President-elect Obama has invited evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration. That choice has upset some of Obama’s most ardent supporters — chiefly gay-rights and pro-choice groups — who don’t like the fact that Warren doesn’t support abortion rights and opposes gay marriage. They say Obama should not give Warren a prominent public stage. What say you about Obama’s choice of inaugural preacher, and what, if anything, does it portend for his administration’s policies or approaches to divisive social issues?

Rev Brian Carpenter– Presbyterian Church in America

According to an interview in the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Obama is not in favor of gay marriage either:

In an interview with the Chicago Daily Tribune, Obama said, “I’m a Christian. And so, although I try not to have my religious beliefs dominate or determine my political views on this issue, I do believe that tradition, and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified between a man and a woman.”

http://lesbianlife.about.com/od/lesbianactivism/p/BarackObama.htm

So it’s… shall we say… interesting that they love Obama so much and dislike Warren so much.

Having said that, I think it’s a nice gesture, and a way reaching out to religious conservatives.  It probably won’t do much good.  Most religious conservatives are still alarmed at the prospect of Mr. Obama’s presidency and will continue to view him with suspicion.  Many are convinced he’s a closet Muslim.  Some are convinced he’s the Antichrist.

I confess I hadn’t thought much about the whole thing other than that I was pretty sure Mr. Obama wasn’t going to ask the Rev. Jeremiah Wright or the Rev. Jesse Jackson to pray the prayer.  Billy Graham often served as the “National Chaplain” in times like these.  He is too frail to do the job anymore, and his son, Franklin, has not been able to fill his shoes.  He lacks his father’s amiable, flexible nature.  I think Rev. Warren is angling to become the new public face of evangelicalism in this generation.  We’ll see if he gets his wish.  We’ll also see if he ends up wanting what he’s gotten.

What interests me is whether or not Rev. Warren will pray his prayer “in the name of Christ” or “in the name of Jesus.”  There is a little understood but nonetheless major issue of Christian theology behind that little phrase.  He is pretty much in for vociferous criticism whichever way he goes.  To paraphrase a line from the movie Princess Bride, “I do not envy him the headache he will have in the morning.”

If I were in Rev Warren’s shoes, I wonder if I would find it to be worth all the fuss for what has been essentially reduced to a bit of political kabuki theatre.

Dr. William Bogard — Jewish

As a strong Obama supporter–and Gay Rights,  Pro-Choice, and most of the Progressive “Agenda”–I applaud the his choice of Rick Warren to give an  Inauguration prayer. Dr. Wallerstein was quite correct: Warren’s presence on the podium signals Obama’s desire to change the divisive nature of the national dialogue to one of “inclusiveness.”  May I make one suggestion to the individual in charge of the seating arrangements on the dais: seat Rev. Warren between a gay or lesbian and a vocal Feminist.  Thereby, all citizens observing the ceremony can clearly observe that ““there is no Blue America; there is no Red America. There is only the United States of America.”

Dr. Nicholas Wallerstein–religious studies professor

For two years, Obama has been saying he would bring “change” to Washington, the kind of change that would do away with divisive partisanship between Democrat and Republican, between liberal and conservative. Part of his inclusive strategy is to invite and engage differing opinions and view points. The selection of Pastor Rick Warren is part of that new approach of inclusiveness. As Obama has said, “there is no Blue America; there is no Red America. There is only the United States of America.”

When Obama said he would bring this kind of change to politics and to Washington, apparently his left-wing followers thought he was kidding. His choice of Warren (and two Republicans in his Cabinet) shows that he wasn’t.

Also, I read the following on CNN.com: “Some atheists want Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony to leave out references to God and religion. In a lawsuit, the plaintiffs demand the words ‘So help me God’ not be added to the end of the oath of office. The plaintiffs say they are being forced to choose between not watching the inauguration or watching endorsements of ‘purely religious notions.’”

This is a strange problem. To the best of my knowledge, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently said that references to God are a normal part of the American Judeo-Christian culture (Christmas, for instance, happens to be a national holiday), and that government references to God are not perpetuating any kind of “state religion.” Hence, the Court has upheld the phrase “one nation, under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, which was added to the Pledge under Eisenhower. God is also referred to on our money. And what is written above the nine seats of the Supreme Court, carved in marble? The Ten Commandments.

I think it’s useful to remember that the Constitution guarentees freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. It is simply absurd to claim that, as an atheist, you are forced not to watch the inauguration merely because God is mentioned. Should anarchists sue because the Oath of Office mentions that the president is being sworn in to uphold the Constitution? An anarchist may find the notion of a government constitution just as offensive as an atheist might find the reference to God. But since when are we guarenteed not to be offended once in a while? Is there a constitional ban on not getting our feelings hurt? I don’t think so.

Don Jones - Buddhist

I personally don’t have a problem with references to “God” (Atheists tend to foam around the mouth sometimes) but….. There are people of all faiths in almost every city in the U.S.  If the whole prayer is going to be about Jesus then I think problems will arise. President elect Obama is going to lead all the people in America not just Christians.  Lets hope this prayer will give everyone faith in themselves that things will be better.

The end of the year always seems filled with lists: looking back at the news that was and forward to what’s to come. The Religions Newswriter’s Association said three of the top 10 religion stories of 2008 had to do with the 2008 presidential election: 1. Rev. Jeremiah Wright, 2.  the role faith played in the election and 3. Gov. Sarah Palin’s appeal to evangelical Christian voters.

But there were many other interesting faith-related stories last year. Do you agree with RNA members? If not, what gets your vote for the top religion story of 2008, and why?

Father Thomas Williams - St. John’s Orthodox Church

The mother sitting  beside a bed in Pediatrics, her head bowed in deep communion with God, praying for her baby daughter.

The father rising early before work, praying over each of his children before going to work at a job he implores God to help him keep.

The family that adopts a Down’s Syndrome baby because, as one member said, “we have plenty of room at our inn.”

The U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan who build a tiny chapel in the middle of nowhere so a chaplain from an eastern European nation has a place to pray with his soldiers.

The U.S. soldier clinging to a blood-spattered Iraqi baby while dodging incoming fire as he runs to a field aid station.

The grandmother standing in the rain and holding a “No More Abortions” sign as drivers whiz by honking at her and shouting profanities.

The retired couple who prepare breakfast for the homeless every morning in a poor neighborhood, using money from their own, shrinking retirement accounts.

While many, they are really one story: The story of the Believer in 2008.

 

Brian Carpenter - Presbyterian Church in America

I actually disagree with these journalists about the top story, though I think the one I would choose has not yet made it’s full significance known.  I think #7 will end up being historically most significant:

Ministries hold their breath as financial crisis threatens the global economy.

I think it’s most significant because of what it means for everyone, not just ministries.  I am a serious student of economics, banking, and monetary theory.  The reasons are religious, but not relevant here.  I’ve devoted at least an hour a day to this subject, almost every day, for about the last seven or eight years.  I’ve actually flirted with exploring the history of usury (charging interest) in Christian thought as a Ph.D. thesis.  I’m especially interested in the quantum shift in Protestant thought that occurred in the middle of the 17th Century.  Some of my friends think I come close to being a monomaniac on the subject sometimes.

It is my conviction that we are in the first or second inning of a Great Depression at least as severe as the Depression of the 1930’s.  Perhaps it will even be more severe, because it will be truly global.  Even the countries historically most closed to Western monetary theory and practice (Russia, China, Eastern Europe, even Vietnam) are participants.   I believe it will initially be deflationary and then morph into inflation or hyperinflation.

This situation is a direct result of the modern monetary system we have erected for ourselves.  The whole edifice may well come crashing down under the weight of its own internal contradictions and inherent instability.  If it does, something new will have to be built in its place.  Nobody in authority seems to know what to do.  Indeed, they seem to not even understand the gravity of the situation.  The old levers and mechanisms have failed.  The world economic system is a ship without a rudder and some very nasty rocks and cliffs are nearby.

This is not just a matter of economics, but of morals and ethics as well. As CS Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity:

“There is one bit of advice given to us by the ancient heathen Greeks, and by the Jews in the Old Testament, and by the great Christian teachers of the Middle Ages, which the modern economic system has completely disobeyed. All these people told us not to lend money at interest: and lending money at interest - what we call investment - is the basis of our whole system. Now it may not absolutely follow that we are wrong. Some people say that when Moses and Aristotle and the Christians agreed in forbidding interest (or ‘usury’ as they called it), they could not foresee the joint stock company, and were only thinking of the private moneylender, and that, therefore, we need not bother about what they said. That is a question I cannot decide on. I am not an economist and I simply do not know whether the investment system is responsible for the state we are in or not. That is where we want the Christian economist. But I should not have been honest if I had not told you that three great civilizations had agreed (or so it seems at first sight) in condemning the very thing on which we have based our whole life.”

I think the matter deserves far more discussion that it has gotten.  I do credit Roman Catholic philosophers and theologians with what discussion it has gotten, but once again I’m not sure that there’s not too much Aristotelianism lurking in the background.

At the very least, we all shall soon have the opportunity to relearn simplicity, generosity, self sufficiency, productivity, frugality, thrift, and contentment.

Don Jones - Buddhist

The RNA is unfortunately correct about #2.  The role religion played in the presidential campaign was excessive, annoying, and a little dangerous.  The position of President of the United States is a secular one and it was very sad to see noisy Christian power brokers run the candidates through their gauntlet of scrutiny.  I’m hoping the next major contender is Jewish.

Happy Hanukkah everyone!!

Dr. Nicholas Wallerstein–religious studies professor

I would argue that #3 (which I will phrase slightly differently) was the top religion story of the year: the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin to be the vice president of the United States. This was a fantastically dangerous choice for John McCain to make. I believe actor Matt Damon hit the nail on the head when he said that it was a terrible risk to our nation for McCain to select Palin. You take a person who believes  the dinosaurs lived only 4000 years ago, based on her religious upbringing. Do we really want such a person to have the codes to the nuclear arsenal?

Pastor Wilbur Holz — Trinity Lutheran Church

The news story which I think is most important in religious news is what the people of God have been able to accomplish and continue to accomplish. I know that the full scope of what is given, of what service is rendered, of what is wrought through prayer is never able to be fully known. Still, it would be nice if some where in the national media attention was paid to the power of faith in our nation. When I think of all the good which is being done in our community it becomes overwhelming. The first consideration is of course all those who are living out their faith by volunteering, by giving. Where would organizations like Habitat for Humanity or Cornerstone be without people of faith supporting them. What ministry would Salvation Army or Church Response or the Food Bank accomplish if not supported by the church, the body of Christ. I know our congregation and many others are also points of contact for serving the needs of Rapid City. In one way or another I would expect that all the congregations of Rapid City are caring for needs in our community. When this service is multiplied across the nation what mighty things does God accomplish through the people of God.

I would also love to know how much is given to congregations so that ministry can happen. Ministry in communities, ministry throughout the state and nation, ministry around the world happens because of the stewardship of faithful people. Hurricane relief, rebuilding after tornadoes are a couple of ministries of Lutheran Disaster Response. I trust other denominational charities meet needs during times of crisis in our nation and around the world. If that were removed from the landscape it would be at least difficult and probably frightening to contemplate the repercussions. It is impossible to know the full scope of ministry, of social good which is accomplished by the people of God. Still, I believe some acknowledgment of it would be a very good thing.

Another related point would be the many Christians, people of faith who are faithfully living out their lives. How many people of faith carry out their respective occupations with honor and dedication? Police officers, librarians, garbage collectors, elected officials and many others, the list is as long and as varied as there are occupations. How many people of faith serve in “normal” capacities which are a blessing to our society and our world. Anyone who serves faithfully and well in their profession is rendering service unto God and blessing others. Anyone who serves as a faithful husband or wife, as caring friend also helps to maintain the good order of the world which God intends.

I once heard a speaker who talked about responsibility for all of the things which do not happen which can be lain at the feet of people of faith. The divorces that do not happen, the crimes which do not happen, the abuse which is prevented because God is at work in the lives of God’s people and faith shapes who they are and what they do.

It is awesome to contemplate the many ways the kingdom of God is advanced and the kingdom of this world is supported through the efforts of people of faith. That would be news worth reporting on.

Hanukkah and Christmas often share the December calendar and this year the two holidays overlap so as to make it nearly impossible not to ask how the messages of the two might compare. Hanukkah begins at sundown Dec. 21, which means Jews will be lighting the fourth candle of the menorah on Christmas Eve. Western South Dakota has a tiny Jewish community compared to its Christian population. Tell me about the history of Hanukkah, what its spiritual relevance is and what, if anything, it means for modern-day Jews to have Christmas fall smack dab in the middle of it.

 

Father Thomas Williams - St. John’s Orthodox Church

 

Soon after the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 165 B.C., and perhaps as a result of it, there were a number of pious Jewish sects that came forth and who had an effect on that Holy Temple, and on Judea in general. One that we know a great deal about was the Essenes, because of the Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. But there were other groups of “holy penitents,” like the followers of St. John the Baptist.  The “Anawim” were waiting for the Messiah, The Consolation of Isreal, in daily prayer and fasting. It is likely that St. John the Forerunner, his parents, Zacharias and Anna, The Holy Virgin Mary and her parents, Joachim and Anna, and Simeon, the God receiver of Jerusalem, as well as Anna the widow who served in the Temple, were all “Anawim.”

 

All of these holy Ones are prominent in the first three chapters of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, as well as the Protoevangelium of St. James, the sources of the Church’s Liturgies and teachings in the Holy Season of the Nativity. All of these Holy Ones are tied closely to the Temple that was blessed and reconsecrated under the Maccabees after the shameful profaining by the Hellenists in the century before Christ’s birth. Hanukkah and Christmas share the December calendar and much more, for it was in the Great Temple purified by the Maccabees a 150 years earlier that Jesus Christ  was presented by His parents soon after his Nativity. 

 

 

Dr. Nicholas Wallerstein–religous studies professor

 

The minor holiday of Hanukah is what’s called a “post-biblical” holiday, because it is not prescribed in the Torah, unlike the much holier holidays of Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. According to Rabbi  Hayim Halevy Donin, “Hanukah commemorates the historic victory of the Jewish Maccabeans over the ruling Assyrian-Greek regime that had taken over Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukah means ‘dedication,’ and refers to the rededication of the Temple in 165 B.C. to the service of God after it had been defiled with pagan images and practices.” Much of Hanukah is a celebration of oil, actually, for the small amount of oil used to rededicate the Temple was supposed to last only a short while, but through a miracle lasted eight days—hence the eight days of Hanukah. To celebrate oil, Jews will often cook food like latkes, potato pancakes deep fried in oil (popular with western South Dakota Scandinavians as well).

As for the close proximity of Hanukah and Christmas this year: Hanukah moves around a bit in our western calendar because it is what is called a “movable feast,” meaning that the day moves in accordance with a lunar calendar, not the sun, much in the same way the Christian holy day of Easter moves around based on the moon.

I know in my own family, the proximity of the two holidays creates interesting effects. My wife and two stepchildren are Jewish, so the kids anxiously await Hanukah, like Christian children awaiting Christmas, so that they can open presents. Traditionally, Jews give one present a night for all eight nights of Hanukah, but in our home, the kids get all their presents on the first night, making it more exciting for them. My wife makes latkes, we spin the dradle, and the evening is generally very fun. One thing interesting is that my wife has never minded when merchants say “Merry Christmas” to her; she knows that no one has any idea she’s Jewish, for there are so few Jews in western South Dakota. She also knows Christmas is a national holiday. She also loves Christmas carols. It’s hard to avoid carols growing up in America, and she has therefore listened to them and loved them since her childhood in Kansas. Same with my stepchildren, one of whom sings in the middle school choir, and sang carols at a senior living center just yesterday.

Having grown up Christian, I’ve always thought of Christmas as a holiday more for children than adults, as Easter is the great high holy day for Christians. I suppose the same could be said of Hanukah: it’s a wonderful holiday for kids and the joy they derive from giving and receiving gifts. The profound and very serious “Days of Awe” of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in the fall seem to be quite less appealing to children than Hanukah!

 

Evangelical Christian spokesman Richard Cizik’s willingness to talk about everything from global warming to gay rights has made him the darling of many in that community who hope to expand the evangelical political agenda beyond opposition to abortion and gay marriage. But Cizik’s recent comments in an NPR interview that he was re-evaluating his position on civil unions for homosexuals got him demoted from his leadership position with the National Association of Evangelicals last week. But what about Cizik’s point? Do you think there’s any scriptural support for the idea of same sex civil unions?  Or does it even matter if there is? Should the idea of marriage as civil contract be divorced, no pun intended, from the idea of marriage as a religious ceremony and belief?

 

Rev. Brian Carpenter- Presbyterian Church in America

The only way to find scriptural support for homosexuality or homosexual unions is to engage in gross eisegesis (reading or placing ideas into the scriptures) rather than exegesis (drawing ideas out of the scriptures.)  Jesus was very clear in Mark 10:6-9 that God had a creative intent in making male and female, and it was for marriage.  The Bible is crystal clear in both the Old and New Testaments that homosexual behavior is a sin.  Those who point out that Jesus never specifically addressed homosexuality in his earthly ministry are not thinking very straight, or have a defective view of Jesus Christ.  He didn’t specifically address beastiality, rape, usury, idolatry, respect for parents, theft, drunkenness or drug abuse either.  Shall we conclude that he was in favor of those things or that they weren’t important?  Jesus taught as if he took for granted that the scriptures were authoritative, and when they are properly understood we see that he never contradicted them.  All orthodox Christians (Protestant, Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox) believe Jesus Christ existed before the Incarnation and was active in the giving of the Hebrew Scriptures.  All orthodox Christians, (Protestant, Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox) believe he was present with the Church after the Ascension and instructed his Apostles as they wrote what became the New Testament. (John 16:12-13)  If someone doesn’t believe that, that’s their right, of course.  But why bother to call yourself Christian?  There simply isn’t any scriptural legitimacy for any other way of doing it, whether the current cover of Newsweek says there is or not.

Gay activists have thrown tantrums all over the country because the voters of California overturned the gay marriage law.  Nasty things have been said about Christians, Mormons, and African Americans.  On the Colbert Report, one activist said he was quite happy that those of the older generation who were more conservative in their values didn’t have much longer to live.  In Lansing, Michigan a group of homosexual terrorists took over a church in the middle of Sunday morning worship and trashed and desecrated it.  Foul and blasphemous language was used in the presence of children.  Two lesbians took over the pulpit and began kissing.  This was not a church that was particularly vocally anti gay-rights.  It was a vanilla non-denomination evangelical church.  The pastor had just finished praying for Barack Obama when the obscenities began.

(http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=80743)

All of which, of course, the mainstream media ignored.

Gay activists regularly point out that heterosexual marriages are a mess.  And so they are.  And those sins are sins which are either forgiven by the grace of God or not, depending on the circumstances and the people involved.  I will not excuse them.  However, pointing out that somebody else is sinning doesn’t justify your own sinning.

I will concede that the gay rights activists have something of a point.  I found that when I pastored a small-town church in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), my old denomination, that the Bible became very important when we were talking about gay marriage and gay ordination.  It was significantly less important when the issue was a foul mouth, or tithing, or sleeping together apart from marriage, or paying all one’s income taxes, or one’s own unbiblical divorce, or if one wanted to skip church and play golf all summer.  Cultural conservatism and the “ick” factor most heterosexuals feel when contemplating gay sex can often wrap themselves in Christianity, but they’re not the same thing as Christianity.

I am puzzled by this desire to find scriptural legitimacy for lawmaking in this country when we ignore the scriptures about everything from our monetary system to our foreign policy to our family policy.  We simply pretend the scriptures don’t speak on those points.  We aren’t even aware of what they say. Therefore it’s pretty hard to get very worked up about this particular issue when so many other dominos have already fallen.  It’s just another step along the path to the complete cultural, philosophical, spiritual, and moral collapse of Western Civilization.  Unless God does a mighty work and sends true revival on our land, beginning with the Church, then the decline is probably irreversible.  So that’s what I pray and preach and labor for.  Anything else is just the proverbial finger in the leaky dike (no pun intended.)

Don Jones - Buddhist

 

I did a Wikepedia search on Christian denominations and the initial result came up with the quote of approximately 35,000 different world-wide denominations.  Just how and when these branched off from the original church is an education all by itself but it shows that people want to worship the way they want to.  They have a vision of who they are as a culture, community and their individual personalities.  There came a point in my own spiritual growth where Christianity no longer fit the bill.  I didn’t have any desire to change the existing Church or argue scripture with any hierarchy or start a new church.  I just found a faith that suited me.  Isn’t the goal here just to become better, more loving people?  Why does any official church authority feel the need to constantly re-arrange and interpret scripture to either include or exclude  ”those people”

I am not gay, but being in the arts all my life has exposed me to many, and I count friends in that camp.  I do know one thing that is true about them: Being gay is not a choice.  It is something that you know you are at some point in your life and you have to deal with it.  A common feeling among gays is an early history of self-loathing and helplessness.  It is my choice not to condemn these folks under any scripture or standard and to love them for who they are.  Their struggles in society are many and many mistakes and bad decisions have been made.  I do not defend behavior such as Brian outlined above.  But what are we to do? To simply state that they are all sinners and act accordingly with punitive and prejudicial policies will not solve the problem and will not convert a single gay into a straight person.  There are and will be gay Christians, Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists and there is nothing you or anyone can do about it.

As far as the collapse of Western civilization goes: I think that if the majority of it collapses - good riddance.  Our arrogance regarding the superiority of this culture is just simple prejudice and sometimes ignorance and xenophobia.  Brian is absolutely correct when he states: “I am puzzled by this desire to find scriptural legitimacy for lawmaking in this country when we ignore the scriptures about everything from our monetary system to our foreign policy to our family policy.”  This goes back to the question about vetting political candidates according to their religion.  When and where are we to put these moral teachings to work?

 Who decides which God is the true God?  How is it that all “others” are going to hell except “us”? These questions never end and never go away.  You want to start pointing fingers at others and label them sinners; watch out! A finger will point your way too.

Merry Christmas BTW!!!

 Father Thomas Williams - St. John’s Orthodox Church

The Bible and human history begin and end with weddings. Adam and Eve came together in marital union in Paradise before the Fall, revealing marriage as a part of God’s eternal purpose for humanity in the midst of Creation (Gen. 2: 22-25). History closes with the marriage of the Bride to the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9), earthly marriage being fulfilled in the heavenly, showing the eternal nature of the sacrament.

Between these bookend events of history are numerous accounts of  the union of men and women. In the centuries -old wedding ceremony used to this day in the Orthodox Church, several of these historic marriages are remembered: Abraham and Sarah (Gen 11:29-23:20); (Isaac and Rebecca (Gen. 24); Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin Mary, and Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of St. John the Baptist, (Luke 1:5-58).

The marriage most prominently  mentioned in the Orthodox wedding ceremony, however, is the one at Cana in Galilee (John 2; 1-11). In attending this wedding and performing His first public miracle there, Our Holy Lord Jesus Christ sanctified marriage. As with all Christian sacraments, marriage is sacramental because it is blessed by God. Thus it is holy, blessed and everlasting in the sight of God and His Church. Within the bonds of marriage a man and a woman experience an eternal union with one another in love, with the husband as the icon of Christ and  the wife as the icon of the Church, and, if it be God’s will,  they experience the holy fruit of children, and, one day, the joy of grandchildren. 

Thus Orthodox Christianity holds in high regard the God-ordained institution of marriage and the family. The Orthodox Church has always affirmed that marriage is the union of one man and one woman given by God to one another for mutual support, encouragement, love and and the holy fruit of children.

Dr. Nicholas Wallerstein–religious studies professor

I think it is very important to this debate that the Reverend Carpenter mentions the current cover story of Newsweek, in which journalist Lisa Miller gives her scriptural arguments in defense of gay marriage (“The Religious Case for Gay Marriage,” Dec. 15, 2008). Allow me to make a few points. First, Ms. Miller states “while the Bible and Jesus say many things about love and family, neither explicitly defines marriage as between one man and one woman.” Of course neither explicitly defines marriage between a man and a woman because this would have been completely unnecessary. The idea of marriage between men or between women would have been considered utterly absurd, unthinkable, and impossible.

Second, Ms. Miller defends gay marriage by pointing out that “the Bible doesn’t give abundant examples of traditional [heterosexual] marriage.” This is again absurd. The Bible does give abundant examples of heterosexual marriage: literally every single one of the hundreds or thousands of marriages found or mentioned in the Bible is heterosexual—even the polygamist marriages. Solomon had 700 spouses, yes, but they were all female!

Third, in her most egregious defense of gay marriage, Ms. Miller quotes a Biblical passage in which King David tears his clothes when Jonathan dies and says “Your love for me was wonderful, / More wonderful than the love of women.” Ms. Miller’s comment is the following: “Here, the Bible praises enduring love between men. What Jonathan and David did or did not do in privacy is perhaps best left to history and our imagination.” Not only is Miller’s implication disgusting, but it is inaccurate. The fact is that many ancient Mediterranean cultures, including Greek and Roman culture, believed that the spiritual love between men was superior to the fleshly love between men and women. To imply that the spiritual love between King David and Jonathan was actually homosexual lust culminating in sodomy is to desecrate the Bible and to misrepresent the history of ancient Mediterranean culture all at the same time.

These are only a few of the bizarre arguments Ms. Miller puts forth. I recommend that the discerning reader of this blog read the entire Newsweek article, for it is a harbinger of the arguments that will be used in the assault against the traditional marriage of male and female.

 

You hear the usual complaints about the over-commercialization of Christmas every year about this time. But is Christmas 2008 – with a recession, the stock market’s collapse and a taxpayer bailout in every stocking – an especially good time to re-evaluate the way we Americans celebrate the holiday? Do you or your friends,  your families and your congregations have any special plans to downsize the secular and concentrate on the spiritual this Christmas?

Father Thomas Williams - St. John’s Orthodox Church

A Russian priest described recently a Christmas that he remembers and cherishes.

“In the times of Stalin, the Soviet Union was nothing but a huge gulag - an endless enclosure of barbed wire where thousands of prisoners died of the inhumane conditions of the life and work imposed upon them inside these labor camps.

“After having served twice in Soviet prisons and two months on death row, I ended up being sent to a special hard labor camp. First in the Siberian subartic taiga region, and then in the tundra of the far north. I was held in extreme isolation, which kept me from coming into contact with other priests and hearing confessions. It was only during my last years inside the gulag that I managed to obtain bread and wine to celebrate Holy Mass in secrecy: I used a ceramic cup as a chalice and kept a match box for the Holy Eucharist  to be brought to detainees.

“Once, in the Vorkuta gulag, I organized a Christmas Vigil mass. I brought with me my two daily rations of bread, which I had put aside the days beforehand. The other prisoners (about ten or so) offered what they had received in food packages from their families.  As I was speaking to those in attendance, the door flew open. With riot stick in hand, a government official rushed in with a soldier bearing a rifle and bayonet. “What are you doing?”, he asked. I  explained that we were celebrating the Christmas Liturgy. Then, while holding the  Holy Eucharist, I asked if he wanted to receive it, too, so as to exchange Christmas greetings with us. It was a very unusual and tense situation: both our hands were held tight - his clutching a riot stick and mine held firmly onto the Holy Eucharist. The officer put down the club in his possession, excusing himself for not being able to receive Communion while on duty, and allowed us to continue our vigil service. He left the room with the soldier. The next morning, however, I was expelled from Vorkuta and sent to the far-off tundra region to the north. “

This holy priest’s recollection is a blessing for all of us this Christmas as we contemplate the true meaning of the Holy Nativity and celebrate the Birth of Christ.

Brian Carpenter- Presbyterian Church in America

I have made my peace with the over-commericalization of Christmas.  It came the minute I adopted a historically Reformed and Protestant understanding of Christmas.

Christmas is basically a pagan holiday that was “Christianized” by Rome in the murky depths of the Dark Ages.  It is an amalgam of the Roman celebrations of Saturnalia and Sol Invictus, and the Norse celebration of Jule (Yule.)  Both basically revolve around the winter solstace which happens about Dec 22 (Dec 25th on the old Julian Calendar.)

In some Christian traditions that sort of thing is seen as acceptable, but not in mine.   It has to do with our theology of worship.  Actually, Christmas celebrations were actively discouraged by Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers, Baptists, and others as late as the 19th Century.  That was the mainstream Protestant view, Lutherans excepted.

So now I’m free to celebrate it the way everyone else does.  We have a tree at home.  We spend more money than we ought to on our kids.  We don’t lie to our children about a mythological elf who suspends the laws of economics by creating Chinese-made toys ex nihilo at the North Pole, and then defies the laws of physics by coming down our non-existent chimmey to deliever them.  But we don’t pretend it has anything to do with Jesus either.  I ignore Advent in my preaching, though the December hymns and songs tend to focus on the birth of Christ.  We don’t have a Creche, or Manger Scene, because we don’t believe in making images of any of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.  On Christmas Eve we have a service and I preach on the Incarnation or the Nativity.  We sing Silent Night and light candles after the Benediction.  That’s it.

Since as a family we eschew debt and don’t have a giant income, our celebrations were never the materialistic orgy that some families are blessed (or cursed) with.   So this Christmas actually won’t be a refocusing for us in the way alluded to above.  And it won’t be much different than Christmas last year.

I believe our everyday life should be the “concentration on the spiritual” that some folks think only needs to happen around December 25th.  Our every Sabbath Day should be a holiday (literally, “holy day.”)  The announcement of “peace on earth and goodwill to men”  (a phrase generally wrenched from its context and horribly misused) is appropriate to announce in every season.

In a way, I feel quite blessed.  I am free to enjoy the innocent things that are traditional about the holdiay and this time of the year… peppermint canes and hot chocolate, gold foil wrapping paper and the smell of freshly cut evergreen boughs, visits from family and communications from far-off friends, the joy of watching my daughter unwrap some special gift.  And yet I need not feel that something sacred is being perverted by the crass commericalization of American consumerism.  Jesus has very little to do with gold foil paper or peppermint canes.  Nobody’s messing with my Lord’s birthday because Christmas isn’t my Lord’s birthday.  It’s just another celebration like Independence Day or President’s Day.  I didn’t have that luxury before, when I thought that Jesus and Christmas had something to do with each other.

It’s kind of nice.

Don Jones - Buddhist

I really enjoyed your comments Brian regarding the separation of religion from social tradition. What’s to get upset about?  Shall we complain about the Easter Bunny too?  People go to church on both holidays and also buy the usual plastics from China and the world keeps spinning around.

This season gives people the opportunity and excuse to give which they don’t normally have during the year.  People enjoy giving.  There is a growing movement this year to give presents to needy families rather than your own.  Scaling back your own booty for the sake of others feels much better anyway.  I absolutely disagree with the idea that a family must go into large credit card debt to buy their children expensive toys to keep up with peer pressure or “the Joneses” Being a Jones myself, I hereby release you from your obligation!!

It makes no sense for Buddhists to get huffy regarding Christmas i.e: “We don’t believe in that, so we won’t participate”  Most of us buy each other gifts and have trees and especially put up lights.  We like to eat too LOL!

Like Brian, the Buddhist path tells us to practice every day regardless of circumstance or holiday.  Compassion, generosity, and loving kindness are qualities that require constant daily and sometimes hourly maintenance.  Peace to you all.