Month: December 2010

There is an interesting article in The Guardian entitled “Red Mary” that seeks to highlight the disparity between The Church’s fluffy Christmas message and that of the events it attempts to represent.  Jonathan Bartley contrasts the words of Mary in the magnificat declaring that The Lord “has brought down rulers from their thrones” and “lifted up the humble” to the point where the Magi are rebranded as “Kings”.  Once the church and state became entwined, Bartley argues, much has been reimagined “to create a close association with power, rather than a challenge to it”.  Have we now removed the world-changing challenges that the Christ Child brings and instead rebranded and sanitized the fuzzy Christmas as “the “Little Lord Jesus”, so gentle, meek and mild”.

Those who really understand Mary’s take on the nativity will realise that Jesus’s birth is not just good news for the oppressed, but a threat to all those who seek to restrict and control. It tells us that those who crusade for Christmas will end up losing the very festival they would defend.