12.02.2011

Putting Christ Back Into Christmas

The other day while on my way into Powell River i passed a sign in front of a local church extolling us to put Christ back into Christmas. It got me thinking about the depressing hordes descending on the malls in search of Black Friday 'deals'. It got me thinking about who the historic Jesus Christ was, about his message and his methods of communicting that message.

Christ was a rebel, he opposed the banking and financial elites of his day, he condemned injustice, praised a life non-materialism, and used street theater to draw attention to his message. Jesus Christ challenged the representatives of the religious and political status quo and they killed him for it.

Now don't be confused, the churchs, christian-muslim-hindu-buddhist-etc, are political institutions. Their mission is control not liberation, their insistance that only the 'bishops' of their institutions understand the 'truth' is a tool of that mission. The churchs are inventions of we the self-interested-lazy-fearful bi-pedal primates not of divinity [whatever that is].

Jesus Christ was the original #OWS member. He overturned the money-changing tables at the Temple which really had become a tax collection agency and a bank. Would Christ have been in the Black Friday crowds? i doubt it. Would he instead have been working in the soup kitchens and free clinics feeding the hungry and giving comfort to the poorest among us? You betcha.