A Response to Garrision Keill0r: Our Unitarian Universalist Christmas

AN OPEN LETTER TO GARRISON KEILLOR ON OUR UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHRISTMAS EVE

Dear Mr. Keillor,

I read your article last week on Salon.com called “Don’t Mess with Christmas.” The sub head said, “It’s a Christian holiday…and it’s plain wrong to rewrite Silent Night. Unitarians, I’m talking to you.”

Now, I have always thought that you, the host of the NPR show Prairie Home Companion, were sort of an adopted Unitarian Universalist, right up there with Poet Mary Oliver. I even know UU ministers who don’t start writing their sermons on Saturday nights until your show is over. I guess, I was wrong.

Your article goes on to say this about a Unitarian Church you visited recently in Boston, “Silent Night has been cleverly rewritten to make it more about silence and night and not so much about God.” You conclude, “Christmas is a Christmas holiday – if you’re not in the club, buzz off.”

Oh, Mr. Keillor, there’s so much wrong here, I don’t know where to begin.

You seem to have forgotten that December 25th is an arbitrary date for the birth of Jesus, picked sometime in the 4th century because it was the day of the pagan feast of the unconquered sun, spelled S-U-N, not S-O-N. Those “Christian” symbols of holly and ivy and evergreens and indoor candles you refer to were all part of those pagan solstice rituals. The early church was trying to co-opt this winter holiday to recruit non-believers to Christianity.

You conveniently ignore that even more recently the Christian church didn’t embrace the celebration of Christmas. It was outlawed by English Parliament in the 17th century and by Puritans in America during the 18th. It wasn’t even a recognized l holiday in the United States until 139 years ago.

By targeting Unitarians, you forget that many of the Christmas songs and stories you hold dear were written by Unitarians. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, It Came upon a Midnight Clear, Over the River and Through the Woods, even Jingle Bells. All Unitarian. Oh, and that indoor decorated Christmas tree? Yup, that’s our’s too.

So, Mr. Keillor, we Unitarian Universalists are gathered tonight to celebrate Christmas Eve, to hear the stories of the birth in the manger, the journey of the magi – to light candles and to yes sing Silent Night. Some of us were here earlier to watch the miracle of a children’s Christmas pageant. Some of us are Christian, and we celebrate our cradle faith’s traditions. Some of us, like me, grew up Jewish - - or Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim or secular – but have joined together in our wonderful liberal religion, finding a new religious and spiritual community.

We’re here, not because we think alike, not because we all believe that Jesus was the Messiah or even if there is a God, but because we love alike -- because we hope alike.

We know that those ancient pagans and those early Christians were on to something. That in the darkest time of the year, we need to bring the light inside, to be together with those we love, to reach out to those who have less than we do -- so that we can all be a little warmer, a little more connected, a little less lonely, a little less fearful.

We may not believe that Jesus is God, but we celebrate what Jesus stood for. Loving your neighbor as yourself. Radical hospitality and radical inclusion of all. Speaking truth to power. Taking care of those who are less fortunate. Working together to heal a broken world.

And we celebrate the birth of this one child as a reminder of the promise of each and every new life. In our church, Mr. Keillor, we teach our children that every child is a special child, that every child reminds us that they are “Emmanuel “ which means the divine is with us. We are reminded that every human life, no matter how humble its beginnings, can indeed bless the world.

See, Mr. Keillor, we believe in the miracles. Maybe not the miracles as they are told in the Bible stories, but in the miracles of our lives together. For some of us who are facing illness or personal tragedy or unemployment or family issues, we may be particularly struck by the miracle that we indeed made it to this night. But the reality for each of us is that tonight is the miracle. The miracles of your family – and mine – and the miracle that we are alive at all. The miracles that happen here, right here, in this community, when we join together. The miracle of this darkened sanctuary on this one night, remembering that in the darkest of winters, in the physical world or in the dark part of our souls, even the tiniest light can with faith become brighter and stronger.

In a few minutes, we will light the candles and join our voices and hearts and sing Silent Night. One tiny light will light another until our whole sanctuary is filled with light once again. We’ll do it as metaphor and for tradition and hope and community and love.
And because, Mr. Keillor, Christmas belongs to all of us who chose to celebrate it. I think your Jesus would have liked it that way.

With blessings for your holiday and New Year,
Rev. Debra Haffner, on behalf of the Unitarian Church in Westport, CT