Hope is a foolish virtue. It's not wishful thinking exactly, but more a steady confidence that things will be OK despite the evidence.
That we celebrate hopefully in the face of difficulties is not new. It has been this way since the beginning. Christmas is the story of an unmarried and outcast pregnant teenager who gave birth in a stable. (Cynics might say, "What good has ever come from that?") Her child was executed as a criminal in the prime of life, while she was still a relatively young woman. Hanukkah is the story of a rebuilding of a temple. That temple was later destroyed. Yet Christians and Jews still light candles of hope.
The Season has grown beyond its religious roots in the Christian story. The Season's non-religious accretions are many: snow, reindeer, Father Christmas (Santa Claus), music, presents, Christmas trees and anything that goes by the name "Yule." By all accounts the modern Christmas was a product of Victorian ingenuity and philanthropy, with an admixture of ancient myths, Christian and pagan. The Christmas we celebrate is a very mixed affair. No matter, it is the Season of Goodwill and we need goodwill now as much as ever.
This week saw a deluded religious fanatic drive a truck into a Berlin Christmas market, killing and injuring many. The terrorist was a Tunisian refugee, fueling further fears of Muslim immigration. He was killed after Italian police had asked to see his registration papers. He refused and a gun battle ensued. The atrocity occurred as the media were reporting that the registration of all Muslims in the United States might become policy.
Registration is not a new phenomenon. After all, in St. Lukes' Christmas story, Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem to register for the census. Governments like to keep track of people. Registration locates you as a certain kind of person. Today the government keeps tack of us though social security numbers (try doing anything without one), through driving licenses (leave yours at home when your drive at your own risk!) and a periodic census. We learned some years ago that resident aliens in the United States by law have to carry their "Green Cards" with them at all times. We discovered this when Jane, traveling on a Greyhound Bus was threatened with arrest by an armed Homeland Security Agent. Her crime? Not carrying her Green Card. Even now, when I am flying internally in the United States I carry my US Passport. Call me paranoid, but my passport locates me as belonging here, despite my British accent and British dental work. We all learn to live with some amount of government surveillance, for good or ill. However, when one ethnicity or religion is singled out for a particular kind of profiling and registration, we ought be be worried. Such "special treatment" (I use the phrase purposefully) has a fearful history. Jewish people have faced this kind of existential threat for ever. It's time we learned from history's disastrous and inhumane mistakes. I hope that there is no Muslim register. I hope the US Constitution, Amendments and institutions will hold firm. But then, hope is a foolish virtue.
Nonetheless, this year, as every year, we shall light the Christ candle of hope. This year I shall light it in solidarity with my Jewish friends as they light the Hanukkah candle. I shall light it, too, in solidarity with my Muslim friends in the hope of a better world—one without terrorists, scapegoating of the Other, a world of loving kindness.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all!
+Ab. Andy