I always say that … “You can’t beat a good yarn” … and at this time of year one of my favourites is Dicken’s .. ‘A Christmas Carol’ .. and, strange for one who is an atheist, another is .. the story of ‘The Nativity’: although I also tend to look on this as a work of fiction.
Now I would have thought that most people in this so called ‘Christian’ country would have known the story of the birth of Jesus inside out, but this is not so: for according to a survey for public theology think tank ‘Theos’ 27% of people were, when questioned, unable to identify Bethlehem as Jesus’s birthplace, rising to 36% of people aged between eighteen and twentyfour.
The majority of adults questioned could not name John the Baptist as Jesus’s cousin and most did not have a clue as to where Joseph and Mary fled to escape King Herod.
I know from young members of my own extended family how children love to take part in the annual Nativity play, but it now seems that only one in five schools plan to stage one this year.
Now I’m not making this up, but one place where you will be able to find a nativity play this year is on BBC TV, where Mary and Joseph will be depicted as asylum seekers abandoned by a heartless Britain, with Mary now a teenage single mother, straight off a run down Liverpool council estate, and Joseph appearing as a Somali hit-man. For some unknown reason Herod has ‘had a sex change’ and is now murderous minister ‘Herodia’.
I expect that the Angel Gabriel will be portrayed as a pimp and the three wise men will be bringing gifts of … ‘speed’… ‘weed’ … and … ‘blow’ … and what will the shepherds be doing ? …
… I dread to think ! 😉
bigjohn 
