Mark's Notebook

Bethlehem bound again

The Weekend Australian Opinion

By James Murray

Many Christian prayers address God as "Almighty", which many would think a misnomer. Despite concerted pleas to end wars, heal people or achieve worthy ambitions, it is the experience of many that there is nobody there.

The psalms of the Old Testament are full of astonishment at God's failure to act against the wicked and his habit of rewarding goodness with tribulation. And in the controversies about putting Christ back into Christmas, or being politically correct and keeping him out, the raw facts might act as a corrective.

When the baby Yeshua, which we have romanised into Jesus, was born, he was deposited in a feed bin for warmth and safety. It was a Third World facsimile and, if the child was God incarnate, which is dogmatic Christian belief, he was utterly helpless - not a bad image if human experience of God is anything to go on.

Of course, the celebration of Christmas is a retail bonanza, the credit card an entree to often profligate spending. Not that this is inappropriate, considering that December 25, which the church chose as Christ's birthday, was the pagan festival of the Saturnalia, when orgiastic shenanigans were the order of the day. It has done a full circle, as celebrating Christmas did not happen for the first four centuries, and the Puritans refused to observe it.

As for the wild spending of Christmas, the Bethlehem fact file could again prove a corrective, if only because frugality - but not meanness - is good economic policy.

The little family in Nazareth was of no significance in the scheme of things but as modern movements show only too well, there can be significant power in the determination of even just one person. That Jesus was such a character, later events clearly proved.

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Last updated Tuesday 13 May 2008