The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Few Thoughts On Christmas IT WAS a couple of thousand years too early for bombs or rockets as Joseph and Mary plodded along that dusty road on the way...
...I take for granted that during the first three centuries the humble, outcast Christians lived sparsely and had their eyes firmly fixed on the gorgeous life which they would savor in the other world...
...In the first place, what sight is more gladdening than crowds of gay people in a great store spending their money buying gifts for other f o l k s— and especially for their children...
...To celebrate Christmas was a crime punishable by law...
...Christmas is a strange sort of celehration to grow out of Christianity...
...To a just-born haby they brought "gold and incense and myrrh...
...It will do more than evoke the longedfor smile which gives so much pleasure to the adoring adult...
...Then the Emperor Constantine took over and under the new management the show took on a different life...
...Our minds are rather on giving—especially to the young...
...As a matter of fact, the holiday season is a sort of vacation from the practice of what are considered to be the standard virtues of our commercial society...
...If all the "Christians" who pretend to believe in this would live up to their creed, we could do some plain speaking to the Mohammedans, the Buddhists and others in the East...
...It was located, moreover, in dreary, desert country, with not a tree or even a decent bush about...
...And then came Protestantism...
...Anyway, Christianity became bright, colorful, even gay...
...The mass was performed with gorgeous costumes not at all suggestive of Mary and Joseph squatting there on the flinty road...
...It is a fine, generous, out-going time...
...And the wise men—after all, they weren't so smart...
...Bethlehem was a tiny hamlet where there wasn't even a motel or a diner...
...Love rather than hate, cooperation instead of enmity, understanding rather than blank individualism— that way lies healing and help...
...It may plant solidly in some youthful mind a bracing faith in humanity...
...An old Reformationist like me cannot pretend that it was bad...
...Israel was a mere colony instead of a proud young independent nation...
...It may even give a boy or girl the idea that the human race is all right...
...The shepherds came gawking after that wanton, wandering star, but they brought nothing—not even a lock of wool to keep the baby warm, or a measure of milk to feed Trim...
...It was the time of returning light— hence the candles, which really have nothing to do with the Christian tradition...
...Until they invented their solemn Thanksgiving day, our New Englanders, whom we praise so much, had no provision in their calendar for so much as the cracking of a smile...
...In fact, the whole history of this European-American religion is a strange one when looked at from the point of ceremony, custom and costume...
...We shall receive gifts, but that is not what occupies our thoughts...
...We are now told by legions of perfectionists that the sacred holiday has gone too far, that it has become commercialized, that it is nothing but an orgy of advertising and selling...
...For the time being, we do not buy just what we need, nor acquire it necessarily at the lowest price or wrap it and send it in the cheapest way...
...In northern Europe it took over the heathen Druid celebration of the winter equinox, the glad time when the days slowly began to lengthen...
...I am a little suspicious of the persons who are paying for it...
...Teachings of Jesus judiciously selected and wisely put into practice would guide the human race out of many of its troubles...
...The whole thing, the plot, the dialog, the symbolism, was oriental from start to finish...
...If they had any relation to the Christian tradition, they were like the robes of the wise men who were smart enough to be rich in the desert...
...But within limits I go along with them...
...The so-called "wise men" were, of course, better off than the other folks...
...It is a good thing for us to recall...
...But it had this peculiarity—at least at first...
...Its followers were so sternly bent on forcing religion hack to its original meaning that they leaned over all the way toward the stiff and sorrowful side...
...Now the sternest religionists decorate trees and squander their money on gifts...
...That is the proof of their wisdom...
...There had 'been too many holidays...
...Since those days, Protestantism has been working its way back toward some of the things which it condemned and abolished in the over-enthusiasm of its early days...
...But I say, down with all such picayune complainers...
...That may be good in countless ways...
...In my part of Delaware, a lively campaign is going on centered about the slogan, "Put Christ in Christmas...
...But now, like real revolutionists, these tough old changers abolished entirely the seasons which had been marked for fun...
...There are so many things to buy, pack, carry and send that many of us are driven frantic and the love and pleasure are driven out of a celebration which formerly was meaningful and beautiful...
...That was one reason why the industrial revolutionists were against the old religion...
...THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn A Few Thoughts On Christmas IT WAS a couple of thousand years too early for bombs or rockets as Joseph and Mary plodded along that dusty road on the way to Jerusalem...
Vol. 41 • December 1958 • No. 47
