The Twelve Days of Christmas
I have always found it strange how some folks resist acknowledging that the “Holidays”, the expression polite company uses to refer to this time of year, is really about a religious observance for one third of all humans on earth. Nearly all that segment is Christian but for the nearly 18 million Jews, their religion was the precursor to Christianity and their December celebration of Hanukah, deserves a seat at the Holiday table. Still, for the two thirds of America who identify as Christian this time of year is special. When a Christian says, “Merry Christmas,” they communicate personal feelings, beliefs, and a value system. If the response is “Merry Christmas”, those who exchange the wishes are probably kindred spirits. Awkward moments with some nonbelievers or people with other religious beliefs tend to be brief and manageable. No harm, no foul.
These Christian beliefs and values were essential ingredients to the founding and growth of America. These are just facts despite the loud protests from a small minority. I think those people who can’t receive a “Merry Christmas” with the joy in which it was intended are the same people who claim the virtue of diversity and inclusion. If diversity and inclusion were taken seriously and applied consistently, then those Grinchy recipients of the Merry Christmas should be elated in the same way they are when they see a gender-neutral bathroom.
For those of you listening who are Christian, please don’t be offended with what I am about to say. I am not trying to diminish the joy and wonder of Christmas, which I love, but rather offer a secondary interpretation. So here goes. The Christmas story itself is fundamentally a political act. The delivery of a Jewish messiah who would rid their homeland of the Roman scourge. For observant Christians, it was God incarnate to deliver a radical new playbook for people to live by. Its starts with Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, for the purpose of registering for the census ordered by the all-powerful Roman Emperor Cesar Augustus. Mary gave birth to a baby boy named Jesus who was viewed a threat to the Herod, Rome’s puppet Jewish King who had heard rumors of a new Jewish messiah being born. When the three wise men of the east came who were following the Christmas star (did you see that on Dec 21?) came to Herod’s court to inquire about the birth of a new Jewish king, Herod told them to return to tell him where he was so he could worship him. Sensing something fishy, the wise men left the country without alerting Herod. In a desperate move to stamp out any opposition, Herod ordered all the first-born sons in the land be killed in an effort to exterminate Jesus. When Mary and Joseph caught wind of this, they escaped to Egypt for several years until it was safe to return. That’s some pretty intense political drama.
What little we know about Jesus’ life before his great ministry, suggests a pretty boring life as a carpenter, dutiful son, and devout Jew. However, at about 30 years old, divine revelation transformed him into the Jesus we know from the Gospels. He courageously spoke truth to power to both the Roman occupiers and the Jewish priestly order of the Pharisees. Over his three-year ministry, Jesus’ radical message of freedom, love and tolerance became enough of a threat to the established order that it cost him his earthly life. Just a small blip for Christian believers, however.
As Christianity grew throughout the Roman empire, it became such a threat that eventually persecution of Christians became government policy. Starting with emperor Nero (r. 54–68), and continuing for nearly 400 years, being exposed as a Christian would cost you your livelihood, social standing and even your life. It’s amazing that under all that government pressure for such an extended time, Christianity grew rapidly. Its adherents didn’t care about the cost of their faith because they were living for a higher goal. After a certain point, the persecution strengthened Christianity, and if the Romans admired one thing, it was strength. How does that old adage go? What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger?
For those of you who have read my book, Locally Grown: The Art of Sustainable Government, you know that I am suspicious of all forms of centralized power and that includes religious power. And after 400 years of persecution after its creation, and another 400 years subsuming the monarchies of Europe, the Church became one of the most important power centers in the western world. The centralized hierarchy was led by the Pope, God’s emissary on earth to us little people. But like all centralized power structures, no matter how divinely inspired, the Church was run by flawed men, some of whom, become addicted to power. Over time, the excesses, and hypocrisies of some of the ruling Papal elite became so apparent, that many Christians went into open revolt and the faith experienced what we call in crypto-currency vernacular, a “hard-fork” with the 16th century Protestant reformation. Once again, the core Christian ethos of speaking truth to power was in full display as it was in Jesus’ time, but this time it shined the light of truth on itself.
This century-long splintering of Christianity gave birth to many subset doctrines, one of which was the group of separatist Puritans who founded our great nation. Do you see a pattern forming here? Christianity was born through an initial divine revelation on humanity’s relationship with its creator. God’s power is shown, not through man-made power structures, but through the selfless acts of each individual raising up their brothers and sisters. Billions of little lights from within. It reminds me of that great spiritual, “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.” And the brilliant and divine thing about this revelation is that it is self-governing. It is distributed, decentralized power that, when operating at scale, transforms the world. It is self-correcting, in that it rebels against the corruption that always emerges from human attempts to control it. It believes that the natural state of man is one of self-determination, where each person is free to make choices, and live with the consequences. It also understands that all choices are not equal. Some choices are bad for us individually, and for society at large.
Now I am not so arrogant to think that Christianity is the only road through which we can connect with our divine nature. My read of history is that ALL religious traditions put humankind in a subservient relationship to a single or group of gods. Christianity is what I was raised with, but Jesus’ unique message was that the kingdom of God was attainable by all people, not just those of a certain race, gender, culture, or social standing. This message eventually becomes a threat to any human power structure that becomes corrupt and persecutes large groups of its own people. These power structures eventually collapse under the weight of their illegitimacy.
The United States was built on these Judeo-Christian values of freedom and tolerance and when institutions became corrupt, people of faith speak truth to power. The 19th century opposition to slavery, started with the Quakers and then spread to Church pulpits throughout the Northern states. The modern civil rights movement icon Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The abuse of children by the Catholic Church hierarchy was called out by individual lay Catholics who demanded justice.
I think it is high time that people of all faiths stand up to the growing power of our federal government, for which the value of individual freedom is increasingly viewed as a threat. We are starting to see seedlings of this resistance to centralized power, emanate from the pulpit. Italian archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, recently decried the "Great Reset" whose architects are "a global élite that wants to subdue all of humanity, imposing coercive measures with which to drastically limit individual freedoms and those of entire populations." American Cardinal Raymond Burke said the following in his sermon last week:
“There is the mysterious Wuhan virus about whose nature and prevention the mass media daily give us conflicting information. What is clear, however, is that it has been used by certain forces, hostile to families and the freedom of nations, to advance their agenda. These forces tell us that we are now the subjects of the so-called ‘Great Reset,’ the ‘new normal,’ which is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear."
Now I don’t think of the comments from the two priests represent Catholic Church doctrine but rather are declarations by individual persons of faith calling out a moral danger. In fact, these priests are voicing opinions that conflict with those of Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, who seems to share some of the goals of the “Great Reset.” No, these clergymen are speaking truth to power both outside and inside the Church. And this brings me to my larger point that the Christian message is rooted in the words of Jesus, not the extrapolations of those words by an institution. We each are charged with taking personal action and simple membership in an institution doesn’t satisfy the obligation to personally get involved. We cannot outsource the hard work of doing the right thing to a government that tells us, “Don’t try this at home. Leave it to us experts to care for the poor, educate the children, and attend to the elderly.” Just vote for the right people, pay your taxes and you can get back to your comfortable lives with your iPhones, Instagram and government benefits. As if this somehow absolves us of any personal responsibility to our fellow man. I don’t think so.
Contrary to how most people think of government coercion as the threat of violence, the 20th and 21st century has shown that the primary method of coercion in America is COMFORT. People are willing to exchange comfort, and the illusion of security, for individual freedom because becoming self-sustaining and speaking truth to power is hard work. It forces you to put skin in the game. Unfortunately, many people begin to think more about the risks of losing their comfort then the potential rewards of more liberty. In an essay for the Strategic Culture Foundation, author Tim Kirby describes it this way:
“This isn’t to say that coercion/repression is a great evil. Without it, the complex societies that give us many benefits, could not stand and none of us wants to go live in a cave. And it is exactly this fact, that very few people are willing to go “live off the land”, that gives comfort so much power as a means of control. The overall global migration trend is for those with less to force themselves into countries with more, thus increasing their level of comfort. The migrants may not put it in these terms, but humans like all of God’s creatures tend to take the easy way out. Racoons prefer to attack the dumpster behind McDonald’s for food because the dumpster can’t fight back and is always available. This probably has a horrible effect on the racoons’ health, but it is the most comfortable option. They become very dependent on the dumpster and would probably shriek in terror if the fast food “restaurant” was ever closed down forcing them to go back to dealing with food that can run away. And this sort of situation is what has happened in the decadent West.”
As I try to write a fitting conclusion to my last piece of this very crazy year, I realize that I may have twisted the meaning of Christmas a bit. I’m sorry. Christmas is a joyous time of year that calls us all to be grateful, be with family, and think about others. But there is also no denying the fact that Jesus was a revolutionary who was unafraid to speak truth to power. He had the ultimate skin in the game and that is what all of us need to do more of. Get out of our comfort zones, help our fellow man, speak truth to power and keep the flame of liberty shining bright. My New Year's resolution is to put more skin in the game.
And finally, I would like to close out 2020 by giving you all a little Christmas gift. My version of the “Twelve Days of Christmas.” If you’d like to actually hear me sing this masterpiece (not!), click here to listen on Soundcloud.
On the first day of Christmas, China gave to us, a brand-new Coronavirus.
On the second day of Christmas, the Senate gave to us, no more impeachment
On the third day of Christmas, the President gave to us, three new judges
On the fourth day of Christmas, COVID gave to me, a big declining market.
On the fifth day of Christmas, Facebook gave to me, 5 stupid memes.
On the sixth day of Christmas, California gave to us, more wildfires.
On the seventh day of Christmas, ANTIFA gave to us, a summer full of protests.
On the eighth day of Christmas, Hollywood gave to you, Weinstein off to prison.
On the ninth day of Christmas, the Army gave to me, a dead Solameini
On the tenth day of Christmas the Fed Reserve gave to me, record high stocks.
On the eleventh day of Christmas, America gave to us, Uncle Joey Biden.
On the twelfth day of Christmas Free Markets gave to us, a COVID virus vaccine.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. Remember, United We Stand, Divided We Fall, Each one for the other, and All for All