I will not, unlike some, stop blogging over the holiday period. To ask me to stop writing is akin to asking me to stop breathing. I just do it. And I do not consider it work, which I do intend to stop doing for at least a week, as from today.<\/p>\n
But, being aware that I tend to have more traffic in the week than at weekends and over holiday periods let me offer any reader who happens to note this post a very happy Christmas.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I am all too aware of the hope implicit in that statement. I know too well that this does not always happen for everyone. But that is one reason why I write, and it\u2019s what my work has been about for a long time.<\/p>\n The message of Christmas was, and is, revolutionary. It was about freedom from debt and good news for the poor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ignore all the trappings if you wish. I tend to do so. Certainly ignore all the oppression humans have used Christianity to deliver. Instead go and read the real thing (and reading the Bible won\u2019t make you a convert, and I am certainly not seeking anything of the sort) and what you see is that the real story that a chap whose name was Jesus (who I think probably did exist and who probably did teach at pretty much the time scholars suggest likely) was actually delivering was about emancipation from the yoke of economic oppression.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The depressing part is that this oppression continues.<\/p>\n The good news is that, despite all attempts to clamp down on those who question it, some are still willing to do so.<\/p>\n They don\u2019t always succeed.<\/p>\n But the practical expression of hope at Christmas is that we have to keep trying.<\/p>\n Sermon over.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Have a good one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"