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So yesterday we began receiving the hate mail. If you followed the blog regarding the GNP article "Theophany Coverage in the Glendale Newspress" you know that we got the bad end of some shotty coverage. Among the misinformation, I was said-to-have-said, "The Roman Catholic Church celebrated Christmas on Dec. 25 in conjunction with pagan rituals." Wow! And of course, it comes across with a holier-than-thou attitude, everyone in the world is wrong except me.
Thanks to all of you who wrote letters to the editor and tried to correct the mistakes in the article - but, the damage was done initially. Interestingly enough the same newspaper ran my small article regarding the two dates of Christmas: "When shall we celebrate?" word-for-word last week: http://hyeyouth.com/hyeyouth/december_25_or_january_6.htm In it, I give one of the many explanations for the date change, but the "pagan ritual" comment probably sells more papers.
Yesterday, I received mail - apologize to the Catholics! Who do you think you are? Why do you Armenians think you're better than the rest? And one of those hate letters made it into the newspaper today. All because a reported misquoted me.
So all of you spent your time writing, I spent my time mending, and meanwhile, ALL OF THE OTHER ISSUES that we brought up on that day are being lost. Listen to the recording of the sermon - the time allotted to the date issue was so inconsequential. Yet, that's what we're focusing on.
I bring this up because its easy to fall into the trap of being preoccupied with nonsense rather than the real issues. Before the Christian Church today is an incredible challenge to stand up as Christ did, to materialism, to suffering, to injustice. We have a war going on in the world - when is the last time anyone checked in the with the suffering taking place in Iraq? Do we even hear about it on the news? Apart from a car bomb here or there, its swept under the carpet - don't forget Oprah supports Obama and Huckabee apeared on Leno!
What happened to Darfur? Don't we realize that this is EXACTLY what happened to us Armenians in 1915? - the world went along with its business while our grandparents were being skinned alive, our aunts and uncles were being tossed around on Turkish bayonets. You know the stories.
And when we - as a church, as a ministry - talk about these issues and bring them to forum, the biggest insult to us is that someone would focus on a triviality such as the date. See the In Theory article; http://hyeyouth.com/hyeyouth/In_Theory/Peace_non_story_of_year_2007.htm
Those of you who are parents - think of how you put everything on hold when your child is hurting, has a cut or is crying. Now, can you imagine Jesus being in our midst right now and really caring whether we commemorated his Birthday on December 25 or January 6 - while HIS CHILDREN were being butchered on the deserts of the Sudan?
Last night on the Critics Choice Awards (VH1) Don Cheadle was given an award for his humanitarian efforts for Darfur. Clips from "Darfur Now" were shown to the world-wide audience. I learned about it because my neice called me and said there's an Armenian priest on the big screen. Jose Quintinar called me and thanked me for Sunday's service and mentioned he saw this priest on the award show. Wow! An Armenian priest taking the Gospel to campaign against Genocide in Darfur? Where's the press and where's the coverage for things that matter? The same place it is in Glendale - concerned with the puppet shows at the local theater. After Cheadle won the award, the comments went back to the necklines of the stars and jokes about Snoop's drug use.
I've said this on serveral occasions and repeat it now - this facination with the trivial is OUR DRUG ADDICTION. There is an effort to numb your mind - don't buy into it.
We will stick to our guns. Focus on what is important and give our attention to the things that matter. We got side-tract over the last few days because our egos got in the way. Again, I really appreciate all of you who reacted and wrote those beautiful letters to the editor and to me. Each of them did exactly what we're called to do - moved the emphasis away from the trivial and centered on the real work ahead of us.
Keep walking In His Shoes....
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