Meddling

Christmas was wonderful this year. We spent it up in Oakland, with my Mom's family; it was cold and raining (not quite a "White" Christmas, but it was serviceable). On Christmas Eve, after our traditional waffle dinner and present-opening (we open stockings Christmas Day), we packed into Aunt and Uncle's car and headed to their church for a Candlelight carol service.

Something must be stated first: My Aunt and Uncle are Unitarian-Universalists (yes, that's the name of the denomination). This particular church is very welcoming to everyone - that's a good thing. But the main problem is the fact that their philosophy is one of "all roads lead to Rome." In otherwords, be you Buddhist, Satanist, Protestant, New-age, or whatever, you're just fine, and you're going to heaven anyway (or is it Nirvana?)

Unfortunately, this infiltrated the Carols we sang. Oh, they were traditional, all right: Angels we have heard on high, Silent Night, Away in a Manger, Joy to the World, etc. HOWEVER, more than once, I noticed that the lyrics had been altered. So, instead of "Good Christian men, rejoice!" it was "Good people, all rejoice!" I suppose that isn't all that objectional, but when they messed with the lyrics so as to diminish the divinity of Christ - now that got to me. Excuse me, but I have a problem with saying: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let love the people bring! Let every heart prepare IT room..." That made me twitch. Or "Silent Night, holy night, CHILD of God..." Whenever there was the word "King" or "Son" or "Savior", it was almost always replaced with a more "gender-friendly", non-spiritually-threatening alternative. Now, I did notice that they left "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" intact. As with "Away in a Manger" (of course, we only sang the first verse of that one).

It was a beautiful service. The candles gave an enchanting glow to the room. And I was relieved that they stuck with real carols, rather than inserting hymns to the celtic sun god or something. But that may have at least been more honest. In slightly changing the words to these beautiful songs, they strip them of their power. Throughout the service, the ministers told the Christmas story...but left out the part about Christ being the only Son of God who came, not just as a child to deliver messages of hope and peace and love, but as a King calling His people to Salvation from eternal darkness. Without that, what is the point of this celebration? One may as well be singing praises to Ghandi. Take away the Reason for His coming, and you strip the day of its Reason for celebrating.