Well, merry Christmas everybody I'm sure you are all nestled all snug in your beds with visions of sugar plums and Wii video games dancing in your heads. But I am up. Right now I am even shirking out of work to post this little message. Christmas day is in full swing here in Asia. But Santa Clause didn't really bother stopping by. It really doesn't feel like Christmas at all to me. I have been contemplating why I don't feel very Christmasy. This is what I have come up with:
Of course, the easy answer is being far away from family and loved ones, but I think it is a lot deeper than that. As listened to the Breuer family read the Christmas story from the Bible in a language that made absolutely no sense to me, I had an epiphemy. The reason it doesn't feel like Christmas here is that we are outside of the New Born Baby Jesus's jurisdiction. Yeah, you see, this is Allah's domain. Every day, I see dudes wearing man dresses and bath towels praying and screaming jibberish in the streets. Their pieties are dedicated to Allah, who has some genetic similarities to Heavenly Father, but who never bothered to send his son to atone for the world. Now in the Christmas story, some Wise Guys from the east showed up and brought some token gifts for the Son of the Western God, but opted out of going full on Christian. Now, I find myself in the land of the Wise Guys. and I see that the birth of Jesus isn't all that important here. The Wise Guys gave Jesus the nod originally and recognise him as a prophet, but decided not to have any holidays or even take the day off of work. Of course, delving into slightly more recent history, it is a little easier to understand.
Looking back about 1500 years, and the Holy Land is in turmoil. The Crusades are in full effect and Christians and Muslims are slaughtering each other over the right to pray in front of a rock in Jerusalem. When a man comes to your home and kills your family in the name of his god, it really doesn't help convince you that that man's god is the kind of god you might want to hang out with for an eternity. So instead of telling the Muslims about Santa Clause, putting up a Christmas tree, and giving Furby's to the good little Islamic girls and boys, The Christians made the fundamental mistake of just trying to kill all the Muslims. The worlds divided, and really haven't ever stopped fighting. The Crusades continue on though the reasons and places have changed. And today, I am the Crusader, far from home and fighting a war over religious intolerance and fanatisism just like our ancesters so many years ago. So this Christmas Morning I find myself sitting in a dusty bunker in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, thinking, "Crap, now why couldn't the Early Christians just share Santa Clause with Islam?"
Merry Christmas everybody. My thoughts and prayers are with you today, as always.
Love you all,
Jonny
Apparently, not even the promise of bargains and reasonably priced goods from the end of November until January 24th can atone for the error of the original crusaders.
ReplyDeleteHopefully the Pakistani military isn't running any specials on RPGs or nuclear devices with proof of membership in Taliban or similarly aligned jihad organizations.