That Time of Year
Copyright 2003 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved
Christmas 2003 in the New York Metropolitan area finds us at "Alert Orange", the second highest national terrorism alert level. Tom Ridge, our Homeland Security Director, tells us that Al-Qaeda is looking to pull off something during the holidays in the continental United States as least as big as 9/11.
By and large my countrymen (and women) in these parts seem to be taking the alert in stride and continue to flood the malls in the usual frenzied last minute shopping spree. Anyone here in my home of Northern New Jersey who has competed for parking spaces at shopping centers this time of year will tell you that we have a few homegrown terrorists and they are often behind the wheels of gift-laden SUV’s. The retailers are expecting a good season as the U.S. economy continues to climb out of the recession that plagued us for nearly three years.
Despite two early blizzards it would appear that a white Christmas is not in the offing. We had one last year. (The author, in fact, was marooned at home by that storm and ended up spending the first white Christmas in my recent memory alone. Not very merry, I’m afraid.)
The perennial local debates on nativity scenes in public spaces seemed muted this year, although one outside a Roman Catholic church in the city was vandalized. Two out of the three wisemen were destroyed. It has not been a good year for Catholics in general here in the States with a number of highly embarrassing lawsuits being brought against the Church for sexually predatory priests. In our litigious and media driven society more such revelations from adult children of alleged priestly abuse can be expected. Of course the Evangelical church is not free of cases like these and we don’t have clerical celibacy to blame either.
As usual the "reason for the season" mostly eludes the majority of nominal Christians celebrating Christmas. This, however, will probably not keep churches of every stripe from being filled on the 24th and 25th. It is the same each year at Easter. In the Evangelical churches pastors will hammer home the need for salvation a little more vigorously than on other days, knowing that half their pews are filled with people who are either on the spiritual fence or were goaded into coming by saved relatives.
Also as usual the only ones who will really enjoy the holiday will be the children. They will be off from school and on Christmas Eve "visions of videogames" will "dance in their heads". They may not know that the greatest Gift was given them 2000 years ago but they will certainly know that more temporal gifts await them on Christmas morning. Maybe, just maybe, some of them will ask their parents what the real meaning of the occasion is. Let us pray that those parents will have something else to say besides "it’s a time for giving and being with family", which is the secular standby in this country these days.
Yes, Christmas in America in 2003. It is what it is…and that is a bit sad.