Politics and Advent

This seems like a good point in time to do this.

Slightly over a week ago, no one was talking about wiretaps, the NSA, FISA, or expecting the PATRIOT ACT to do anything but finally pass.

One can say that the worse thing that happened was that Medicare, Medicaid, and student loans were all cut this week. But those are constituencies who vote (v., say, the poor of New Orleans, who are still largely voiceless and ignored), so the wisdom of those actions, politically (let's set aside "morally," which, sadly, has not the strength it should in our political culture) is dubious, at best.

Today, one FISA judge has very publicly resigned from that secret and largely rubber-stamp court, and the remaining FISA judges are angry about how they've been mis-treated and want answers to their questions; a short-list Supreme Court nominee reprimands the government for playing fast and loose with criminal procedure and due process; the current Supreme Court nominee is so connected to the President's unfounded legal argument on Presidential power that his cause now seems hopeless; the wiretap story is much bigger than even the President has hinted at; in short, we are in the beginning throes of a full-blown Constitutional crisis.

Sounds like Advent is just in time. Venite ad iudicum.

Marana tha.

December 24

FAREWELE, Advent; Christmas is cum;
Farewele fro us both aile and sume.

With paciens thou hast us fedde
And made us go hungrie to bedde;
For lak of mete we were nyghe dedde;
Farewele fro us both aile and sume.

While thou haste be within oure howse
We ete no puddynges ne no sowce,
But stynking fisshe not worth a lowce;
Farewele fro us both aile and sume.

There was no fresshe fisshe ferre ne nere;
Salt fisshe and samon was to dere,
And thus we have had hevy chere;
Farewele fro us both aile and sume.

Oure brede was browne, oure ale was thynne,
Oure brede was musty in the bynne,
Oure ale soure or we did begynne;
Farewele fro us both aile and sume.

The tyme of Cristes feest natall
We will be mery, grete and small,
And thou shalt goo oute of this halle;
Farewele fro us both aile and sume.

December 24--Gott mit uns

O Emmanuel, ruler and lawgiver,
desire of the nations,
savior of all people.
Come and set us free, Lord our God.

It is both terrible and comforting to dwell in the inconceivable nearness of God, and so to be loved by God that the first and last gift is infinity and inconceivability itself. But we have no choice. God is with us.--Karl Rahner

No one can truly celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God--for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God, Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit there can be no abundance of God.--Oscar Romero

Only Connect

Alito's nomination is pretty much over now:

The attorney general should be immune from lawsuits for ordering wiretaps of Americans without permission from a court, Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's Supreme Court nominee, wrote in a memorandum in 1984 as a government lawyer in the Reagan administration.

The memorandum, released yesterday by the National Archives, made recommendations concerning a lawsuit against former Attorney General John N. Mitchell over a wiretap he had authorized without a court's permission in 1970. The government was investigating a plot to destroy underground utility tunnels in Washington and to kidnap Henry A. Kissinger, the national security adviser.

The White House said yesterday that the issues discussed in that memorandum were not the same as those posed by President Bush's orders to the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international communications without warrants.

"Judge Alito's memo regarding a purely domestic threat is completely different from N.S.A.'s efforts to thwart threats from foreign terrorist organizations," said Steve Schmidt, a White House spokesman.

In a letter to Judge Alito, Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said yesterday that he would question him vigorously about his current views on whether the attorney general and other top officials "have absolute immunity from suits based on even willful unconstitutional acts."

In 1972, the Supreme Court ruled that wiretaps without warrants in the context of domestic intelligence surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The court did not address international communications.

The best argument the White House can come up with is basically a legal technicality.

Given the news this week, combined with the news from last week, that defense is worse than useless. It's damaging.

"A simple English vicar..."

Passed on to me by Prior Aelred, and now passed along to you. A story appropriate for the coming of the king of Heaven, when all's set at six and sevens.

I knew there was an "Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields." But I never knew there was a church, or that it had such a history, or such a vicar.

December 23

O Ruler of all nations,
the only joy of every human heart,
O Keystone of the mighty arch of humankind:
Come and save the creature you fashioned from the dust.


And, because I won't violate the copyright of a poet, especially one I admire so much, please follow this link to a permitted publication of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's "Christ Climbed Down."

We're From the Government.

Trust us.

The National Security Agency, in carrying out President Bush's order to intercept the international phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of links to Al Qaeda, has probably been using computers to monitor all other Americans' international communications as well, according to specialists familiar with the workings of the NSA.

This means, of course, that we are all considered threats to national security, until proven otherwise. And that the NSA may have monitored my phone calls to my daughter this summer,when she was in China.

And may be monitoring this blog, since it gets international visitors (from Europe to Korea).

Whom do I contact to press charges?

UPDATE: Apparently my concerns are not exaggerated:

The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials.

The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said.

As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said.

The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials familiar with the program. One issue of concern to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has reviewed some separate warrant applications growing out of the N.S.A.'s surveillance program, is whether the court has legal authority over calls outside the United States that happen to pass through American-based telephonic "switches," according to officials familiar with the matter.

And the fact that a Federal court and Federal judges are expressing and acting on concerns about this is much more important than may at first appear. Courts traditionally and structurally respond only to what is brought before them. But when their own integrity is threatened by another branch of government, well....

in the 1970's, we learned to call that a "constitutional crisis."

This is going to be bigger, and potentially worse, than any of us are yet imagining.

"Okay, come in."--Nigel Molesworth

Seven Things To Do Before I Die (and other reasons to strike watertiger from my Xmas list)

1. Write a book.
2. Write another book.
3. Stay in one profession long enough to retire from it.
4. Understand a metaphysical system. Any metaphysical system.
5. Establish a theology I can live with.
6. Tour the distilleries of Scotland. All of them. and tour Ireland, and live in Paris. "My father always promised us that we would live in France."
7. Play the bassoon again.

Seven Things I Cannot Do

1. Without coffee.
2. Give up hope.
3. Overcome shyness.
4. Resist temptation.
5. Stop writing.
6. Appreciate my friends enough.
7. Understand life without a metaphysical system.


Seven Things That Attract Me to...the Seven Ages of Man
1. There are only 7 of them. See Shakespeare, William for more.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Seven Things I Say Most Often

1. "( )"
2. "I'm fixin' to get around to it."
3. "( )"
4. "You know what really bugs me?"
5. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."
6. "( )"
7. "I really don't like people who talk in cliches. Ya know?"

Seven Books That I Love

1. Fear and Trembling, by Johannes de Silentio
2. The Gift of Death, by Jacques Derrida
3. The Compleet Molesworth, by Geoffrey Willans
4. A Place on Earth, by Wendell Berry
5. Week-end Wodehouse, by P.G Wodehouse
6. The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris
7. Upholding Mystery: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry, edited by David Impastato

Seven Movies That I Watch Over and Over Again

1. Dr. Strangelove
2. A Christmas Story
3. Ghostbusters
4. Animal House
5. A.I.
6. Crash
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Seven People I Want To Join In Too

I have exactly 7 friends, and I want to keep them.

Soon as I can get it from Holden

watertiger is going on the list.

For this.

Which I know is bringing you good people over, expecting some kind of response from me.

Well, you won't get it.

Not yet, anyway.

In the meantime, can I interest you in a seasonal Oliphant cartoon?

Or a nice Christmas tree?



"Seven?" Why is it always "seven"?

December 22

O radiant Dawn,
splendor of eternal light, sun of justice:
Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness
and the shadow of death.

RENOUNCING henceforth all thoughts of looking back, and joyful with infinite gratitude, never fear to precede the dawn: to praise and bless and sing Christ your Lord.--Rule of Taize

HANNAH worshiped the LORD. She said: My heart exults in the LORD,
my horn is exalted in my God.
I have swallowed up my enemies;
I rejoice in my victory.
There is no Holy One like the LORD;
there is no Rock like our God.
Speak boastfully no longer,
nor let arrogance issue from your mouths.
For an all-knowing God is the LORD,
a God who judges deeds.
The bows of the mighty are broken,
while the tottering gird on strength.
The well-fed hire themselves out for bread,
while the hungry fatten on spoil.
The barren wife bears seven sons,
while the mother of many languishes.

The LORD puts to death and gives life,
casts down to the nether world
and raises up again.
The LORD makes poor and makes rich,
humbles, and also exalts.
[The Lord] raises the needy from the dust;
from the ash heap lifts up the poor,
To seat them with nobles
and make a glorious throne their heritage.--I Samuel 2:1-8

MARY said:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior
who has looked with favor on me, a lowly serving maid.
From this day all generations will call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me:
holy the name of the Lord,
whose mercy is on the God-fearing
from generation to generation.
The arm of the Lord is filled with strength,
scattering the proudhearted.
God cast the mighty from their thrones,
lifting up the lowly.
God filled the hungry with good things,
sending the rich away empty.
God has come to the help of Israel,
the Lord's servant, remembering mercy,
the mercy promised to our forebears,
to Abraham and his children for ever.--Luke 1:46-55

SING we a song of high revolt;
Make great the Lord, God's name exalt:
Sing we the words of Mary's song
Of God at war with human wrong.
Sing we of God who deeply cares
And still with us our burden shares;
God, who with strength the proud disowns,
Brings down the mighty from their thrones.

By God the poor are lifted up;
God satisfies with bread and cup
The hungry folk of many lands:
The rich are left with empty hands.
God calls us to revolt and fight,
To seek for what is just and right.
To sing and live Magnificat
To ease all people's sorry lot.--Fred Kaan

Only because

I had mentioned this before, and Atrios linked to this post by Kevin Drum, and because I knew Mike Luttig in high school (and was dismayed to hear he was a possible Supreme Court Nominee; dismayed, but, as he was from Tyler, not surprised).

As I said: a case is moot when the court says it is moot. And the long-term prospects for Bush/Cheney's "reassertion" of executive power, are suddenly not very good at all:

They have left the impression that the government may even have come to the belief that the principle in reliance upon which it has detained Padilla for this time, that the President possesses the authority to detain enemy combatants who enter into this country for the purpose of attacking America and its citizens from within, can, in the end, yield to expediency with little or no cost to its conduct of the war against terror — an impression we would have thought the government likewise could ill afford to leave extant.

And these impressions have been left, we fear, at what may ultimately prove to be substantial cost to the government’s credibility before the courts, to whom it will one day need to argue again in support of a principle of assertedly like importance and necessity to the one that it seems to abandon today. While there could be an objective that could command such a price as all of this, it is difficult to imagine what that objective would be.

Don't have time now to read the entire opinion, but I want to.

The repercussions from the NYT story last Friday will be felt for a very long time, and very deeply. When someone like Mike Luttig decides the President has gone to far, the President is indeed standing on a flat plain, and very much alone.

Mourning reflections

In this post at StreetProphets, I found what I was getting at:

In the so called Christian west there are modern efforts to bring boundaries to war by enlightenment internationalists and the inheritors of just war thinking. Various covenants and protocols are in place that prescribe treatment of detainees and guidelines on the treatment of civilians for armies of occupation. In the wake of this growing body of international law and the recovery of enemy loving teachings among Christians, governments have resorted to two track war making.

The public face of war making are the uniformed soldiers with their attendant weapons of modern warfare including all kinds of high tech equipment often justified as being inherently less destructive. The other track, the shadow side, contains war making at much more vicious level that can be regarded as the application of terror on enemy populations including civilians. Many of us choose to see the visible expressions of the security state, the uniformed soldier, but are mystified by or choose not to believe that "civilized" nations Christian, Muslim or Jewish, practice assassination, torture, destruction of whole cities with dimly lit underworld programs.

Despite the fact that thoughtful military historians report that these expressions of terror rarely achieve the desired ends of national security, planners and politicians continue to use these means.

"These expressions of terror rarely achieve the desired ends of national security...." And there is a reason for that. It is because these expressions are not prompted by fears of insecurity, or even by identity and boundary issues, such as "What nation/culture do I live in, if it isn't a simply Judeo-Christian one?" That's the cry of the "war on Christmas."

But the issue of terror, and its use by rogue groups and nation-states, is simply the cry of power, seeking its own end, the unstoppable force destroying every obstacle in its path, until it meets the unmoveable object.

And that object is the Christchild.

Unmoveable not because it is more permanent than power, or more able to resist. That would be nonsense. Power cannot resist power, anymore than power is the answer to power. Resisting power with more power creates a feedback loop, and the only thing fed is power. Power does not cancel itself; it increases itself. So the answer to power is not ultimate power, because there is no such thing.

The answer to power is powerlessness. Which is the hardest answer of all. Consider the members of the CPT:

It is hard for the missing CPTers' families. It is hard for us not knowing where our four colleagues are, how they are holding up during this time, or when they will be released. We pray; we cry; we wake up in the night feeling tense with worry. We ask God for more faith and trust as we call for their release and work to share the stories of who these men are, of the work of CPT in Iraq and other places of conflict and injustice. We care about these four men, yet we also feel the same urgency for all Iraqis and their families who are suffering fear and pain because their family members have disappeared or been killed or imprisoned.

....
Lately I feel so tired. There's always a part of me that wants just to sleep; sleep and make all of THIS - the war, my government's policies and actions, the counter-violence of the insurgency, all the greed and sin in the world - just go away for awhile. I can identify with the apathy of citizens who give in to violence: yes, just make the evil go away, press the button, fire the missile, send the young ones off to war. Take any way out.

There is no way out. But there is a way through. I tasted it the other day, when I was tired and wanted to hide, but instead went down the street to visit an Iraqi family who are going through a troubled time. On the way, I met little Huda in the street. I gave her a kiss; she gave me a piece of candy. Simple relationships, simple human connections - that's the way through.

"There is no way out. But there is a way through. Powerlessness does not offer an exit; it offers the one chance to prevail. Power opposed requires the wielding of power, and power is subject to no one's control. Power always seeks its own ends.

Powerlessness is the only answer. The powerlessness of the Christchild. The refusal to be moved from one's convictions. The refusal to give up on God.

The recognition that there is no way out; but, glory be to God, there is a way through.

What, after all, could be less powerful, than a kiss for a small child?

O Christmas Tree

Chez Jeffers is officially ready to recieve Christmas.








"I never thought it was such a bad little tree."

December 21

O Key of David, O royal power of Israel,
controlling at your will the gate of heaven;
Come, break down the prison walls of death
for those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and lead your captive people into freedom.


BLESS earth with thine advent, O Savior Christ!
And the golden gates which in days gone by
Full long stood locked, high Lord of heaven,
Bid thou swing open and seek us out,
Humbly descending thyself to earth.

We have need of thy mercy. The dark death-shadow,
The accursed wolf, has scattered thy sheep
And widely dispersed them; what thou, 0 Lord,
Bought with thy blood, and that doth the wicked one
Take into bondage, and smiteth sore
Against our desire. 0 Savior Lord,
In our inmost thoughts we eagerly beg:
Hasten to help us, miserable sinners,
That the prince of torment may plunge to hell;
And thy handiwork mount up on high,
Creator of humankind, and come to righteousness. --Medieval English Lyric

GOOD news; but if you ask me what it is, I know not;
It is a track of feet in the snow,
It is a lantern showing a path,
It is a door set open.--G.K. Chesterton

THE Word of God was made human in order that we might be made divine. The Word displayed itself through a body, that we might receive knowledge of the Invisible Father.--Athanasius, Fourth Century

THREE old men, of whom one had a bad reputation, came one day to Abba Achilles. The first asked him, "Father make me a fishing net." "I will not make you one," he replied. Then the second one said, "Of your charity make one, so that we may have a souvenir of you in the monastery." But he said, "I do not have time." Then the third one, who had a bad reputation, said, "Make me a fishing net, so that I may have something from your hands, Father." Abba Achilles answered him at once, "For you, I will make one." Then the two other old men asked him privately, "Why did you not want to do what we asked you, but you promised to do what he asked?" The old man gave them this answer, "I told you I would not make one, and you were not disappointed, since you thought I had no time. But if I had not made one for him, he would have said, 'The old man has heard about my sin, and that is why he does not want to make me anything,' and so our relationship would have broken down. But now I have cheered his soul, so that he will not be overcome with grief."--The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

THE justice of God,
which will pass judgment on human justice,
will reveal itself with the brightness of sunshine
on the day of the resurrection,
but not right now.
Now Jesus must drink the chalice of suffering
down to the last drop.
He must walk the way of the cross to the very end, enduring the limitless atrocities of injustice
against the innocent.--Leonardo Boff

MARY set out, proceeding in haste into the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby stirred in her womb. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and cried out in a loud voice: "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. But who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me? The moment your greeting sounded in my ears, the baby stirred in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who trusted that the Lord's words to her would be fulfilled."--Luke 1:39-45

HOW long, dear Savior, O how long
Shall this bright hour delay? Fly swifter round the
wheel of time,
And bring the welcome day.--Jeremiah Ingalls, Eighteenth Century

Who to believe?

Scottie McClellan? (with thanks to Holden):

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, we can have a debate, or you can let me respond to your questions. I think this is an important subject for the American people to talk about. By advancing freedom and democracy in the Middle East we're helping to protect our own security. It's a dangerous region --

Or the Independent ?

Iraq is disintegrating. The first results from the parliamentary election last week show the country is dividing between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish regions.

Religious fundamentalists now have the upper hand. The secular and nationalist candidate backed by the US and Britain was humiliatingly defeated.

The Shia religious coalition has won a total victory in Baghdad and the south of Iraq. The Sunni Arab parties who openly or covertly support armed resistance to the US are likely to win large majorities in Sunni provinces. The Kurds have already achieved quasi-independence and their voting reflected that.

The election marks the final shipwreck of American and British hopes of establishing a pro-Western secular democracy in a united Iraq.

Well, absent an expertise in the politics and cultures of Iraq, let us just note that Mr. McClellan speaks in vague and glittering generalities, and Mr. Patrick Cockburn speaks in specifics and details.

Which makes the evaluation a bit easier.

Mourning in Exile

It should have occurred to me earlier, that I've seen this movie before. I've even had a bit part in it, a time or two.

Institutions in crisis react just like individuals: they panic. And the zeitgeist tends to influence institutions large and small. No man is an island, according to John Donne, and neither are institutions: what panics a nation, panics a congregation. What comforts a people, comforts a Church as well.

Since before I entered seminary, which is almost 13 years gone now, I have seen the signs of panic in the church. I thought at first it was the church I was in (the UCC). I see now it is almost a pandemic, that it affects all the churches, and everywhere there is turmoil. If there is not open warfare, there are rumors of war, and everyone, from the pews to the highest church official, are pointing to signs and portents to divine what is to come.

And they are all reacting in blind panic.

Perhaps it is because of pedophilia among the priests; perhaps it is because a homosexual is now among the bishops; perhaps it is because the church hierarchy is far more "liberal," both politically and socially, than the congregations they are supposed to arise from. Or perhaps these are merely symptoms, and the underlying dis-ease has yet to be diagnosed.

But for almost 15 years now, since before I entered seminary, I have seen the institution ravenously and madly devouring its own: its pastors. I hardly know of a pastor any more who hasn't lost a church, been forced from a church, been accused of improprieties and subjected to vicious "private" smear campaigns (phone calls, e-mails, letters, gossip) by "good" church members, or, in the most extreme cases, "investigated" by church judicatories, almost always and almost inevitably with an eye not toward justice (which, as any lawyer knows, is a very slippery and very difficult goal to ever attain, and not just because the defendant is guilty, or always presumed so), but toward purging the corporate body. In a blind panic, more and more churches, seen from the inside, are acting to "purify" themselves and to respond to the terror and the fear that not possible nuclear annihilation or even another 9/11 bring; but the fear of homosexuality, of scripture that is not literally true, of a God for whom scientific explanations don't apply, and the concept that just perhaps, science doesn't have a claim on absolute truth after all. But that last concept doesn't dethrone science, either, doesn't set it aside to be replaced by a more comforting quasi-theological model. And worse yet, we find ourselves in an era when not everyone is "Christian," not even in our own country.

We are, in short, in the era already underway when Søren Kierkegaard wrote more than 150 years ago: this is the end of Christendom. And the churches and their people are terrified by the prospect.

How else to explain the rise in complaints against pastors and priests, and the loss of authority? From the outside that loss may look like a good thing, but I don't mean the loss of power, the fall of the tyrant. Good riddance to that, even when it was wielded by the hardworking and essentially benevolent "Herr Pastor" of my own church's tradition. I mean the complete loss of authority coupled with an increase in responsibility, the horrific condition of being liable for all that happens in your parish, and having absolutely no authority over your work or life. I mean pastors accused on the flimsiest of grounds by anonymous (even to them) persons who suffer no consequence anymore for their actions, because now it is "all about me," and if it damns the church and makes the heavens fall, so be it. I mean the situations I have seen time and again, when the issues all boil down to "he said/she said," and the pastor is guilty until proven innocent, and there is no due process that will be or can be followed because, after all, this is "serious," this is "crisis," we are at "war!"

And you see how it bends around and connects to what the nation is going through, right now.

I have seen "Star Chamber proceedings." Before seminary, I represented my pastor in a church disciplinary proceeding, although "represent" deserves to be in quotes, because I was banned from the actual hearing room on the days witnesses were heard from. I was not allowed to question them, or to present evidence or even an argument on my client's behalf. Why? Because the lawyer for the Conference presented me with language from the Manual on Ministry, the guiding handbook for such proceedings, which stated pastors were not allowed counsel in the hearings.

What he didn't tell me was that language was draft language, and it had been rejected by the General Synod, and never made a part of the Manual on Ministry. But that omission made his job, and his client's job, a lot easier; and it made mine impossible. That's what I mean by "no due process." That's what I mean by "Star Chamber proceedings."

That was not the first time I'd seen power wielded in a church to obtain a desired outcome, and it hasn't been the last. Power prefers secrecy, the better to gain its ends. I know of pastors presented with the results of "secret" investigations, and forced to wait while the allegations, first investigated secretly for months, are now investigated again, while rumors swirl about what he did and whether he is innocent (let's be honest, we all presume the accused to be guilty), and all without even knowing who has made the accuasations.

Why not accuse, when you know there is no price to be paid?

And now we have a President who says "Trust me," and a Vice President who says this is only restoring the proper powers to the Executive, and everything is okay. Now we have an Administration which insists it must conduct the people's business in secret, the better to protect the people from the insecurities of the world.

But secrecy only serves one end: to preserve power, and power never lies with the one who thinks they wield it. Power always seeks its own ends, and ruthlessly destroys everything that obstructs that end, if it is allowed to. Think "Macbeth." Think "Othello."

Think "King Lear," or "Antigone."

We've seen this movie. We know how it comes out. But right now it is something in the air.

Perhaps this is a legacy of the "Cold War," when we really faced an enemy who could end life as we know it on this planet, who could wipe us off the face of the earth with the touch of a button, and not 3000 people at a time, but whole cities at a time, and in a rush of war and violence from which no one on the planet would recover. Perhaps this is the inevitable sour grapes and bitter fruit of that harvest of evil, one we all toiled away at assiduously for a generation after the "good" war.

Perhaps this is the real legacy of the "Greatest Generation:" a generation of panic, from the smallest church to the halls of Congress.

Perhaps this is the inevitable consequence of seeking salvation in all the wrong places. And even the people who preach and teach and preserve the message of salvation, are guilty of it.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Isarel, that mourns in lowly exile here....

All I want for Christmas....

In a sudden burst of inspiration, I posted a version of this at Street Prophets, and then realized I should post it over here.

Stephen Nissenbaum, in his The Battle for Christmas, shows that the holiday was domesticated largely by making it a "commercial" holiday, one focussed on the receiving of presents (although there was a strong "moralistic" tone to it, too, since Santa only gave presents to "good" children, and the Christmas tree, he shows, spread largely as a way of rewarding "good" children).

It started out, of course, as a raucous affair; one more connected to drinking and gaming than caroling and wassailing. The Church picked a day for Christ's birth close to the Roman celebration, in order to link up with the holiday already familiar (not so odd, when you realize this happened after Constantine became a Christian, a conversion that changed Christianity as much as it changed the Empire).

In medieval times this party spirit even gave way to the "Feast of Fools," when for one day the peasants and the poor could mock the rich and even make fun of the Church (in ways still echoed by British humor, where making sport of the Queen and the politicians is allowed on a level even the most devoted anarchists in America would never approach). Which, to make the jump, is part of what the Puritans objected to: public drunkenness and the general upheaval of the social order.

When it came back into style in America, it came back through the working class Irish and English, by and large, who still wanted their wassail and their welcome from the "master." A "master" who was more and more a middle class (read: "bourgeois") businessman who more and more resembled Ebenezer Scrooge than Mr. Pickwick.

Enter Clement Clarke Moore.

Moore's poem, "The Night Before Christmas," is Nissenbaum's centerpiece in the transformation of Christmas from public drunkenness and semi-anarchy, into domestic holiday best enjoyed with one's own family behind closed doors. It turns the central figure (an American invention, by the way), S. Claus, from a dangerous home invader into a "kindly old peddler," who discreetly leaves gifts and leaves the home better than he left it. He brings, rather than takes, gives, rather than receives, and affirms the sanctity of the domestic home by acknowledging their privacy (he never says a word, and is quiet and quick about his work).

The poem also focusses on the home, and the family (nuclear, by and large) as the proper locus and focus of the celebration. The other "half" of this equation, by the way, was the Christmas tree, which was spread, says Nissenbaum, by readers, not by contac, and presented largely a a socially acceptable method of reward for "good" children. Early behavior modification, in other words, as it continues (sort of) to be today. This tag-team combination effectively tamed Christmas from public brouhaha into the placid "stay at home" holiday all the mega-churches want to observe this Sunday.

And then came the '20's, and merchants who discovered what a boon to the sales year Xmas could be. But that's another story.

Living in a Material World

When it comes down to it, that's all they believe in. Ideals and concepts be damned. It's all just paper, and the sword is mightier than the pen:

ROHRABACHER: Well, I'll tell you something, if a nuclear weapon goes off in Washington, DC, or New York or Los Angeles, it'll burn the Constitution as it does. So I'm very happy we have a president that's going to wiretap people's communication with people overseas to make sure that they're not plotting to blow up one of our cities.

Because after Fort Sumter fell, and Pearl Harbor was bombed, heaven knows we simply set fire to the Constitution and asked the Dictator to be our savior, to take control of our military and our civil life, and to deliver us from evil.

Then again, maybe it fits, because "savior" was a political term in 1st century Rome. It referred to Caesar, who "saved" Rome and anyone Rome ruled, from barbarism and war. Usually by making overwhelming war on them, until they succumbed, and thus were "saved."

So there was always been something almost subversive about proclaiming Jesus the Christ the "savior." And undoubtedly, if the teachings of Jesus, or the practices of the church in Acts, were to be followed again, "security" would once again be a national concern.

But somehow, I don't think that's where Rep. Rohrbacher was going.

December 20

O Flower of Jesse's stem,
you have been raised up as a sign for all peoples;
rulers stand silent in your presence;
the nations bow down before you.
Come, let nothing keep you from coming to our aid.


HAIL, O greenest branch,
sprung forth in the airy breezes
of the prayers of the saints.
So the time has come
that your sprays have flourished:
hail, hail to you,
because the heat of the sun has exuded from you
like the aroma of balm.

For the beautifu I flower sprang from you
which gave all parched perfumes their aroma.

And they have radiated anew
in their full freshness.

Whence the skies bestowed dew upon the pasture,
and all the earth was made joyful
because her womb
brought forth corn
and because the birds of the firmament
built their nests in her.

Then there was a harvest ready for humankind
and a great rejoicing of banqueters,
whence, 0 sweet Virgin,
no joy is lacking in you.--Hildegard of Bingen


REGARDING the eucharist, give thanks as follows:
First, concerning the cup:
"We give you thanks, our Father,
for the holy vine of David your servant,
which you have made known to us
through Jesus, your servant.
To you be glory for evermore."

Next, concerning the broken bread:
"We give you thanks, our Father,
for the life and knowledge
which you have made known to us
through Jesus, your servant.
To you be glory for evermore.
As this broken bread was scattered over the hills
and then, when gathered, became one,
so may the church be gathered
from the ends of the earth into your kingdom.
For yours is the glory and the power
through Jesus Christ for evermore." --The Didache

By the numbers

The "be afraid" part is just part of the smokescreen:

"Lawmakers have been caught by surprise by several recent reports, including the existence of secret U.S. prisons abroad, the CIA's detention overseas of innocent foreign nationals, and, last week, the discovery that the military has been engaged in domestic spying. After five years in which the GOP-controlled House and Senate undertook few investigations into the administration's activities, the legislative branch has begun to complain about being in the dark. . . .

"In an interview last week, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said 'it's a fair comment' that the GOP-controlled Congress has done insufficient oversight and 'ought to be' doing more. . . .

"Democrats on the committee said the panel issued 1,052 subpoenas to probe alleged misconduct by the Clinton administration and the Democratic Party between 1997 and 2002, at a cost of more than $35 million. By contrast, the committee under Davis has issued three subpoenas to the Bush administration. . . .

"Democrats list 14 areas where the GOP majority has 'failed to investigate' the administration, including the role of senior officials in the abuse of detainees; leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame; the role of Vice President Cheney's office in awarding contracts to Cheney's former employer, Halliburton; the White House's withholding from Congress the cost of a Medicare prescription drug plan; the administration's relationship with Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi; and the influence of corporate interests on energy policy, environmental regulation and tobacco policy."

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang, but a whimper