Christmas updates
Discounts, War on Christmas, New pod ep, et al
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on George Santos, Stanley Bast on the (homo)fascist wave, and my very charitable take on wokeness and cancel culture.Every Christmas, I usually end up writing a different version of the same article…which has to do something with how Christmas is about the Incarnation, above all. This year, I wrote a piece for Newsweek which was featured in the daily debate section on the question of whether there is indeed a “war on Christmas.” Here’s a preview:
The United States, some hold, is a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values. Those pushing to demonize the greeting of "Merry Christmas" in favor of "Happy Holidays"—the argument goes—are seeking to undermine that foundation and replace it with a secularist, atheistic one. Yet this narrative conflates Christianity with reactionary neoconservative politics, a political stance undergirded by a deeply individualistic, neoliberal worldview, whose economic platform and general philosophy whiffs more of Enlightenment ideals than religious ones.
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We can start by looking at the example set by Dorothy Day and the followers, past and present, of her Catholic Worker Movement, for whom the Christmas spirit is neither sentimental nor polemical. As their works of charity and hospitality demonstrate, the Christmas spirit is tangible, carnal—an "event" as concrete and dynamic as the first Christmas two millennia ago in Bethlehem. By entering the world as a helpless baby in a manger, surrounded by the support of a humble yet loving community, God revealed through the first Christmas that all human beings are designed to live in communion with him and with our neighbors.
Day's project placed this understanding of human dignity front and center. Taking her cues from the political and economic theories of figures like Pope Leo XIII and G.K. Chesterton, who set the precedent for contemporary "postliberal" discourses, Day's vision transcended the individualistic tropes of both the American Left and Right which—as neoliberalism solidified as an economic project—revealed themselves to be two sides of the same coin. Instead, it prioritized the individual's need for community and the agency of local entities before the interests and power of the state, of corporate elites, and of the abstraction of the atomized "individual."
You may also want to check out my piece from last year in OSV.
While the greeting of “happy holidays” does little to fill the emptiness and sadness that many of us feel as soon as the festivities start to die down, I feel like the billboard/bumper sticker campaign to “Keep Christ in Christmas” won’t help that much, either. For me, instead, I’ll choose to “Seek Christ in Christmas.”
After meeting
at the Novitate Conference last month, I decided to check out her book Portrait of a Mirror, which was so enthralling that I had to invite her on the pod and add it to the Winter 2023 Booklist. We discussed the numerous Cracks in PoMo-adjacent themes that appear in the novel including Wilde, Narcissus, Elitism, Social Media, Girard, Lasch, and other stuff that is very likely to float your boat.Also listen on Spotify and Apple.
Lastly, if you haven’t checked out our free pieces by Colin O’Brien on Huysmans and by I.M. Maconahey on Mexican Corridos, please do.
And due to popular demand, we have three (3!) pieces in the works on the pope and same sex blessings. But until then, you may want to check out these old articles about related topics: on making gay “ok” and disenchanted moralism, on why Benedict was the real gay icon, on Bad Catholics, and a piece by our friend Sebby on how the Pope is not wrong but might wanna change his tone toward volcel queer caths.
Merry Christmas! Happy Channukah! Happy Kwanzaa! Happy Solstice! If I left anything out, please don’t cancel me <3
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photo taken in LA.