I just got finished watching the West Wing Season One Christmas episode, "In Excelsis Deo." It's the one where Toby gets a call about a homeless Korean war veteran who died on a bench in a Washington DC park in the early morning hours of December 23rd, while everyone in the West Wing waits to hear the fate of a gay high school senior tied to a fence and stoned to death -- a clear parallel to the Matthew Shepard story.
Toby tracks down the dead veteran's brother, also homeless, and then uses his position at the White House to arrange a military funeral and honor guard for the man. When the president chastises him for using his name to do that, he says, "If word gets out, don't you think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?"
"I can only hope so," Toby says.
While a boy's choir sings "The Little Drummer Boy" at the White House, Toby and president's secretary, who had lost her twin sons in Viet Nam, go to the funeral. It's breathtaking television -- the intercutting of the two scenes, the music, the honor guard folding the flag from the coffin in time with the "rump a bum bum".... television doesn't get better than this.
But that's not what makes this the best episode ever. It's in the words of the song:
Baby Jesus
I am a poor boy, too...
In the last two months, I've felt as negative about religion as I ever have in my life. Not any specific religion -- all of them. I won't go into it here, on Christmas Eve, even though like the fictional Toby I am not a Christian myself.
But I was raised Catholic, in the 60s, in San Francisco, and somehow the combination of the sort of "Liberation Theology Lite" I got from the Irish nuns and priests, along with my union, yellow-dog-democrat upbringing, and I guess, my own natural inclination towards bleeding heart liberalism all combined to create in me a huge, almost overwhelming sense of wanting to do good things, to help people, to make the world a better place.
That impulse, whatever you want to call it, became my religion as I grew up. I never lost the sense that we should help each other, that no one should have to earn enough to eat, medical care, a roof over their head at night, and an education for their children. I don't care, honestly, if someone is a criminal, lazy, a drug addict, or a murderer: feed them, don't make them sleep on the streets, treat their illnesses and injuries, and send their kids to school.
And Christianity is supposed to be about those things, too. It's evident in every word Jesus spoke that people who follow him are supposed to love one another, care for one another, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick.
And of course many Christians are very charitable. But I keep thinking, what if one year, all these religious people, instead of fighting each other and damning those who don't believe as they do to hell, or trying to take people's rights away and nullify people's marriages and take their foster kids away and refusing to give shelter to transgendered people... what if they fed the hungry, sheltered the homeless, educated the children, and treated the sick instead?
Do you know how some Christians will call gay people "Sodomites" and talk about the sin of Sodom and how God destroyed the city because of homosexuality? That's not what their holy book says:
"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49)
Not just the Old Testament, but the New, says the same:
"But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? " (1 John 3:17)
There... actual biblical authority, if Jesus' "Love one another as I have loved you" seemed too vague -- which I guess it did, as I heard those very words used to justify hatred of gay people just yesterday. (Oppressing us is how they show their love. It's very high theology, I guess.)
I'm not going to lie and say I'd be a Christian if they weren't so mean-spirited. There are plenty of wonderful, caring, loving Christians who I'm sure Jesus Christ, if he were alive today, would be proud to call his followers. I'm not a Christian because I don't believe, and that's that.
But there is so much beauty in Christianity, in its bedrock principle: Love God, love each other, the rest is just details. Or to quote the canon:
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40)
Every Christmas I write something like this. Every Christmas I wish the world were a different kind of place, that religious faith wasn't something people strapped bombs to their bodies and blew things up with, or used as a bludgeon to drive "sinners" away from their doors. I wish it was something people used to love and cherish and help each other, without any kind of strings attached at all.
Maybe next year.
So, if you would rather ignore my theological ramblings, be my guest. You can tell me your favorite holiday Christmas episode instead. Happy Holidays either way!
I gave up buying new shoes several months ago, vowing to donate all the money to Barack Obama instead. I have bought zero shoes since then. This is not normal behavior for me, at all.
Recent Comments