Shepherds, Angels, Llamas...vintage cars...?
I was interested and possibly horrified by this article in the Washington Post that describes the extraordinary efforts and resources that many larger churches put into elaborate Christmas pageants.
In describing some of the shows being put on this year around the D.C. area, the article says "Perhaps the most expensive production this year was the one put on by Upper Marlboro's Evangel Cathedral, which featured three camels, four llamas, vintage cars, body-jolting thunder and a cast of 270 actors. According to Associate Pastor Kevin Matthews, the 15 performances cost $524,000 and were attended by more than 32,000 people."
Half a million dollars for Christmas show? I don't even want to know how much that is in New Zealand pesetas. I'm sure that many of these large churches see these events as a vital part of their outreach/evangelism, but I get the impression from the article that some of the large churches seem to be getting into some kind of Christmas pageant "arms race". It's a bit like the need to buy the latest and greatest toy for your kid at Christmas, and perhaps the phenomenon is a slightly twisted reflection of the escalating falsification of Christmas that's happening in the secular world.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned, or maybe I just don't fully appreciate the scale on which Christianity is preached and practised in the United States. (Indeed, why am I worried about church activities in suburban Washington, D.C., a place I've never even been to?)
I just think that big Christmas events like this could have a tendency to turn the simplicity and beauty of the Christmas narrative into something that can be sold at any K-Mart.
I'm inclined to agree largely with a professor of spirituality who is quoted in the article - he describes the massive Christmas productions as "big showy musical revues in Las Vegas or New York [expressive of] a kind of triumphalistic theology of the gospel and the church . . . than about the God who has come to us in the form of a little child . . . [and] addresses us out of a divine humility."
In describing some of the shows being put on this year around the D.C. area, the article says "Perhaps the most expensive production this year was the one put on by Upper Marlboro's Evangel Cathedral, which featured three camels, four llamas, vintage cars, body-jolting thunder and a cast of 270 actors. According to Associate Pastor Kevin Matthews, the 15 performances cost $524,000 and were attended by more than 32,000 people."
Half a million dollars for Christmas show? I don't even want to know how much that is in New Zealand pesetas. I'm sure that many of these large churches see these events as a vital part of their outreach/evangelism, but I get the impression from the article that some of the large churches seem to be getting into some kind of Christmas pageant "arms race". It's a bit like the need to buy the latest and greatest toy for your kid at Christmas, and perhaps the phenomenon is a slightly twisted reflection of the escalating falsification of Christmas that's happening in the secular world.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned, or maybe I just don't fully appreciate the scale on which Christianity is preached and practised in the United States. (Indeed, why am I worried about church activities in suburban Washington, D.C., a place I've never even been to?)
I just think that big Christmas events like this could have a tendency to turn the simplicity and beauty of the Christmas narrative into something that can be sold at any K-Mart.
I'm inclined to agree largely with a professor of spirituality who is quoted in the article - he describes the massive Christmas productions as "big showy musical revues in Las Vegas or New York [expressive of] a kind of triumphalistic theology of the gospel and the church . . . than about the God who has come to us in the form of a little child . . . [and] addresses us out of a divine humility."
posted by etnobofin @ 17:37
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