A Christmas Prayer
December 24, 2014 - by
Not even the season is free from America’s politics.
Democrats post stories on Facebook about “how to talk to your right-wing uncle at Christmas.” Republicans claim that atheists and Democrats want to “take Christ out of Christmas.” People debate over whether to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.”
The New York Times Magazine on Sunday had a nice essay about bridging the divide. It told of a family dinner that began with an argument about what prayer should be said, or whether there should even be one. With an evangelical, an atheist and a Muslim present, no one could agree and the meal started getting cold.
Then one person had an idea: “Let’s skip the formal prayer and just tell each other what we are grateful for. What we are anxious about. What we hope for in the coming year.”
Then, “We took turns going around the circle: Muslim, Christian, atheist. And, as I expected, we ended up expressing similar dreams and aspirations for ourselves and our loved ones, similar fears and anxieties, similar gratitude for all that we’ve been given….(We) realized that we were all feeling the same way; we were just expressing that feeling in different spiritual languages.”
Indeed. Merry Christmas, or whatever, to you all.
Posted in General
A Christmas Prayer
December 24, 2014/
Not even the season is free from America’s politics.
Democrats post stories on Facebook about “how to talk to your right-wing uncle at Christmas.” Republicans claim that atheists and Democrats want to “take Christ out of Christmas.” People debate over whether to say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.”
The New York Times Magazine on Sunday had a nice essay about bridging the divide. It told of a family dinner that began with an argument about what prayer should be said, or whether there should even be one. With an evangelical, an atheist and a Muslim present, no one could agree and the meal started getting cold.
Then one person had an idea: “Let’s skip the formal prayer and just tell each other what we are grateful for. What we are anxious about. What we hope for in the coming year.”
Then, “We took turns going around the circle: Muslim, Christian, atheist. And, as I expected, we ended up expressing similar dreams and aspirations for ourselves and our loved ones, similar fears and anxieties, similar gratitude for all that we’ve been given….(We) realized that we were all feeling the same way; we were just expressing that feeling in different spiritual languages.”
Indeed. Merry Christmas, or whatever, to you all.
Posted in General