Good comedy makes us see each other and ourselves in a different light. When the SNL team did the Lazy Sunday rap it made us giggle at not only the rap persona, but how geeks could sound so street (even being so silly. Rap, after all, is promoted as a form of poetry and life — and how that would look for two normal New York white boys.

When Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert take down government officials a peg, or call them to the carpet on issues in a humorous way (the Karmer vs. Not Kramer debate), I applaud.

I even enjoy when fellow podcaster George Hrab reads off his “religious moron of the week” segment.

Why? Because there are some things that should be outed as ridiculous.

Christianity though does take the contrary viewpoint in a world where “everything is tolerated but people who take a stand”. There is absolutes in my faith and when people start mocking me for having them – I take offense. Wouldn’t you?

So I was really disappointed with the recent “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven” episode of Family Guy in which one of the main characters, Meg, becomes a Christian because she’s stuck with the mumps for 5 days and her TV only gets the “religious station”. The episode goes through Meg trying to convert Brian (the family dog) and finally “outing” him as an atheist (which leads to Brian being shunned by the community who isn’t actively relgious but would rather say they believe in God than have an atheist in the community). The episode ends with Meg attending a book burning and Brian finally convincing her that there is no God because why would he make her so ugly and put her in a family that doesn’t accept her.

Sorry Family Guy, epic fail.

I do understand that Family Guy probably thought they were attacking the idea of extremism. Book burning and banning has never been on my list of things to do as a Christian. Neither has forced conversions and giving crosses to friends. But the last series of Brian convincing Megan there is no God was just plain offensive. It’s like saying any belief is wrong without having an intelligent discussion about it, and it attacked Meg’s outer circumstances and appearance. Instead of making it an open debate (which Family Guy and other pop-culture shows tend to do) they set up the tackle dummy and beat it down. As one commentor said on Wil Wheaton’s blog, “As an intelligent person of faith and theology student, I was disappointed in the Meg/Brian/God subplot, and how the show set up and knocked down a strawman Christianity that isn’t the rich, compassionate, thought-provoking faith that I know and love.”

Plus, as many people (not just Christians) have pointed out it wasn’t a funny episode (though the Star Trek Next Generation parts were funny).

I’m a pretty open individual, but this episode was just sad. It makes me wonder if Christians are the new minority. Believers in religion are now the only politically-acceptable punching bags.

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Unless you’ve been locked in the basement for the past month you can’t help but notice the oncoming holiday storm that is Christmas. Decorations, gifts, advertisement, stores, songs, even our cars have been decked out for the holidays.

It seems to me that Christmas messages can usually only go to the extremes. Extremely sappy, extremely love-y, or extremely depressing.

But very few seem to hit right in between.

Boo 2008!

2008 has been, lets face it, a dark time for many. Between the economy, jobs, loss of loved ones, or whatever situation you may be going through personally – it’s made for a fairly awful year. This can make watching or reading those extremely sappy or “oh everything is wonderful” type of Christmas stories extremely uncomfortable. Sure it’s easy for the story teller to tell us “buck up everythings gonna be fine” when they’re not the ones facing a pile of bills, a laid off spouse and the threat of more impending doom.

The Christmas Story

There’s a lot of confusion about the real Christmas story. Jesus’ birth has been, in my opinion, really feminized and sanitized. The true story isn’t sappy or romantic. The real story is about how a woman, Mary, was chosen in the darkest time, to be pregnant without a husband. A huge cultural no-no. It’s about Joseph, who knew the baby wasn’t his, still made plans to marry her to save her honor. How she was sent off to a cousin’s house to spare her. It’s about angels informing both parents that they had been selected by God for this task.

The real story of Christmas is about an outside occupying force (Rome) forcing Mary and Joseph to take a trip when she was extremely pregnant. It’s about there being so many people in Bethlehem there wasn’t any room — not even at the Motel 6. It’s about a girl who had never given birth before, gave birth without a fancy hospital, an epidural or even a crib.

The real story of Christmas is how the most powerful being in the universe came to earth in the fragilest, most inconspicuous way. It’s about how in the cold and dark, love gave a gift and humanity was saved.

Not saved in a traditional sense. When the baby Jesus grew up, he didn’t kick out the occupying force. He didn’t overturn the government. He didn’t do all the ‘normal’ things a powerful being ‘should’ do.

Instead he touched people on an individual level. He asked them to follow him. He encouraged them to live by God’s rules. Not just that, but to live by God’s rules because of their love for God. He taught that obedience was an act of love, not an act of slavery or burden.

The real story of Christmas is the story of Easter. Crappy things still happened to Jesus. The religious leaders of his day hated him, they ridiculed him and found a way to get rid of him. He was stealing their thunder, attracting followers and he had to be stopped. In the end, they had him killed. And not only killed, but killed in the most brutal way imaginable.

Through it all Jesus never claimed his power. Through the pain and hurt and rejection, he stuck through it all because he loved us.

The Real Message of Christmas

That’s the real message of Christmas. It’s okay that bad things happen, they’re going to happen. Love isn’t about the absense of bad. It’s about working through the bad until the good comes. Much like “It’s a Wonderful Life” – Christmas makes way for spring.

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That’s simply to explain why I haven’t written about this yet.

I firmly believe in the rights of all Americans to choose their form of worship. I, personally, am a follower of the 100% man, 100% God (and I know that is 200%) Jesus. I chose for Jesus to be the boss of my life and I follow his teachings as laid out in the Bible. I believe that I will not ram them down your throat or make you change your lifestyle to act like you also made Jesus the boss of your life.

That being said, I believe I have a right to talk about my faith without fear of retribution. Much like people talk about their careers, family or non-profit work. I also believe that my faith should not be mocked by those who do not believe it, follow it or live it.  And if you do mock it, I should be able to say ‘hey that’s not right!’

So Kathy Griffin, you’ll never read this blog but your comments at the emmys wasn’t right. I’ve watched several of your standup routines. I know you make fun of all groups. That doesn’t make it right either.

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sl_podcast

still_grrr

(clicky here for the post on still_grrr)

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This said, I am kind of sad to watch this relationship end. Why? It started out as one of those “he/she completes me” relationships. The fluffy sentimentalism that is love. No, they don’t complete you – you complete you. God didn’t make half-a-person when he created you. He created you with a purpose, meaning and a life outside of someone else. Relationships,. especially the final comitted one, are not to be completion – they’re supposed to be companionship. Someone to prod you in your growth, someone to cheer you with your goals, someone to be there when everyone else walks out, someone to tell you that you’re an idiot and to love the devil inside of you. They are not supposed to make life better, they’re supposed to make life easier to bear.

I blanch whenever I hear women especially go on and on about relationships without much thought to their own unique calling and purpose. You were designed for so much more than an accessory at some guy’s home. Even if your purpose is to be a housewife – you are meant for a deeper meaning than wiping down cobwebs. My great-grandma Golda, a patron saint of housewives, had Bible studies at her home, mentored countless women and was “therapist/prayer warrior” for whomever came across her doorstep. In the very least your existance is define by so much more than your role. You are more than a wife, a lover, a friend – you are you… and there is no one else on this planet who can do what you can do.

Relationships fail. It’s part of human nature… part of sin… But thinking that some knight in shinning armor is going to be all for you… is just pure lunacy.

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TABZ

T A B Z

yes.. Z

tabs looks like I’m a keyboard piece.

yes I freak out about weird things, deal with me here people

In other news, I’m still at work. Why? because I think I’m a closet maschoist. It’s holiday season and we’re up to our necks in work. I love my job. Though I still maintain no one gets change by Target ads being done right, but I did have the coolest conversation today with my co-workers about christianity.

(SIDE RANT: Tabz hates people who give Christians a bad name. Basically Charlie (one of my co-workers) had only come into contact with the “hellfire and brimstone” Christians who basically tell him he’s going to hell because he’s a homosexual… but never mentioned Christianity is a loving relationship with God /rant)

I got to share some really cool insights. Despite Jennie’s assurance that all religions were equal. I was kind of nervous because you don’t want to seem to be mean, but you still want to explain that Jesus is the only way. In the end they were both very respectful and more understanding toward what I really beleived.

So you can pray for both of them if you think of it..

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