The images flash by on television screens during every Christmas season.<\/p>\n\n
The pope moves slowly around the altar in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica on Christmas Eve or sits on his balcony throne, solemnly waving to flocks of New Year\u2019s pilgrims. He reads sermons which news reports crunch into sound bites about hope and world peace, or joy and world peace.<\/p>\n\n
This year it was children and world peace.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cMy thoughts go to all the children of the world,\u201d said the frail Pope John Paul II, struggling to emphasize key phrases in his Midnight Mass text. \u201cSo many, too many, are the children condemned from birth to suffer through no fault of their own the effects of cruel conflicts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Once these media rites are over, our civil religion proceeds to the National Football League playoffs. Christmas is quickly old news.<\/p>\n\n
But this was not an ordinary year. Thus, it was a good year to note what two radically different kinds of believers have to say about Christmas.<\/p>\n\n
Anyone who reads the pope\u2019s texts discovers that he believes something miraculous actually happened 2,000 years ago, something connected with peace on earth and good will among men. Pope John Paul II, in other words, believes that Christmas is built on more than a mere story that produces warm feelings in human hearts.<\/p>\n\n
If Christmas is built on truth, he said, then there is reason for hope and joy \u2014 no matter what. This message is not an easy sell after 2001 and the pope said so on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe Messiah is born,\u201d said John Paul. \u201cEmmanuel, God-with-us! \u2026 But does this certainty of faith not seem to clash with the way things are today? If we listen to the relentless news headlines, these words of light and hope may seem like words from a dream. \u2026 Our hearts this Christmas are anxious and distressed because of the continuation in various parts of the world of war, social tensions, and the painful hardships in which so many people find themselves. We are all seeking an answer that will reassure us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The pope\u2019s defense a Christmas miracle may not have sounded radical, but it was \u2014 especially after the horror of Sept. 11. To understand why, it helps to contrast his Christmas message with that of an American shepherd who makes his share of headlines.<\/p>\n\n
According to the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong, the problem with religious believers who embrace miracles is that this quickly leads them to claim \u201cthey have received their truth by divine revelation. It is a strange claim that leads almost inevitably to the authoritarian assertion that there is a single \u2018true church\u2019 or a particular religious system that alone offers salvation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In today\u2019s world, this kind doctrinal certainty is truly dangerous, said Spong, a relentlessly candid voice in the Episcopal Church\u2019s progressive establishment.<\/p>\n\n
After Sept. 11, it is time \u201crecognize that religious truth, like all truth, emerges out of human experience,\u201d he said. \u201cOnce that is understood, then religious people will recognize that their exclusive claim to possess divine revelation is nothing but a part of our human security system. Those claims create the mentality that fuels religious imperialism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The bishop openly attacks \u201cirrational doctrines\u201d such as papal infallibility and scriptural inerrancy. Just before Christmas, Spong again denied that God is a \u201csupernatural being.\u201d Thus, \u201cI cannot interpret Jesus as the earthly incarnation of this supernatural deity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cPerhaps the only way for the Christmas promise of peace on earth to be achieved,\u201d he said, \u201cis for every religious system to face its human origins and recognize that worshipers in every religious system are nothing but human seekers walking into the mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
For Spong and many others, there is a \u201cChrist experience,\u201d but not a literal Christmas. The pope embraces tradition and revelation. He still believes that God can give answers.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe birth of the Only-begotten Son of the Father has been revealed as \u2018an offer of salvation\u2019 in every corner of the earth, at every time in history,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Child who is named \u2018Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero, Father-Forever, Prince of Peace\u2019 is born for every man and woman. He brings with him the answer, which can calm our fears and reinvigorate our hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The images flash by on television screens during every Christmas season. The pope moves slowly around the altar in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica on Christmas Eve or sits on his balcony throne, solemnly waving to flocks of New Year\u2019s pilgrims. He reads sermons which news reports crunch into sound bites about hope and world peace, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[206,667,820],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-pope","tag-spong"],"yoast_head":"\n