Visitors to this website will know that we assert that Western Nations are experiencing a revolution caused by the recent rise to political and cultural power of the Media Class. Some conservative commentators recognize that a cultural war is taking place here in the USA but we maintain that it is more than a war, for it is a war of revolution. We maintain that the new ruling Class is busy remaking society in its own image and in order to complete its revolution it has to eliminate the three ideas that are obstructions. These are ‘conservatism’, which is by definition an obstacle to all revolutionary ideas; Nationalism, for Nationalists strive to preserve national boundaries and traditional cultures; and Christianity, which is the bedrock of our morality. Since this will be our last article before Christmas Day, it seems appropriate to write about the most important day in the calendar for Christians.
I write this as an admitted skeptic who struggles with the idea that the Old Testament is literally true and struggles with the idea that Jesus Christ was the Son of God on earth. Nevertheless, the story of the birth of Jesus Christ as recounted in the Gospels can justifiably be called fascinating, amazing, inspirational, moving, message-laden, mysterious, and the pivotal moment for mankind’s passage from selfishness to universal brotherhood. The Christian faithful will regard the Nativity as much more than these and perhaps something beyond mere words.
Those of us old enough to have been brought up in a Christian culture, though not necessarily in a Christian family, will be familiar with the Nativity backdrop of a manger, Joseph and Mary arriving at an overcrowded Bethlehem, no room at the Inn, Shepherds and sheep and Three Wise Men. I am sure many, like me, who have this kind of familiarity with the story that heralds the arrival of Christmas Day, have never given too much thought to it as we launch each year into the Christmas festivities. Whether it is the annual reading of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, the arrival of Christmas cards, the sound of traditional carols in the streets and on the radio, the many boozy parties that precede the big day or the family day complete with decorations, fir tree and turkey, who can deny that there is something very special about the Christmas celebration? Surely too, every child who experiences these aspects of Christmas and anticipates the arrival of Santa and a stocking filled with toys, has a richer childhood, so rich in fact, that the emotions never quite depart until death. Charles Dickens had great insight into all this when he penned his story of the miserly pessimist who experienced redemption on Christmas Eve and suddenly came to love little children and his fellow men. Indeed, Dickens story, which only briefly mentions anything religious, is in fact laden with Christian inspiration and deeply spiritual, for it is about rebirth and joy on the anniversary of the birth of Christ.
The UK Media’s reports about the teacher in the UK who has been sacked from her job for praying for a sick child is relevant here. The teacher in question, like the Christian nurse who was sacked in Devon for revealing that she was praying for a sick patient, seems to have been one of those simple people who have a faith but not much awareness of what is appropriate. There are some people who just cannot keep their Faith to themselves. Who hasn’t groaned when the doorbell heralds the arrival on the doorstep of a Jehova Witness with an armful of Watchtower newspapers? Yet such people are harmless and we know they mean well. For maybe a century or two, Christians in the USA, the UK, and the English-speaking world have not been regarded as purveyors of a message that is anti-social and offensive. It has been a right, and an example of free speech in action, for believers to spread their message in public and at work. Only the hate-filled have vented hostility at the uniformed Salvation Army street bands, the ‘Sally Army’ street-corner preachers and the sellers of War Cry in the pubs on a Saturday night. Yet suddenly all these people who give voice to the Christian message in public have been redefined by sly new laws as potential offenders, discriminators, bigots and threats to public order. How has it happened that suddenly public officials have been empowered to use the full force of the law to silence believers everywhere except in their own homes and in Churches? How is it that suddenly businesses, including those that need Christmas to boost their sales, have banned the mention of the words ‘Jesus’ and ‘Christmas’? How is it that despite the fact that the vast majority of people, including the non-religious, still celebrate Christmas in some form, the core of the celebration cannot be mentioned? The answer can, of course, be found on this website, for the revolutionaries unleashed by the ascent to power of a new immoral Class, have been empowered to persecute those who obstruct the revolution. Under the cover of the multi-racial, multi-cultured society they have engineered without consultation with the native people, and in the name of foreign-born minorities, they have declared the native’s beliefs, traditions and culture to be outrageously offensive and unlawful. Never mind that most of the minority people are not offended and have never been consulted and some are intensely Christian. Revolutions are, by definition, not static and what we are now experiencing is not the final state of affairs. Christians should expect much greater persecution for the plan is to silence them, ban them from the public square and then eliminate them.
Those of us who grew up familiar with the nativity scene as a mere backdrop to a welcome mid- winter celebration, might do well to ponder it a little more deeply before it is suppressed and rewritten to suit a new and debauched ruling Class. It is, in fact, a very powerful story.
Joseph and Mary may not have been married though they were betrothed. Joseph was required by a law, introduced by the tyrant Herod, to return from Nazareth where he was employed as a carpenter, to Bethlehem, where he had been born, in order to register in a census. Herod, an appointee of the Romans, was fearful of a prediction that a King was about to be born within his jurisdiction. Like Stalin, he intended to eliminate all possible rivals and therefore planned to kill all new-born boys. The census was a means of tracking down all citizens. For Joseph and the pregnant Mary (who may have been only 15 years old) the 100 mile journey was a daunting prospect for it was through desert and mountain trails that were plagued by bandits. Joseph, although a descendant of the Jewish Royal House of David, was a poor artisan. The journey had to be made with only a donkey to carry Mary. It is hard today to imagine such hardship and the suffering involved. When the couple arrived in Bethlehem the town was full because of the census and there was no accommodation. Mary must have begun to experience contractions and the desperate Joseph could find only an animal manger for shelter from the winter cold. Animal shelters in that part of the world and some 2000 years ago, were not like modern barns. Into such desperate circumstances was Jesus born and fortunate to survive. There was no running water, no bathtub and no midwife. We may marvel that any fiction author of such a story would choose such a scene for the arrival of the Son of God. Most likely, the story is, in essence, true! The old adage that truth is stranger than fiction surely applies.
The Gospel narrative becomes even more improbable with the arrival of three wise men from the east. Drawn by a star, these wealthy (Kings?) men bring gifts from far lands and have no doubt that a king has been born in this humble place. Who would invent this and for what purpose? Even stranger is the arrival of shepherds from the hills. Today I learned that shepherds at that time were on the bottom of the employment ladder for they were required to spend their lives with the flocks of sheep, protecting them at all times from lions, bears, wolves and bandits and thus risking their lives day and night. Because they smelled of sheep, they were unwelcome in most places and banned by the Jews from many religious buildings. The Gospel story is that these shepherds saw angels and were informed of the birth of the Son of God. They chose to leave their flocks and make their way to the Bethlehem manger. It is not hard to see that our modern-day Nativity scene, though representing the bare facts of the story, is far removed from the rough and primitive reality. It is said that these shepherds went out and told their story to all who would listen.
The Gospels proclaim the amazing story that the Son of God was born in this animal manger, to Jewish parents; that rich, wise Gentile men came from afar with gifts and that the lowest and poorest of the Jews left their sheep and fields to be there as witnesses. This Gospel message has endured and inspired people for 2000 years and been celebrated on Christmas day.
Jesus escaped Herod’s murderous intent and went on to challenge Jewish orthodoxy and paganism in a brief and tragic life. He died a cruel and painful death, as did many of his followers. Yet his message spread and his followers multiplied. His preaching and teaching laid the foundations for a religion that embraced and welcomed all peoples of the world and salvaged joy from the tragedy. It has bequeathed us the civilizing ideas that all children are a gift and that all individuals are equal in the sight of God. Jesus also set out a blueprint for the family and a requirement that all who followed his teaching would spread the word of God just as those shepherds had done. On Friday we might acknowledge all this as the underpinning of our civilization and, even if we are not Christians, be aware that the ruling revolutionary forces are intent on silencing the shepherds and consigning the story of the Nativity to the dustbin of history.