A Savior in A Charlie Brown Christmas

jim's avatarFaith on the Fringe

We’ve all seen A Charlie Brown Christmas, the Emmy award-winning TV program that has charmed audiences for 50 years.

As Charlie Brown struggles with the commercialism of Christmas, Linus reminds him of what Christmas is all about.

The Christian messages are both obvious and subtle.

Linus was actually a contemporary of Paul and active in the early church.

The soundtrack includes the hymn, Hark the Herald Angels Sing:

Hark the herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
“Christ is born in Bethlehem”
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

When Linus quotes the Gospel of Luke to explain the message of Christmas, he spreads his little arms wide, like Christ, and he appears to have stigmata on his…

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The people in the Bible

nativity

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You doubtless will make some mistakes

o-wright

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Is Christ really in your heart?

a Christmas gift

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Turning the other cheek at Christmas

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Let Jesus in

let-me-in

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Saint Nicholas’ Day

Last weekend at the Mall of America in Minnesota, Larry Jefferson donned his Santa apparel, talked with children, and posed for photos.

The internet trolls turned out in force because jolly old St. Nicholas was being portrayed by a black man.

This was the first time in the mall’s 24-year history that it hosted a black Santa. As for me, I’ve seen artwork and nick-knacks of black Santas, but I’ve never seen a living one.

Until now.

Santa Larry Johnson

You know who’s upset about the black Santa?

White people.

You know why white people are upset?

Because they’re racists.

I realize that’s an oversimplification and generalization, but so is racism.

How racist? Crashing people’s websites with complaints, racist.

Over Santa Claus.

Complaining about black Santa is like complained about a black Star Wars storm trooper.

These are fictional characters.

I’m sorry, Virginia, there is no Santa Claus, because racist bigots destroyed the selfless spirit of Christmas.

A Santa who isn’t white helps children and hypersensitive adults understand that the world is more complex and colorful than the bleached white pages of history.

St. Nicholas was from Turkey. So the fact is his skin was closer to Santa Larry’s tone than the images of Thomas Nast.

Thomas Nast Santa

Or the D’Arcy Advertising Agency’s work for Coca-Cola.

 D'Arcy Advertising Agency executive working with Coca-Cola

(By the way, you don’t get to complain about the commercialization of Christmas and then demand that Christmas images be more commercial.)

The fact is, for more than a thousand years, St. Nicolas was remembered for his giving spirit and was portrayed more like the dark-skinned Mediterranean that he was.

st-nick

So on Saint Nicholas Day, let us remember that Christianity, and all that it has produced, is older than the ad agencies of the United States and the childhood memories of white internet trolls.

hello-christmas-from-santa-larry

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Kristallnacht

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”                                                                                                                             ~ George Santayana

The same week the United States elected the most bigoted presidential candidate since George Wallace in 1968, the rest of world remembered Germany’s Kristallnacht, Nov. 8-9, 1938.

Over two days, the government arrested tens of thousands of men and turned a blind eye to the organized burning and looting of thousands of Jewish properties. Members of a religious minority were systematically stripped of their rights and property. And it was all perfectly legal or approved by the Hitler government – which was legally elected and carrying out the will of the people.

Perhaps too many Americans don’t know the specifics of the night of the broken glass, Kristallnacht. Perhaps they are ignorant of the history of Fascism in Europe. Or perhaps they agree with the president-elect’s intentions to strip Americans of their rights based on sexual orientation, gender or religion.

bundesarchiv_bild_146-1970-083-42_magdeburg_zersto%cc%88rtes_ju%cc%88disches_gescha%cc%88ft

Much to their national shame, many mainstream Germans supported the government as it oppressed those on the fringe of the mainstream culture.

Kristallnacht will not come to the United States in a smashing single night. It will come in a thousand smashed windows, thousands of incidents of violence all condoned and tacitly encouraged by leaders who single out those who are different while they legislate against minorities.

Millions of Americans spent the week justifiably worried about their future.

The Way of Jesus demands that his followers open wide their arms to the people singled out and marginalized.

Jesus is on the side of the oppressed, not the oppressors.

Jesus is always on the side of the powerless, not the powerful.

Jesus stands with the victims and the accused, even against unjust laws and in the face of government and religious leaders.

This is the example of Jesus we are called to follow.

The past week saw the United States forget the importance of empathy, led by s0-called Christian leaders who daily fail to demonstrate the teachings of Jesus.

Jesus calls his followers to care for and protect children, widows, orphans, aliens and strangers. This is the teaching of Jesus. Anything else isn’t of God.

“The church has an unconditional obligation to the victims of any ordering society, even if they do not belong to the Christian community.” ~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer

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The Gospel is about God’s saving love

“Well, what we do is to pick and choose things out of the Bible that conform to our fears. It’s not a matter of obeying the Bible — it’s about obeying the gospel. The gospel is about God’s saving love that wants to restore all of humanity to full communion. To reach back to an ancient text that has now been corrected by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is simply a bad maneuver and poor methodology and theologically irresponsible. Those texts are not the determinative texts.” – Walter Brueggemann

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It is the storm within which endangers

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When Christian Evangelicals were pro-choice

Thanks to the GOP hijacking Christian voters over the issue of abortion, some Christians feel voting Republican is their only option.

And the GOP did hijack the abortion issue: Southern Baptists were pro-choice in 1973. But because Democratic President Jimmy Carter was a Southern Baptist and a Sunday

School teacher, the GOP moved to split the Christian vote over abortion. (And to shore up the segregationist segment of Christian voters. If you didn’t know any of this, it’s because they succeeded.)

Here’s some background info:

“But Dartmouth College’s Randall Balmer writes that “the abortion myth quickly collapses under historical scrutiny.” He notes that “it wasn’t until 1979 — a full six years after Roe — that evangelical leaders, at the behest of conservative activist Paul Weyrich, seized on abortion not for moral reasons, but …. because the anti-abortion crusade was more palatable than the religious right’s real motive: protecting segregated schools.”

“When Roe was first decided, most of the Southern evangelicals who today make up the backbone of the anti-abortion movement believed that abortion was a deeply personal issue in which government shouldn’t play a role.”

http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/17/when-

southern-baptists-were-pro-choice/

January 31, 1973
High Court Holds Abortion To Be ‘A right of Privacy’
By W. Barry Garrett

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 decision that overturned a Texas law which denied a woman the right of abortion except to save her life, has advanced the cause of religious liberty, human equality and justice. At the same time ‘the court struck down a Georgia law that imposed unconstitutional procedures, in getting medical approval for an abortion…”

https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/trevinwax/2010/05/06/baptist-press-initial-reporting-on-roe-v-wade/

So, there you go.

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Eternal Uncle in heaven

amish-ausbund

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Where do some Christians draw the line?

Where do some Christians draw the line? Evidently at sexual assault.

Making fun of handicapped people, overweight people, immigrants, Hispanics, prisoners of war, Muslims, women, reporters, and blacks, isn’t enough to dissuade some Christians from claiming Donald Trump is the Christian candidate.

Lying 75% of the time he speaks isn’t enough to stop some Christians from supporting him.
trump
But when he casually admits to repeated sexual assault and adultery, that’s offensive enough to offend just some Christians.

Students at the largest Christian college in the U.S. finally had enough around the time Trump admitted to a reporter that he sexually assaults women, although they said their petition of complaint wasn’t prompted by any specific Trump comment.

“Associating any politician with Christianity is damaging to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But Donald Trump is not just any politicians. He has made his name maligning others and bragging about his sins. Not only is Donald Trump a bad candidate for president, he is actively promoting the very things that we as Christians ought to oppose,” the petition says.

For his part, Liberty President and Trump sycophant, Jerry Falwell Jr. pulled an anti-Trump article from the college newspaper while suggesting that Trump is forgiven by Jesus. Falwell doesn’t need to forgive Trump, he says, because, “blah, blah, blah, bad theology from a the president of the largest Christian college in the United States.” (I’m paraphrasing. Read his nonsense for yourself: http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/13/politics/liberty-university-jerry-falwell-jr-donald-trump/)

Note to non-Christians: Jerry Falwell Jr.’s version of Christianity is so broken it’s not Christianity.

It’s one thing to say, “I’m a Republican and I’m going to vote for the Republican.” But it’s different when the candidate is a lying bigot, or as the Huffington Post describes him:

“Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.”

Thanks to the GOP hijacking Christian voters over the issue of abortion, some Christians feel voting Republican is their only option.

And the GOP did hijack the abortion issue: Southern Baptists were pro-choice in 1973. But because Democratic President Jimmy Carter was a Southern Baptist and a Sunday School teacher, the GOP moved to split the Christian vote over abortion. If you didn’t know any of this, it’s because they succeeded.

Here’s some background info:

http://billmoyers.com/2014/07/17/when-southern-baptists-were-pro-choice/

https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/trevinwax/2010/05/06/baptist-press-initial-reporting-on-roe-v-wade/

Some people can say, “I’m a Christian, therefore I’m going to vote for the Republican.” The GOP platform having little in common with the teaching of Jesus aside, you’re still faced with supporting a lying, philandering, bigot who’s cheated on all three of his wives.

Christians: when Donald Trump claims he will protect your religion, oppose abortion and support conservative judges, you’re being lied to. Everything he says is lies. He’s making a fool of you.

Some Christian leaders have endorsed a liar who knows nothing about Christianity while they question the faith of Clinton, a lifelong practicing Methodist.

No matter how they twist and distort reality and facts, to vote for Trump is to accept and approve of his behavior and the way he speaks and behaves.

We are baffled and saddened that so many of our fellow Americans, and fellow Christians, can approve of his behavior. There is no excuse for the inexcusable. And Trump is inexcusable.

After the election, when Trump has lost, Christian leaders who supported him will have to ask themselves what their dignity and self-respect was worth, that they gave it away so cheaply.

And Christian voters who supported him must ask themselves why they approved of and accepted this behavior in someone they supported.

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If more Christians acted Christian

more-christians

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