Maids A-Milking

     This eighth day of Christmas seems as good a time as any to note the similarity, in some ways, between the coalition that comprised Christianity’s initial base two thousand years ago – Jews, slaves, the poor, women – and the one that, not yet two months ago, reelected President Obama to a second term in office. That former coalition eventually expanded to include an emperor, thereby becoming the state religion of an empire before becoming the enduring force it is in the world today. Does the latter coalition even have a chance of becoming a force in American politics beyond the last election cycle?

The countervailing force in our politics is the reason for that question. Politically conservative Americans who also are Christians have provided a remarkable display of the strength of the wall that separates their faith from the state. Of course, no such wall is recognized when any number of their other concerns arise: prayer in school, a woman’s right to control her body and marriage equality are a few that come to mind. When it comes to society’s care for the vulnerable, however, their wall is impenetrable. Churches, charities, the community – this should be all any society requires to care for the needy, not the state.

Who is vulnerable and who is needy is a subjective matter. How can it not be when food stamp recipients and multinational corporations both make the list? Common sense ought to tell us who is who and what is what, and more often would were it not for our efforts to ignore it.

You might suspect all of this comes to mind now because of the legislative mess in which we find ourselves. As this is being written, people claiming to share a common interest in the very reason for Christmas as well as a common interest in the nation’s welfare appear to be suffering from selected memory lapses, having forgotten the connection between needle eyes and camels and having decided that Caesar has been rendered unto enough. None of that religious nonsense for them right now, no feeding of the multitudes, no hard feelings. This is strictly business, the business of setting our finances right. Of course, this would seem less a hardhearted position if setting things right didn’t also mean not only an aversion to the dispensing of fishes and loaves, but also to paying for courses on fishing and baking. It also would be more of a believable position if there was any evidence that this fiscal concern predated the current administration.

So, what we are left with this Christmas season is a lot of folk on Capitol Hill, many of whom would be the first to loudly proclaim their faith in that baby in the manger, engaging in behavior even they would have to admit seems hypocritical were they able to view it objectively. These folk are working to stifle the efforts of others whose thinking mirrors that of the majority who said in November “This way forward.” That coalition that reaffirmed its faith in the President, though different in many respects from the one that placed its faith in Christ, appears – like that one – to be on the right side of history.

The twelve days of Christmas are followed, on January 6^th in western Christendom, by Epiphany, the day on which is celebrated the visit of the three wise men. Any number of the wise would be welcomed today.