The War on Christmas Revisited

It's that time of year again, when the Christian celebration of Christmas is upon us and the inevitable complaints about the so-called "War on Christmas" are being aired in many quarters in America. As more and more merchants are changing their "Merry Christmas" greetings to "Happy Holidays," as public schools and institutions are changing their "Christmas" pageants to "Holiday" pageants and Menorahs, Kwanzaa candles and even Star and Crescents are showing up in public places alongside of creches and Christmas trees, the complaints get louder and more urgent. Many of us Christians begin to wonder if indeed there really us a plan out there somewhere among the powers-that-be to erase this most important religious and cultural celebration from our land. Hey, what's wrong with "Merry Christmas" after all?

Not a thing- and as a Christian clergyman, I believe not only that Christmas is one of the two most important celebrations of our faith (Easter is the other), but that those who say that any religious celebration or proclamation has no place in the public square are not only wrong about what our constitution says, but profoundly misguided about the nature of religious belief itself. I believe as well that there is a indeed a kind of "War on Christmas." But that war is not being carried out by some secret cabal of anti-religious zealots, or by the so-called "liberal media" or by any of the other boogey-men (or boogey-women) one hears so much about from cable pundits. Rather, the war on Christmas is an internal affair that began when we Christians started turning the celebration of the birth of our Savior into a commercial buying spree so excessive that it became a cornerstone of our consumer economy and when far too many of us began looking for the "Christmas Spirit" at big box stores and malls, or in religious displays in the Village Square rather than where our faith has always said that spirit would be found. That is, in our houses of worship, among the poor and those whom the consumer economy has left behind and in acts of love and generosity that reflect our understanding of the incredible act of love we celebrate in the birth, the ministry, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Christians claim to be disciples of a Messiah who eschewed political and cultural domination, proclaiming instead that his kingdom "is not of this world." We are the followers of one who said that he would be found not among the wealthiest and most fortunate, but among the least and the last, a rabbi who told those who would attain righteousness to "sell all you have and give the money to the poor." When we seek to dominate the public and secular arenas with our symbols at the expense of our neighbors, when we turn his birthday into an orgy of consumption, when we look for the spirit of Christmas in stores, it is we who are waging war on Christmas, not some "liberal" cabal. When we are subjected to skepticism about this day's meaning by others because of those patterns of behavior, that too is a self-inflicted wound and one that should be cause to "look to the plank in our own eye," as Jesus said, and not "the mote in our neighbor's eye."

We have the right as citizens of a free society to proclaim our joy at the celebration of our Messiah's birth and the duty as Christians to put that faith into practice in our public as well as our private lives. But the teachings of Jesus would seem to make it clear that doing so would be more about caring for the least of his brethren, coming together in worship than about demanding merchants say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." Our religion calls us to struggle in our Savior's name to live our lives more compassionately and our faith more courageously, and maybe worry a bit less about getting "our" symbol up on the Village Green or our celebrations' name on the local school pageant. If those kinds of concerns are what Christmas is about, then the war is already lost because we've become just one more competing special interest group vying for power. But faith, all religious faith is about much more than that. Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, about his love, his grace, his gift of salvation rather than about us. Remembering that and putting it into practice- that's how we'll "win" this one. To my fellow Christians, have a blessed Christmas. To my friends of other faiths, God bless and to all of my fellow human beings of ever faith and no faith, may this year bring you joy and good things!

A Rose by any other Name

In very era of America's relatively brief history as a nation, through every crisis, there are those among who insist that THIS TIME is unique, that this time, the crisis we face is so overwhelming, our need so dire that we cannot afford to abide by the foundational principles of our democracy, that we need to bend or break them for the sake of our survival. Whether it is the suspension of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War, the Alien and Sedition Acts of the early 20th century, the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II or the suspension of constitutional rights related to the Patriot Act, the internment of "enemy combatants" or the secret torture chambers at Gitmo and in CIA prisons throughout the world, arguments have been well and sincerely raised as to why the rules by which our society is governed, and along with them the principles that gave life to those rules are too lofty to be truly followed in the "real world."

And yet, as fiercely as we might defend these "exceptions" as they occur, so (history has taught us) we will come to regret them with the passage of time, when the heat of the moment is over and the crisis is past. As cooler times give way to cooler heads, we come to recognize that not only have we shamed our nation and our own most cherished beliefs, but that the suspension of our constitutional protections have not helped us to defend ourselves, they have not advanced our cause, they have not helped us surmount the crisis or win the war. Rather, they have demeaned and tarnished the cause in which they were employed and if anything, set it back by painting our most cherished freedoms not as unalienable rights, but rather as "luxuries" only for the best of times in direct opposition to the crucible in which they were first forged, the fight for human liberation that gave birth to this nation.

When we say, yes to civil liberties, but not for suspected terrorists, or for people of nations with which we are at war, or yes to religious liberty, but not for people of minority faiths or faiths which are shared, even if in name only with enemies of our country, we are putting conditions on all liberty. We are then taking what our founders declared as a fundamental human right and reducing it to a privilege of power. Our founders, not so far removed from the ethnic and religious wars of their countries of origin, still suspicious and all to familiar with the abuse of power by majorities over minorities understood that liberty is either for all or for none, that rights are only rights if they cannot be revoked by popular sentiment or national emergency and that freedom could not ever be defended by denying it, not even a little bit. In this current climate of fear, when so many are willing to throw the rights of others "under the bus" in favor of the illusion of security, we would be well advised to take the words of Ben Franklin, one of the architects of our democracy very seriously: "Those who are willing to sacrifice liberty for a little bit of security, deserve neither liberty nor security." Indeed, they may find that they do not have it all.

Park 51: a Christian response

An acquaintance of mine, irritated and apparently surprised to hear that a Christian minister was a supporter of the Park 51 project to renovate a mosque as a Muslim community center near Ground Zero, called me a "Muslim lover." This person had written an article in which he had outlined some of the atrocities committed by those claiming the Muslim faith, particularly over the past few decades and it was, I have to admit, an impressive list of horrific acts resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocents. No such faith, he opined, could claim to be a religion of peace and no such faith should be practiced just a few blocks from where 19 young men claiming that faith had taken so many lives.
A reasonable argument on the face of it, unless one looks, (as Christ commanded) to the plank in our own eye at the bloody history of those who have claimed the Christian faith: from the greatest genocide in human history, perpetrated by the same nation that not only launched the Protestant Reformation, but gave Christianity so many of our theologians,to the 8000 Muslim men and boys slaughtered at Sebrenica in the mid-1990's by the "Christian" Bosnian Serb militias, to the "troubles" of Northern Ireland, the massacres of Native Americans, the Crusades and so on and so forth going back at least 17 centuries, in which the people who received Christ's commandments to love their neighbors as themselves instead twisted that religion of peace and reconciliation into an excuse for war, conquest and genocide. Jesus called upon the one without sin to cast the first stone and recognize that it is not another faith that is my enemy, but the hatred and self-righteous rage that would hold an entire people or religion or nation responsible for the perceived sins of a few.
I was called a "Muslim-lover" as an insult but in truth the epithet is a challenge and a compliment: a challenge to make it true through obedience to the commandments of my Savior to live his love in the world and a compliment because at least one person seems to think that I am already doing it. Christ's people, according to the New Testament, are commanded by our Lord to be lovers, not only of God, but of all of God's people of every faith and no faith. We are the disciples, after all, of an itinerant Jewish preacher who risked alienating his own disciples in order to reach out and embrace enemies, to offer his hand and his love to infidels, heretics and pagans. We believe that this man of Nazareth was the Logos, the Word of God himself and that his admonition that we love these "strangers" and "enemies" not just in word, "but in truth and action," was not just a moral teaching worth emulating but one of God's two Great Commandments on "which hang all the law and the prophets," and on which our own faithfulness will be judged. That is why I (along with clergy and lay people from nearly every major Christian denomination)support the efforts of my sisters and brothers of the Islamic faith to locate a holy place near ground that is hallowed, not by the deaths of the innocents, but by the efforts of those who work together to build a new and better world from the ashes of that terrible tragedy. That is what the resurrection faith of Jesus Christ tells us is the will and commandment of God and that is what Christians are commanded to do. Imam Rauf has reached out to his fellow Americans and to all people of faith and good will with an opportunity to live the love that as Christians we are commanded by our Savior to live. Islam did not destroy those innocent lives on 911, any more than Christianity built the death camps or commanded the genocidal paramilitaries of Bosnia-Herzegovina- hatred and self-righteous rage did. We do not serve God, our nation or God's people with more of the same. We do that, by recognizing an opportunity for reconciliation and seizing it, together.

What's Wrong with Prop 8

Marriage is a touchy issue and the debate over marriage equality is one that often generates more light than heat. Partly this is due to the fact that despite our nation's commitment to a separation of church and state, they often intersect and marriage is one of those intersections. Like most clergy, I not only preside over religious marriages, but over the civil institution of marriage as well, when I am called upon to sign marriage licenses and thereby act as an agent of the state. For me, the issue is less complicated because I believe that my Christian faith sanctions all marriages by any and all people committed to live together in fidelity, honor and love, and because I believe that Jesus' message was clear, that family are the people who love you, irrespective of gender or blood.

But for many traditions, marriage is about procreation, a sacrament. For these traditions, the struggle to accept marriage equality is more difficult. Luckily for them, there is a separation of church and state in this country. No law can require them to sanction or perform any marriage they do not approve of. Civil Marriage, is a legal institution, not a religious one. Some clergy and traditions, like me and mine, are happy to perform these marriages because they are, in our understanding valid. But if we did not, no law could make us. That is what is wrong with Prop 8, it takes that choice away for all people and it denies the benefits that go with the institution to people based on who they are. That separation of church and state goes both ways and right now, under current laws, there is no choice for anyone, those GLBT folks who wish to marry or the clergy who wish to transmit God's blessings on them. Equality under the law, freedom of choice, freedom of religion, all of these are being denied under proposition 8. That's not only shameful, it's anti-American. If you don't believe in marriage equality, that's your right, but it is not a license to deny the rights of your fellow Americans.

Mosque Controversy Continues

As the politicians of both parties succumb one after the other to the hysteria surrounding plans for a mosque in lower Manhattan, we can see how fragile religious liberty really is in this country and why those of us who care about it need to make our voices heard. Recently, democratic congressman Steve Israel joined the nay-sayers by characterizing the efforts of Imam Feisal and his group to go forward with the project as "insensitive." But it is the opposition that is insensitive. Sensitivity would be demonstrated by a willingness to recognize, as President Bush said, the we are not at war with Islam, but with a small group of extremists who are as likely to persecute the Sufi Muslims who are building this peace center as they are Christians, Jews or any other people they don't agree with. Sensitivity would not demonize this effort at creating a venue for peaceful understanding because it happens to be Muslim-initiated, but would rather see this for what it is: an opportunity to demonstrate that we in the United States practice what we preach, religious liberty for all. Sensitivity would recognize that the whole world is watching to see if we really do embrace moderate Muslims with open arms or if we are against all Muslims, as the extremists claim. Finally, sensitivity would recognize, as New York's mayor and President Obama have, that freedom is either for all, or for none and that if we suspend that freedom for those we do not understand or for anyone, we are not the nation we claim to be. The people of lower Manhattan have voiced their support for this project. The mayor of New York is standing up for New Yorkers of every faith to worship how and where they choose. Clergy of every faith are standing with Imam Feisal because Jews and Christians, as well as Muslims and people of every faith understand that we are called to love the stranger, embrace the outcast and seek peace. To attack this mosque is to attack our constitution, our liberty and more importantly, our faith. Let's hope that Imam Feisal and his group are able to stand fast and move ahead- for all of our sakes.

The Furious Flight Attendant

What do the travails of Mr. Slater, the flight attendant who found instant celebrity with his dramatic exit from his job have to do with the Interfaith Alliance? Well, a lot actually. Because Mr. Slater's temper tantrum and the response to it by so many people is one more indicator of one of our nation's most pressing problems: the loss of civility (and maturity) in our public discourse. Lauded as some kind of folks hero, what this man did was throw a public hissy fit for reasons that remain unclear, curse out the people he had contracted to serve, then endanger public safety as he released an emergency slide, slid down it and ran away. Far from being heroic behavior, his was a selfish and hostile act. The fact that he has been applauded reminds us of the sad reality that we have lost the ability or even the understanding of why we need to exercise self-control and restraint in our public discourse. We see that reflected in the mud-slinging and hate speech that has come to dominate cable TV "news" shows, and, ultimately in the polarization of our society. As we seek to live together in this increasingly complex and multi-cultural society, it becomes more and more important that we be able to disagree civilly, that we are sensitive to one another and that we learn restraint and self-control. Mr. Slater's behavior was the opposite of that. It was infantile and inappropriate, that it is seen as otherwise is not only a shame for all of us, it bodes ill for our society.

Religious Liberty at stake in plans for Downtown Mosque

The recent controversy over plans to develop a Mosque and community center in the "ground zero" area of Manhattan is very poignant reminder of just how far we have yet to go in terms of the protection of religious liberties in this country, but also a proclamation in some ways of how far we have come. On the one hand, we see angry and outraged protesters being egged on by opportunistic politicians seeking to fan the fires of bigotry and fear for their own political gain. The ADL, in a decision that is disappointing to say the least, has unfortunately joined this effort in a move that puts a lie to its own history of defending religious tolerance.

On the other hand, Mayor Bloomberg is standing tall for the principles of liberty and equality before the law for all Americans by standing with the supporters of the project, which include not only the Community Board representing the area in which it is proposed, but responsible religious leaders of every faith and the majority of the people who live in the downtown area.

Religious liberty and the right to worship where and how one wishes is one of the foundational liberties on which this nation is built. The unspeakable acts of September 11, 2001 were an attack on those foundational liberties by a group of terrorists who would deny those rights to anyone who does not think or worship as they do. In addition to the many other of their fellow Americans, about 200 Muslim-Americans died in the World Trade Center attacks. What more fitting tribute to what this nation stands for than a Mosque to be built alongside of the churches and synagogues already in the area. Those who oppose this effort are fighting against those very liberties that the heroes of 911 died to protect. They have missed the point and their actions are un-patriotic, inconsistent with the faith traditions of Christianity and Judaism among others, and misguided and simply wrong. The peace center at the new Mosque will hopefully become another place of dialogue, understanding and hope. It deserves the kind of courageous support that the Mayor and the people of downtown Manhattan are giving it. We all need to support it as well.