Adventures

So, once more to topical commentary, dear friends.

Question: Should Atheists celebrate Christmas?

Answer: If they want to.

Comment: If you’re a Christian or you vaguely know one then the chances are at some point you have been involved in some sort of discussion about whether it is suitable or proper or pointless or whatever for people of alternative faiths or none to celebrate Christmas. Until recently the logician in me couldn’t really understand why you’d want to if it went against everything you believe in. A revelation: it doesn’t, for pretty much anyone. People enjoy a celebration, we love food and good company, exchanging cards and gifts, time with family, holidays, walks, decoration, festivity – without a single mention of Jesus, there’s a whole lot of fun to be had at Christmas – and you know what? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. Maybe the fact of the matter is that for many people Christmas doesn’t focus on Jesus – but why should those of us for whom it does begrudge them a great time? I’m all for people having fun and I certainly don’t hold it against my friends who aren’t Christians when they enjoy themselves the rest of the year, so why should I start now? Why, as we’re celebrating the birth of God made man would we decide that it’s up to us who gets to have fun and why?

I will be going to the carol service – but I’m definitely going to be at the work party too. And I’ll tear it up! This advent I have learnt that it’s time I stopped attempting to limit God to the safe and sanitized but realise that he was born in a crappy stables in some backwater and he did all that to turn the whole story around for me.

I want my friends to know that the God I love isn’t against fun and celebration, Christmas isn’t a members-only event and Christians can not limit Christ, whatever they might sometimes think.

Isn’t it time we presented the gospel as something which explains the mess with we live in and offers some answers rather than another set of restrictions and a big ladder up to a rather high horse?

To my non believing friends, I hope you all know me well enough to know that I have no plans to subvert you (read this) but I would love you to know a bit about the God that I know; who is probably quite different from how he has been portrayed. This article in Esquire is one of the best explanations I have read in a long time and although it’s a tiny bit lengthy I’d be delighted if you skimmed through it. This blog inspired some interesting discussions about the season and is equally worth a quick read.

Oh and I hope someone enjoyed the title.

Merry Christmas (War is over)

What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!

Some interesting discussions going on today and some lessons to be learnt from diving back in to the blogosphere. Banter on Twitter with…well, twits, I guess is fine – you block each other and forget all about it if it really doesn’t work out – but when teh interwebz cross over with issues IRL then one must tread more carefully. I think that treading more carefully is a very valid life lesson which I should take on board anyway – I’m pretty insensitive at the best of times. But when one is publically recording ones thoughts one should probably realise the potential audience; in this context, just about anyone. It’s tempting to find ones self (ok, myself) being drawn in to the delusion that you must communicate your point and when you do so effectively everyone will understand and agree. It’s not the case! Thankfully we are all so very different and our opinions and experiences clearly reflect this. I think that commentary on a topic and actual dialogue between interested parties – or even between any particular individual human beings – are very different; there are different social conventions. Interestingly, people might have different ideas concerning what those are and it turns out they’re probably different from yours. I have a lot of respect for the author of this post which I found particularly insightful and something to which I should definitely refer back to at a later stage.

I was reminded of bits of Romans 12, specifically, wait, no, generally. Pretty much all of it. Go read it, it’s got pretty far reaching implications.

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

I think this is to do with the principles of the oft quoted Micah 6:8 rather than just prohibiting physical violence with neighbours. In fact I would go as far as to say that it seems that a lot of what Jesus had to say was more about developing Godly attitudes and relationships than avoiding doing bad stuff. As the Pharisees found out, you can avoid doing bad stuff all day long and still have a terrible attitude to those around you, those in need and even God. I think that I end up stuck in concentric circles of legalism and guilt and invented or perceived rules when I’m pretty sure that Jesus set me free from all of that and just wants me to focus on him. Perhaps I should put a lot more heart and soul in to doing that.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!”

So it occurred to me that I gots the opinions and that and what better way to share them than blogging endlessly in to the ether? Anyway, I decided to resurrect my wordpress blog because its way cooler than the old blogspot one and it’s much prettier to boot. This was inspired by some much more communicative friends of mine who write thought-provoking things, some of which I have to say I agree with more than others.

There has been much debate recently on gender equality issues. A housemate of mine is actively involved in the YUSU Women’s committee which I think is great. I’m all in favour of anybody asserting their rights and assembling to protect their interests and ensure that they are treated fairly and with respect. The only slight issue is if it goes too far the other way – but it seems to me at least that oldskool militant feminism has given way to a more mature and equality-centred feminism which is nice.

Another issue for me is gender equality and representation within the church. Without making up any statistics, it is easy to observe the relatively small proportion of men who regularly attend church, but I have had the good fortune to be involved with several churches which seem to be bucking that trend. Some wise words on the subject were penned by David Murrow in his book ‘Why Men Hate Going to Church’ (which has a site here). Anyway, I was quite surprised earlier by a blog post which seemed to me to be suggesting that church based activities specifically for men are of little or no value.

At this stage I must pause to say that I love the church. I know it is made up of flawed individuals – sinners, all of us – but I believe it has the potential to bring the hope of salvation to humanity. Which is nice. I think that the church functions best when it’s membership is both diverse and united. (As an aside, this is why I have chosen to be involved predominantly with St Michael Le Belfrey, York rather than the University of York Christian Union – although they do some ace things too). So, diversity and unity ftw. However, in order to have a diverse membership it is necessary to appeal to a wide demographic. There has been commentary recently on the feminization of church which I think is a shame. There is absolutely nothing wrong with church activities that specifically appeal to females – in fact, great! – however when this is to the exclusion of men, who fail to see the appeal then we have a problem.

Paul explains how the church functions as a body and requires all of its parts to do so effectively. Therefore I would advocate that any activity which brings people in to the church and in to greater fellowship with each other and provides the framework for trust and teaching and support is great. Activities with the whole church, the ‘corporate worship’ stuff, it’s mint – we recognise each other’s differences but rejoice in our common goal of praising God. Activities with a select group based on an age range, gender, taste etc – it’s also great, perhaps we can learn form people who have had similar experiences to ourselves or form relationships with those to whom we find it easy to relate.

Update: Reading the comments of the afore referenced post has produced some very interesting banter. Especially the wise words of Mr. D Burton (more of which can be found here – well worth a read dear friends.). Perhaps the closing words on the subject should be these – and a reminder that in all of this we should be striving for unity.