Radical Christmas

international | anti-war / imperialism | press release

Tuesday December 23, 2008 03:03

by Ciaron - Catholic Worker/Ploughshares

For radical Christians the celebration of Christmas is informed by the Feast of the Holy Innocents that soon follows on Dec 28th. The season has become one of celebration, solidarity and nonviolent resistance to the contemporary slaughter of the innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan etc

..........as Liz McAlister of Jonah House www.jonahhouse.org reflects......

"Each year it grows more difficult to make sense out of the onslaught of yuletide opportunism. One must search earnestly for the Hope of Advent amid the cacaphony of a society transfixed by its own hopelessness. The Church is rarely helpful, prey of an uncontroversial understanding of the Incarnation. To a discerning mind, in touch with the agonizing realities of the age, cognizant of the bomb's lordship over culture and society, the contradictions of the Christmas season are almost too great to bear.

Biblical people need to constantly re-read and understand the Advent story in light of present realities - to lose hold of it is to miss its hope. I submit that the Advent accounts in Biblical literature are full of insight not only into salvation-history but into the politics of our own history as well. The story of the Christ child is only half a story - a gross mis-representation of our hope. A full reading confronts us with not only the joy and promise of Advent, but its cost and its redemptive agony.

From friends at Jonah House I first learned that the two liturgical events on the Church's calendar, Christmas (December 25) and the Feast of the Holy Innocents (December 28) are profoundly connected - a unity. Biblically this is to be encountered in the Gospel of Matthew and his deployment of prophecies from both Micah (5: 1-3) and Jeremiah (31: 15,16) in his advent account (Mt 2:6,18). The message of the Gospel is manifest: the connection between Bethlehem and Ramah is essential, the cost and the hope of the Incarnation are one."
Liz McAlister
Jonahh House
Harrisburg Conspiracy Defendant
Griffis Ploughshares

Here some efforts going down over the next week to reengage with the season in our times...........

*Link to Open Door CW (Gerogia U.S.A) Advent Conspiracy Vid (3 mins)
http://followingthetracks.blogspot.com/2008/12/open-doo....html

*Feast of Holy Innocents Retreat Washingotn D.C. USA
http://www.jonahhouse.org/FRDec08index.htm

*Feast of Holy Innocents at Stratcom, Omaha, USA
An online invitation to the Feast of the Holy Innocents Retreat may be read at:
http://www.desmoinescatholicworker.org/feastofholyinnoc....html

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Greetings from Bethlehem

by Daoud Nassar & Family

Tue Dec 23, 2008 03:09

Bethlehem

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Bethlehem.

It is something special to celebrate Christmas on the spot where the WORD became FLESH and it is wonderful to be on the place where the Angels were singing: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace .

Before more than two thousand years, at the time when Jesus was born, the situation was not too much different than it is today, the small town of Bethlehem was under the Roman Occupation; the people were having a hard time, all corners, paths and roads of Bethlehem were full of Soldiers, who oppressed the life of the people and made it unbearable. During that difficult time and hopeless situation, the King of peace was born in Bethlehem and brought the message of Peace to all nations. In Luke chapter 2 we read, the Angel said to them: Do not be afraid; for see I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people . King Herod tried to kill that message, he thought by killing all the children of Bethlehem, he would achieve that, but he couldn t. The message of Love and forgiveness is still living until today.

Today, Palestine is still under occupation not the Roman but the Israeli. Land has been destroyed; hundreds of thousands of olive trees have been uprooted from the soil for settlements expansion, for roads and for the Apartheid wall. Bethlehem is now surrounded by a wall and in order to come into the city to celebrate Christmas one has to cross through gates and check points that are guarded by military. The Palestinian cities are totally disconnected from each other. People are frustrated and are disappointed from the peace process; the unemployment rate is about 55% or even more. People and especially youth are loosing their hope for peace, stability and for a better future.

People are frustrated and are living day by day and waiting for super power to solve our problems, some are even giving up their hope.

Our farm is still threatened to be confiscated for the expansion of the Israeli settlements. We are in the Israeli courts defending the land since 1991. We went and we are still going through many difficulties, dangerous situations and aggressions from the Israeli settlers who came many times uprooting olive trees and damaging our infrastructure. But we are people who believe in justice and we believe that the sun of justice will rise again.

We don't want to react in a violent way, we are against violence. We don't want to accept the injustice and we don't want to resign and give up. On the opposite, we want our voices to be heard all over the world and we want people to listen to our message "We refuse to be enemies'. With this message we started the Tent of Nations on our farm as a way to resist the injustice in a non violent way. We want our frustration to be invested in a constructive way and acting instead of reacting. We wanted the farm to be a place for encounter and gatherings, for people from different Nations, cultures and religions to come together, to build bridges of understanding, of reconciliation and peace. This is the Tent of Nations that is building bridges not only between people and people, but also between people and land, since there will be no future for any nation without its land and also the land will never have a future without its nation.

The message of the King of Peace was much stronger than Herod and his soldiers; we believe that this message is still very strong today and will overcome all barriers; checkpoints and walls and will reach to comfort us, wherever we are.

We pray to God to bless you all and keep you in HIS loving care. We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Please pray with us for peace, justice and reconciliation in the Holy Land.

Salaam and Blessings from

Daoud Nassar & family

Christmas 2008
Tent of Nations

-People Building Bridges-

The massacre of the holy innocents is pure fantasy.

by Sceptic

Tue Dec 23, 2008 11:50

The writer Josephus never mentioned any massacre of the innocents, he never mentions any census of the people of the Roman Empire, he never mentions any celestial phenomena and he does not mention the arrival of sages from the East who met with King Herod. The biblical stories of the New Testament are in fact a rehash of ancient Egyptian, Jewish, Zorastorian and Greek myths.
The demi-god who born of a virgin who was impregnated by the sky god very old stable of religions that pre-dated Christianity.

False Christmas

by Michael Hogan

Tue Dec 23, 2008 17:00

The followers of the vast majority of the Christian Church have been hoodwinked, into believing that their Lord and Saviour was born on 25th December.

That is an utter lie, a total untruth.

Jesus was very definitely not born in winter time, he was born either in April or in August. Even the theologians of the Jehovah's Witnesses know that; as does any other christian theologian.

So why was December 25th taken over, because of there were so many pagan faiths who held 5 day rituals on and around this day, to welcome back the returning Sun, the lengthening of daylight.

It was very convenient for the Christian Elders to talk of The Birth of the Son when in actual fact it is the birth of the Sun.

People you have been foxed!

massacre

by lulu

Tue Dec 23, 2008 17:08

The Massacre of the Innocents goes on to this day, in Iraq, Darfur, Afghanistan...even at home..

d.o.b.

by easter bunny

Tue Dec 23, 2008 17:40

He was born in April was he? Maybe April First?

Communist Christmas Song (3mins)

by Communist Christmas Song (3mins)

Tue Dec 23, 2008 18:07

Communist Christmas Song (3mins)

http://rathergood.com/christmas

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Comments (6 of 6)