By George Clifford
My recent reading Wendell Berry’s 1985 essay, “A Few Words in Favor of Edward Abbey,” prompted some thoughts about public discourse and Christmas. Berry noted that environmentalists who identified Abbey as a fellow environmentalist had authored many of the published reviews of Abbey’s writings. Consequently, Berry remarked, these environmentalists thought that they had “a right to expect [Abbey] to perform as their tool.” When Abbey deviated from his reviewers’ expectations, the reviewers objected vociferously. Berry preferred to characterize Abbey as an autobiographer, a person whose writings reflected not the expectations of others but Abbey’s individuality and unique thoughts.
Based on my two-year experience in the blogosphere and three plus decades of ministry, many participants in twenty-first century public discourse might beneficially reflect on Berry’s observations. Narrow, single-issue agendas pursued with an unrelenting passion distort much contemporary discourse into the practical equivalent of a monologue, a chorus – small or large – of voices that strive to shout down or otherwise to exclude an honest diversity of opinion. This chorus finds only endlessly cloned thought acceptable, dismissing inherently distinctive autobiography as uninformed or obstructive. So many advocates of “political correctness” subscribed to this genre of discourse that for several years comics frequently parodied them.
Stereotyping people makes quick work of putative public discourse, especially helpful in a stressed-out world perpetually functioning in information overload. Affirm those with whom one agrees; reject, perhaps even condemn those with whom one disagrees. We have the truth; it has made us free to judge without fear. This obviates any time-wasting and potentially energy-draining need for real dialogue or conversation. In other words, objectify others: make them as involuntary extensions of one’s self or reduce them to non-entities.
No known first century Jew anticipated the long-awaited Messiah being born in Nazareth, living as a peasant, and dying as a criminal. The vast majority of Jews (as is the vast majority of humanity) were blind to everything but what they wanted, a Messiah who would give them political freedom and economic prosperity. When God did something fresh, something unexpected, a very few people, mostly Jews who managed to see past their misguided expectations, experienced God moving in a new way through Jesus.
As the handful of individuals who had experienced God moving anew in Jesus began to carry that message around the Mediterranean, they invariably found a mostly unhearing audience. Images of St. Paul as a successful church planter depend upon a rewriting of history. In fact, all of the congregations that Paul helped to start failed to thrive. Not until people repackaged Jesus into a domesticated promoter of political stability and economic prosperity did Christianity begin its rapid spread. That repackaging predated but resulted in Constantine’s purported vision of a symbolic and triumphant cross over the Milvian Bridge in the year 312.
In our post-modern American Christmases constructed out of fake glitz, gifts “Made in China,” and glutinous emotional schlock, I find the vision of God moving in fresh and unexpected ways to be almost totally obscured. In Holy Baptism, we received the name of a peasant who died as a criminal. Yet we, like most who preceded us, insistently demand an exclusionary Messiah who will serve as guardian angel for us and our loved ones, protect our political system from terrorists, and rapidly restore economic prosperity.
Those of us who actively participate in public discourse – conversation, sermons, lectures, blogs, other writing, etc. – would do well to listen and to watch more in 2009, seeking to hear and to see the message that other participants in those public discourses wish to convey. Adopting this practice will at the very least make us more civil – no bad thing. Adopting this practice may also help to unstop our ears and to clear our vision, enabling us to discern God continuing to act in surprising and unanticipated ways in our lives and in the world. The wonder, mystery, and love that accompany the birth of a child will be ours as we discover the new world God is creating within and around us. Perhaps this, more than vainly attempting to recreate the mythical idyll portrayed in a Currier and Ives or Norman Rockwell Christmas print, will lead us into the real Christmas.
The Rev. George Clifford, Diocese of North Carolina, served as a Navy chaplain for twenty-four years He taught philosophy at the U. S. Naval Academy and ethics at the Postgraduate School. He blogs at Ethical Musings.