John's Gospel, first got me thinking about the 'energy changes' involved in the incarnation. He was talking about the dynamics of salvation; raising one hand high above the other, then bringing it down to the same level, he said, "Do you know how much energy is involved for God--infinite God--to become man? Do you think God would go through that and let you go?" [note: as in, let you fall out of His grasp]
He didn't actually use the word 'entropy', but reading on it in Chemistry lately convinces me that this incarnational energy change could be considered 'reverse entropy'. For now, it would suffice to cite entropy as the [edit: factor that causes] compressed air to diffuse into the surroundings when a container is opened: particles move towards a more disorganised, 'spread out' state. Since God is infinite, surely it would take infinite energy to 'contain' him and thus reverse this natural tendency.
Are we ready to replace commercial Christmas with an account of Christ that might win the Nobel Prize for Physics (for that matter, the Nobel Peace prize too...)?
On a very encouraging note, I was pleasantly surprised to note that the quietest song today was Silent Night. Seems the musicians are interpreting it better than many Christian circles determined to bring out the 'kick' in it [by creating various rock/pop versions of Silent Night].
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OK, in case what I wrote didn't quite register, I'll summarise it in a thought that came to me today:
We all know that Santa climbs in through the chimney. And we all know that such a feat is impossible. But what happened at that first Christmas was even more impossible, for less effort is required to shrink Santa than to shrink God.
So impossible that it is either true or false, and so impossible that it could very well be true.
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