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"A Christmas Sermon on Peace"

Martin Luther King, 1967 [excerpt]

It really boils down to this: that all life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. We are made to live together because of the interrelated structure of reality. Did you ever stop to think that you can't leave for your job in the morning without being dependent on most of the world? You get up in the morning and go to the bathroom and reach over for the sponge, and that's handed to you by a Pacific islander. You reach for a bar of soap, and that's given to you at the hands of a Frenchman. And then you go into the kitchen to drink your coffee for the morning, and that's poured into your cup by a South American. And maybe you want tea: that's poured into your cup by a Chinese. Or maybe you're desirous of having cocoa for breakfast, and that's poured into your cup by a West African. And then you reach over for your toast, and that's given to you at the hands of an English-speaking farmer, not to mention the baker. And before you finish eating breakfast in the morning, you've depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured, this is its interrelated quality. We aren't going to have peace on Earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality. ....

It's one of the strangest things that all the great military geniuses of the world have talked about peace. The conquerors of old who came killing in pursuit of peace, Alexander, Julius Caesar, Charlemagne, and Napoleon, were akin in seeking a peaceful world order. If you will read Mein Kampf closely enough, you will discover that Hitler contended that everything he did in Germany was for peace. And the leaders of the world today talk eloquently about peace. Every time we drop our bombs in North Vietnam, President Johnson talks eloquently about peace. What is the problem? They are talking about peace as a distant goal, as an end we seek, but one day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means. All of this is saying that, in the final analysis, means and ends must cohere because the end is preexistent in the means, and ultimately destructive means cannot bring about constructive ends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3q8UEVnuSA
Merry Christmas. Pray for Our Country.
Frank Schaeffer
Premiered Dec 12, 2024
Follow Frank on Substack.
https://frankschaeffer.substack.com

former evangelist has unconventional perspectives worth considering.

Rev. Michael Dowd
"Thank God for Evolution"
post-doom eco-theology
https://thegreatstory.org/michaeldowd.html

"Evolution was simply God's method of working, and therefore not atheistic or infidel"
"The hills from which these evidences were taken were made by the same God who made the hills of Judea, and the evidences are just as authoritative. The Church has nothing to fear from the uncovering of truth."
-- Thomas Condon
posted at the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Oregon
www.nps.gov/joda/historyculture/thomas-condon.htm

Christmas 2023: Baby Jesus is under the rubble of Gaza

www.democracynow.org/2023/12/22/christmas_cancelled_in_palestine_mitri_raheb

from The Guardian

Vatican City: "the only true jubilee - cease fire"

NORAD tracks Santa every Christmas eve:
making nuclear war preparation cute for kids.
Believing in nuclear war is worse than believing in Santa.

www.noradsanta.org

1914 Christmas truce

Read about the 1914 Christmas truce (a Christmas story for modern times). Here are a variety of perspectives on this hidden history:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06358/748101-42.stm
Silent Night: The little carol that could
Sunday, December 24, 2006

The message of peace in "Silent Night" has come to the forefront many times over the years, but one of the most dramatic examples occurred in 1914, during an unofficial truce on the front lines during World War I.
Stanley Weintraub, a retired Penn State University professor and author of a book on the truce, said that on that first yuletide of the war, the front lines between the British, French and Belgians on the one side and the Germans on the other were often only 75 yards apart.
The Germans shipped thousands of tabletop Christmas trees to their trenches, Dr. Weintraub said, and the soldiers often put lights on them and gathered around to sing "Stille Nacht," which could be heard by curious Allied soldiers who had crawled out into the muddy No Man's Land between the lines.
That led to peaceful contacts between individual soldiers, and by Christmas Day, the rank-and-file combatants had agreed on their own to form solemn burial parties, after which they exchanged gifts, sang carols and played soccer matches all up and down the lines.

http://www.gracematters.org/interviews/s.weintraub.html
December 24, 2006 Guest - Stanley Weintraub
Program: Silent Night

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?isbn=0452283671
Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce
by Stanley Weintraub

BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/10/98/world_war_i/197627.stm
World War I Tuesday, 3 November, 1998, 11:26 GMT
The Christmas truce

World Socialist Web Site:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/xmas-j17.shtml
War, football and the 1914 Christmas truce
By Harvey Thompson
17 July 2003

Snopes.com:
http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/truce.asp
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Holidays (Christmas Truce)

Snopes is sometimes a reliable source, sometimes not.

from musician John McCutcheon:

Christmas in the Trenches
words & music by John McCutcheon

My name is Francis Tolliver, I come from Liverpool,
Two years ago the war was waiting for me after school.
To Belgium and to Flanders to Germany to here
I fought for King and country I love dear.
'Twas Christmas in the trenches where the frost so bitter hung,
The frozen fields of France were still, no Christmas song was sung,
Our families back in England were toasting us that day,
Their brave and glorious lads so far away.

I was lying with my messmate on the cold and rocky ground
When across the lines of battle came a most peculiar sound
Says I, "Now listen up, me boys!" each soldier strained to hear
As one young German voice sang out so clear.
"He's singing bloody well, you know!" my partner says to me
Soon one by one each German voice joined in in harmony
The cannons rested silent, the gas clouds rolled no more
As Christmas brought us respite from the war.

As soon as they were finished and a reverent pause was spent
"God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" struck up some lads from Kent
The next they sang was "Stille Nacht," "Tis 'Silent Night'," says I
And in two tongues one song filled up that sky.
"There's someone coming towards us!" the front line sentry cried
All sights were fixed on one lone figure coming from their side
His truce flag, like a Christmas star, shone on that plain so bright
As he bravely strode unarmed into the night.

Soon one by one on either side walked into No Man's land
With neither gun nor bayonet we met there hand to hand
We shared some secret brandy and we wished each other well
And in a flare-lit soccer game we gave 'em hell.
We traded chocolates, cigarettes, and photographs from home
These sons and fathers far away from families of their own
Young Sanders played his squeeze box and they had a violin
This curious and unlikely band of men.

Soon daylight stole upon us and France was France once more
With sad farewells we each began to settle back to war
But the question haunted every heart that lived that wondrous night
"Whose family have I fixed within my sights?"
'Twas Christmas in the trenches, where the frost so bitter hung
The frozen fields of France were warmed as songs of peace were sung
For the walls they'd kept between us to exact the work of war
Had been crumbled and were gone for evermore.

My name is Francis Tolliver, in Liverpool I dwell
Each Christmas come since World War I I've learned its lessons well
That the ones who call the shots won't be among the dead and lame
And on each end of the rifle we're the same.

©1984 John McCutcheon/Appalsongs (ASCAP)

"I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

"A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each end."
-- author unknown

Christmas music

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Christmas At Ground Zero (Official Video)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t039p6xqutU

Tom Lehrer - A Christmas Carol
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oIzyl6-T60

Dar Williams - The Christians and the Pagans
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vggo_9EDZU

so the Christians and the Pagans sat together at the table
Finding faith and common ground the best that they were able
And where does magic come from? I think magic's in the learning
Cause now when Christians sit with Pagans only pumpkin pies are burning

Bruce Cockburn - Cry of a Tiny Babe
www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmZlYiMCvSc

There are others who know about this miracle birth
The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth
For it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes
But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums
And the message is clear if you've got [you have] ears to hear
That forgiveness is given for your guilt and your fear
It's a Christmas gift [that] you don't have to buy
There's a future shining in a baby's eyes

Christmas movies

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAxuNdtZt7c
WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY? -- Reverend Billy & The StopShopping Choir

What Would Jesus Buy? is a hilarious and thought-provoking documentary diving into the over-commercialization of Christmas and the dark side of consumer culture. Follow Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they hit the road during the holiday season to challenge corporate greed, materialism, and environmental destruction—all with humor, music, and theatrical flair.
This eye-opening film will make you question what the holidays are really about. Can we ditch overconsumption and rediscover the true spirit of the season?

Monty Python's Life of Brian
Brazil

www.thebulwark.com/p/brazil-is-a-christmas-movie
'Brazil' Is a Christmas Movie
Terry Gilliam's junkpunk classic is set during our most dystopian holiday.
JOHN DEVORE DEC 20, 2021

Monty Python's The Life of Brian
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

the exact spot where He came out of Mary

In 1974, when I was 10, my family had a once in a lifetime vacation to Israel. Muslims are obligated to visit Mecca once in their lives (which was more difficult in the days before globalized aviation). There is no formal Biblical requirement for American Jews to visit Israel, but it's encouraged, and we spent three weeks on a grand tour.

One of the sites we visited was the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem (in the occupied West Bank, but I didn't understand occupation then). In the Church there is a circle marking the exact spot where Jesus came out of Mary. Seeing that confirmed my suspicions about religion (all brands, not just Christianity).

The official story of the birth of Jesus is it was in a manger, since Mary and Joseph were homeless (and unwed) at the time. The church was built centuries after this event supposedly happened. I realized this was all made up out of manger dung. I might believe a plaque stating that this event took place in the general vicinity, but not that we know this happened at an exact spot.

The Church of the Naivete. Metaphors be with you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Nativity#/media/File:Nativity_Grotto_Star.jpg

Albert Einstein:
"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how subtle, can change this for me. For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstition. And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong, and whose thinking I have a deep affinity for, have no different quality for me than all other people. As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power. Otherwise I cannot see anything "chosen" about them."
Princeton, 3. 1. 1954
Dear Mr Gutkind,
In January of 1954, just a year before his death, Albert Einstein wrote the following letter to philosopher Erik Gutkind after reading his book, "Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt," and made known his views on religion.
http://www.webcitation.org/651nnfKDv

"[N]o religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
-- Article VI, paragraph 3, United States Constitution

"I have examined all the known superstitions of the word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth."
– Thomas Jefferson

"What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy."
— James Madison

"A firehouse is more useful than a church."
— Benjamin Franklin