A True "Christmas" Story
Fifty-One years ago, as we approached the Christmas Season in 1962, I taught a Sunday School class for Protestant children of primary-grade-level on Fort Meade, in Maryland. We had narrowly escaped, a few months before, what was widely expected to be a "nuclear holocaust"; and we, on the Fort, expected to be "ground zero".
As a 2nd Lieutenant in the Air Force, half-way through my first year of assignment to the NSA, aka, "The Agency", or, "The Puzzle Palace", I was grateful to still be alive, along with my wife and 3-month-old first born, a son. The Kennedys were celebrating, what turned out to be their last year in the White House. Their young son, "John-John" was just past 2 years old.
The lesson was, of course, about the "Baby in Bethlehem". The class was mixed-race, composed of mostly white boys and girls from the deep South. A young white girl shot up her hand and inquired: : "Is President Kennedy a Catholic?" I replied "yes he is", but added, "in our country we do not consider their religion to be important for choosing our leaders". I added, we are mostly a Christian country, where we worship Jesus, who was a Jew from Palestine".
A little white boy erupted: "O-o-oh; I'm goin-ta' tell my Momma! You said Jesus was a Jew". Other children in the class chimed in; including some of the few black children. I was shocked at their response. I thought everybody knew that Jesus was a Jew from Palestine. How on Earth could you tell the Christian "Christmas Story" and claim otherwise?
As this nation has struggled through the decades of unspeakable horrors that erupted in the wake of the assassination, less than a year later, of President Kennedy; I now understand, fully, how "Christians" in this country don't hold the same beliefs; not even about Jesus! Regional, racial, economic, and political differences all "trade" among the differences that exist among "Christians" in the United States.
The White-Right poses their threat to the viability of our country under a Southern brand of Christianity. Having failed miserably in their attempts to defeat, defame, and undermine the first Black President, in the election of 2012, and in the Congress afterward, they have "seeped" into various states of this country attempting to establish their Tea Party-led political base. Many states struggle to deny them a stronger foothold.
Stay Vigilant! On this day of the Death of Mandela, don't let our country become a Theocratic Dictatorship!
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