A WA newspaper headline - Pulpits Used for Political Attacks - shows poor credit to Christmas journalism.

The attacks from the Christian pulpit are justified enough to call them a ray of Christian enlightenment typifying The Sermon on the Mount, which so much gave the message of compassion of the true Jesus, a Holy message so much distorted thtough Western Christian history.

1, Our detention centre policies have shown some improvement, but the shame is that we have aped the policies of an angry angry US. However, treatment of David Hicks, is the most shocking, as the person appears more foolishly adventurous than radical. The real crime, is for us to be using the unfortunate person symbolically to justify our ties to America.

2. The Palestine-Israeli conflict was made worse by the US allowing Israel to go atomic. Social scientists have claimed that also with a build-up of fighter-bombers, the US herself has lost much favour globally, not only in the Third World, but home in America.

3. Regarding the mess in Iraq, first with the US not having the commonsense to put Saddam’s beaten military on the pay-role, instead to fulfil a terrorist role Saddam would now fully agree with - and the most horrible swad of military indecison culminating in the sacking of Rumsfeld, looks like George W’ Bush is being punished by a really sensible Good Lord up there for a change.

4. Fresh from a visit to the Middle East, Dr Williams, Britain’s Anglican spiritual leader as well as visiting Israel, is to be admired as the first cleric to admonish both Britain and America for deliberately forgetting the plight of the more than a million Coptic-type Christians in Iraq, their numbers now sadly depleted. Also it could be asked why our Australian Christian churches have not asked questions. Surely it is not about a non-belief in the Holy Trinity?

Fencepost,

The values of giving, peace, reconciliation and charity which you describe are Christian values. To separate them from the Christmas story through which they have been communicated across hundreds of cultures through two millennia would be to rob them of their depth and meaning. It is not necessary to believe in the literal truth of magi and a virgin birth to be moved by the power of this story of God become flesh in a helpless infant, born out of wedlock and far from home, wrapped in rags and laid in a cattle trough, the hope and saviour of the world. The guy in the red suit can’t compete with this!

To strip the Christmas story from Christmas would be to diminish it to the peculiarly hollow and unsatisfying blend of shallow goodwill and materialistic excess that it has become for secular westerners. You say, “the true spirit of Christmas is Australian values”. What an appalling thought. Not only does it insult all the other cultures that find ways to celebrate Christmas at least as authentically as we do, it also reduces something precious and profound to the banal sentiments and coerced conformity that the Government hopes to impose by questionnaire. Yuk.

John Falzon. I agree with the thrust of your item. Indeed the disadvantaged must be first priority otherwise we don't have a society.

The spirit of Xmas is not the birth of Jesus and the fables that go with it. Mainly it is an oppostunity to shop till you drop. Forced in many cases simply through guilt. Do recall that the choice of 25 December was convenient for those wanting to push a rekligion on to the pagans in the UK who celebrated a range of other Gods on that date. Jesus was born on another date, not 25 December so the whole "Xmas story" is false, simply based on dates.

Religion has no place in politics nor the reverse. Why? Both are based on lies and misconceptions, not facts or truth.

The real spirit of this season is shown by those that John mentions. Those that give of themselves for those who need it. That is the spirit our society must have every day, not just once a year.

Rhian, we seem to agree on the important values and so I imagine we could get along quite well together. And I think I concede that for many people, for many years, these values have been communicated through a Christian message. But that doesn't mean that the Christian message is the "owner" and source of these values. I hold them as a secular humanist, and I don't think that makes me any more shallow than those who support preposterous beliefs through their going along with them quietly - and I mean those bits of the Christmas story that you are quite ready to acknowledge as being hard to swallow in a literal way. Kindly, Fencepost

Christmas In Cooktown!

PART ONE:

I am HOMELESS.

The house has been sold from under me. A house I have partly renervated, a house I was desperately attempting to buy.

I have informed everyone we ought to about the crisis. I have spent the past two months and ALL OF XMAS house hunting.

PART TWO:

I drove into Cooktown from Marton to put my Newstart form in the local office Thursday 21st December as the date to be lodged.

At the Office I was given a number to ring in Mt Isa. I was told ......"the form will not be lodged unless I make this call". I was told this is a new rule? I was both surprised and shocked.

I rang this number in Mt Isa 7 times between Thursday and Friday to verify that I had put my form in Cooktown.

Seven times... there was NO ANSWER from this office.

I then rang our local Centerlink Office in Cooktown three times to ask what would happen. They said they can't do anything because these are the new rules.

I then rang a pyscholgist at Centerlink to report the problem. They also didn't know of the new rules.

I WAS CUT OFF THE DOLE For NO GOOD REASON

NO MONEY OVER XMAS.

No explanation from anyone at Centerlink of NEW RULES - CONDITIONS - NOTHING!

On December 28th I drove into town.... alass.....our local office was closed. I went to tell them I had not recieved my Centerlink allowance.

What has Australia come to?

Part Three:

I have written some twenty odd letters to Centerlink, Job Find and CHR over the past years for their applied assistance.

I have still not recieved one reply.

I have rung them over 200 times over the past four years from Cooktown, always being told to put it to them in writing.

I have campaigned in the local press.

All get in return is their deaf-ears and more rudness.

http://www.miacat.com

Fencepost

Yes, we probably share many values in common. And I’d agree that Christianity doesn’t “own” its characteristic values, though it has been extremely influential in their dissemination.

But you’re seriously missing the point about Christmas if you believe it can only be either a misguided commemoration of an event that did not actually happen, or an abstract celebration of admirable values.

Stories are powerful ways of communicating messages about values, hope, identity, moral action, etc, and the relationships between them. It’s not only religions that use them – the “Australian values” you advocate are often articulated in terms of Ned Kelly and ANZAC, Kokoda and Eureka. The core of historic truth of these stories has been embellished, simplified and selected in the telling to suit their primary modern purpose of explaining who we are, where we came from and what we value. The fact that, for example, John Simpson Kirkpatrick (of Gallipoli donkey fame) was not the all-Aussie hero we’re sometimes led to believe in no way diminishes the validity of the Simpson myth and the values it expresses.

Similarly, but to a far greater extent, bible stories such as Eden, the exodus and the virgin birth may not describe actual events with historical accuracy, but are nonetheless far more effective in communicating profound truths about human nature and existence than any number of psychology or ethics texts.

Through its stories, the Christian perspective on Christmas articulates and integrates celebration, contemplation, joy and wonder, the concern for neighbour, anger at injustice, gracious giving and receiving, and a concern for the poor and marginalised. The stories also ground the values they transmit in real lives, priorities and actions. I believe this is why so many of the organisations such as Vinnies providing practical and emotional support at Christmas (and throughout the year) have religious affiliations. I’m not saying all Christians are charitable, or that only Christians are charitable – clearly this is not the case. But secular society at large (not you personally) seems to struggle to match the meaning and motivation that Christians find in Christmas.