No XMAS This Year

I’m not celebrating Xmas this year and for good reasons.
THERE IS NO JOY IN CHRISTMAS. IT IS DEPRESSING.
NOT PARTICIPATING IN CHRISTMAS ACTIVITIES IS EXHILIRATING AND LIFTING.

Joy is knowing you have a genuine feeling for the consideration of others, of helping people to survive rather than contributing to the merciless slaughters that the United States and Israel collaboration have inflicted upon the world. Joy is not brought in wrapped and ribbon packages that express nothing, and are shoved into our conscience to deter us from realizing the tragedies brought to huge populations.

It can be inspiring to observe disadvantaged people not falter, create a life, and bravely struggle through their painful experiences; it is depressing to observe entitled people not care about whom they injure and use their entitlements to display the extent of their advantages.

In Christmas,
The rich feel richer and the poor feel poorer;
The elated get more elated and the depressed get more depressed;
The attached get more attached and the lonely get more lonely.

The real meaning of Christmas and its attachments are hidden and subdued.
Prayers for peace vicariously substitute for activities that promote peace. Stay occupied in praying while the military-industrial complex continues to scorn peace and attack the worshipers. Similar to praying for a two-state solution while Israel implements a no-state preference.

Search for the Star of Bethlehem and don’t find the occupied Bethlehem of guard towers, military restrictions, Palestinians separated from their agriculture and animal grazing lands, and a wall that cuts the main road from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The wall intentionally prevents tourists from passing the hotels and souvenir shops that align the road and, as a result, has bankrupted most businesses along the route.

Globally, Christians “turn the other cheek,” and permit “an eye for an eye,” and a “tooth for a tooth” in the land of their savior and birth of their religion. The devotees to Christmas rituals do not vehemently protest that their holy leaders have been subordinated, their holiest religious sites have been defiled, and their church followers have been eliminated from their lands, and by gunpoint. Go to Al Kareem, which is now part of Jerusalem, and see the Church standing vacant and stolen property, formerly owned by Christians, boasting another ownership. Contrast the Israeli boast of a stolen home with the humble remembrance of another home, vacated by its Palestinian owners.

If healthy Christians don’t care about wounded Christians, why should we care about their Christmas?

The Prince of Peace, the man who is identified with peace, has been desecrated. Followers have used his name in more wars and savage killings than other princes and would be princes. Insufficient time and paper exist to name them. Start with Cyril of Alexandria, who served as bishop of Egypt's capital and saw the destruction of the remains of the Library of Alexandria, the razing of pagan temples, attacks on the Jewish quarters, defilement of masterpieces of ancient art, and is accused of the murder of “the city’s beloved teacher of mathematics and philosophy, whose social ranking was on par with Alexandria’s most important men,” Hypatia of Alexandria. Continue through the Crusades, Teutonic Knights military expeditions and forced conversions, Inquisitions, a Thirty Years war, and up to the phrase “Onward Christian soldiers,” and we have Christmas not as a prayer for peace but as an apology for war.

After World War II, Zionists accused Pope Pius XII of neglecting the fate of the European Jews, an after the fact supposition to which the only response is, ‘What could I do except doom European Catholics?” Case closed. Present Pope Francis has written a passage in a new book by Hernán Reyes Alcaide, titled “Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Toward a Better World,” in which the Pope notes that, according to some experts, “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.” According to Vatican News, Pope Francis has “called for a careful investigation.” Why are the Catholics, who represent more votes in the United States, France, and in other nations, not defending their supreme pontiffs’ utterances and not carrying the Christmas message into voting booths and halls of legislatures?

The Religious Right in the United States is an influential Israel lobby and a force in all presidential elections. Their Dispensationalists arrive in Israel to help Israelis in their expulsions of Palestinians. Until the religious Right is silenced and removed from the list of Christmas celebrators, I feel uncomfortable in engaging in a celebration that heralds the birth of their savior.

Hypocrisy of Christmas symbols and messages is exposed by the temporary construction of the world’s biggest mall; the Gift of the Magi turned into a spending spree that rivals the gift-giving feast of a million potlatches. As goes Amazon, so goes America. The social, psychological, and economic effects of this spending have not been sufficiently explored. Christmas inspires materialist invocations and greed in children who cannot separate the gifts they receive from the wants they need. Compressing production and spending into the last few months of the year brings an economic upheaval in supply lines, employment, and capital spending, and adds needless lending and debt to an overdriven and debt ridden system. Social and family relationships are guided by gifts. No peace to the over wracked multitudes who nervously race through malls and digital platforms to complete their Christmas shopping. The welcoming Christmas is succeeded by the phrase, I’m glad it’s over.” Better to not have begun.

The end of the year falsely summarizes the happenings of the year. All is forgotten, good and bad, and temporarily replaced by good cheer and optimism that all is well, until it is learned that a New Year does not usher in a new year; recovery from the day of the hangover reveals the same world as existed before XMAS evening, the only difference is that everyone is 7 days older and 7 days less wiser.

Do we need a memory of a baby born in a granger to guide our lives? What has the adult who emerged from the baby accomplished for the world in the last 21 centuries? Can’t we find contemporary leadership to lead us to the peace and harmony that eludes us? If we continue to place faith in faith, we will ignore doubt, skepticism, misgivings, and the rationalism that contends those who promote faith, a promotion that helps them them to enrich themselves and keep the rest in captivity.

Christmas celebrations have always bothered me. What and why are we celebrating? Why are we giving to those who already have too much and not giving to those who have too little?