“No more lives torn apart, That wars would never start, And time would heal all hearts, And everyone would have a friend, And right would always win, And love would never end, This is my grown up Christmas list.”
-David Foster and Linda Thompson-Jenner, My Grown Up Christmas List

“Someday at Christmas man will not fail, Hate will be gone and love will prevail, Someday a new world that we can start, With hope in every heart. Someday all our dreams will come to be, Someday in a world where men are free, Maybe not in time for you and me, But someday at Christmastime, Someday at Christmastime.”
-Someday at Christmas, Stevie Wonder

“Long lay the world in sin and error pining, Til He appeared and the soul felt it’s worth, A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn, Fall on your knees. . . And in His name, all oppression shall cease.”
-Oh Holy Night

There are many people who are not spiritually moved by the Christmas season, people of all religions or none. They may appreciate time with family or friends, be glad they get time off from work to rest, or enjoy the first snow of the winter. They may like some of the Christmas music, especially those songs with messages of love, peace and an end to oppression.

But they hate the commercialism, superficiality and hypocrisy which is widespread within the mass media and elsewhere.

Should the birth, life and death of Jesus of Nazareth have any meaning for these people? I say yes, particularly if they are people who support justice, peace and the critical need to protect the endangered ecosystems of our world.

I’m not a believer in the theology surrounding Jesus. But based on what I learned as a kid taken to church every Sunday by my parents, as well as via critical, agnostic research over the years after I left home, I’ve come to see him as a great teacher, a great spiritual leader and a model for how all human beings should try to live their lives.

More than that, the fact that he lived the life he did, was willing to take action against both the religious and political powers-that-be of his day, and was willing to suffer and die for what he believed in, is a reason to have hope for humankind.

He isn’t the only person in that category; there are many, many more before him and since, including people living today, who gave/give of themselves for a world based on love. Without all of these people, human society would be hell on earth.

It is that for some, in the war-torn Middle East in particular right now, and elsewhere in the world where grinding poverty is many peoples’ daily reality.