As I sang carols with others at the Edmonds Lutheran Church Christmas Eve service, I wondered how it came to be that Lutherans sing the same carols that I sang as a child in a Methodist church in southwest Georgia. And why these annual calls for peace seem to fall on deaf ears around the world.
“Well,” I thought, “this was the break-away protestant church. Maybe Lutherans sang them first and other protestant religions picked them up.”
But that didn’t jibe with what I know about the solstice, pagan song and dance, and the resultant Christmas season.
“In ancient Rome, when people used a different version of the calendar, called the Julian calendar, the winter solstice fell on Dec. 25 – so the two holidays were on the same day at one point in history.”
It’s impossible to escape Rome when considering the earliest days of Christianity, given Herod’s rule over the province of Judaea as the Roman emissary. That was a time of strife, not peace but instead “mystifying hope.”
In the fourth century Catholic Church, St. Hilary of Poitiers is credited with the first (in Latin of course) Christmas carol and Roman Christian poet Prudentius followed with another.
Then in 1223, St. Francis of Assisi (founder of the Franciscan Order), with the approval of the pope, produced the first nativity play at the foot of the altar in his church in Greccio, Italy. He broke with the Catholic tradition of having carols sung by the choir in Latin. Instead, they were sung by the congregation in common languages.
“The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries. These often took the form of a dance in a circle with linked hands and everybody singing the songs.”
After a ban during Puritan England, carols re-appeared in the Victorian era. With a printing press and more widespread literacy, Henry Ramsden Bramley and Sir John Stainer published Christmas Carols, New and Old in 1871.
This is 500+ years from the first carol. Did the world have peace and understanding? Well, no. “O Holy Night” may be the most explicit cry for peace. The 1850s vintage tune begins:
O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth…
Clearly not, for “long lay the world in sin.” The last stanza begins:
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace…
“His law is love and His gospel is peace.”
Less than 100 years later, we would have survived two world wars.
Today we have 800 years of singing those carols in our own languages. How can it be that we gather one day a year and sing about the prince of peace … but hope never seems to materialize into understanding and justice for all?
That’s the 64-dollar question, isn’t it?
America’s current policy towards immigrants has been roundly rebuffed by Pope Leo. It is clearly contrary to the words about strangers found in both the Old and New Testament. As are these words from Vice President J.D. Vance:
“It is totally reasonable and acceptable for American citizens to look at their next-door neighbors and say, ‘I wanna live next to people who I have something in common with, I don’t wanna live next to four families of strangers’.”
Simcha Fisher writes in America Magazine:
“Mr. Vance is not only an adult; he is a Catholic. And yet he has somehow emerged from RCIA, presumably having read at least parts of the Old and the New Testament, believing that we, the people of God, are entitled to unchallenged homogeneity, and that it’s reasonable to reject people who make us uncomfortable because of their differences.
“It may be common or even understandable to feel this way, but it’s shameful to act on it. It’s shameful not to try to get past it and to be better. It is cowardly, it is selfish, it is un-American, it is un-Christian to reject people just because they are different—which is all that Mr. Vance noted.”
I’m with the Pope. And Ms. Fisher.
When leaders give lip service to the core tenets of Christianity (calling the US a “Christian nation”) but act uncharitably towards those seeking asylum or a better life here, they are spitting in the faces of those of us caroling with heart and soul at Christmas.
When leaders claim “that the separation of church and state is not a constitutional principle,” they are deliberately ignoring the First Amendment which could not be more explicit: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” Not American.
When leaders call for Ukraine to hand over to Russia lands that country has invaded in its war of aggression, they are not advocating peace but instead are rewarding bullies. Not Christ-like.
And when leaders refuse to provide evidence and a legal rationale for widespread murders occurring at the direction of the president, they are not defending our borders but setting the stage to bully another. Definitely not Christian on multiple levels.
Back to the 64-dollar question: perhaps it is so simple as “all power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Who holds power in the US today? Billionaires, who as a class seem to live in a “me first” manner; the federal government; and to a lesser extent, state governments.
The House of Representatives must be expanded. The Supreme Court must be reformed. Yet those actions, while necessary, are not sufficient.
Too many Americans who call themselves Christian support internment camps for undocumented immigrants prior to deportation: 59% of White Protestant Evangelicals, 52% of White Catholics, and 50% of White Mainline/Non-evangelical Protestants. No other demographic or religious category supports internment camps.
Let me remind everyone (Matthew 25:35-40):
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’.”
The United States should not be on a merry-go-round of war and strife, illegal deportations, and uncharitable behavior. I urge everyone who thinks of themselves as Christian to reflect on how truly un-Christ-like our American public policy is today. What can we do to reinstate America as an advocate for world peace rather than the saber-rattler and bully we are today?
Let’s carry Christmas throughout the year and make a firm commitment to peace and understanding. For everyone.
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This first appeared at Substack.
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Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com