BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: Coyote Breath
Date: 24 Dec 02 - 02:03 AM

I pray (for once I mean this literally) that the peace and love which this season celebrates can become a reality.

I am amazed and delighted at the other versions of peace and love, some within our specific Christian heritages. Kytrad's Jon had, as all children seem to manage, a true sense of what was right. I remember that I felt the denial of lodging was wrong but never expressed it. The Reverend Mr. Terry wouldn't have tolerated such an unorthodox response. Which brings me to my second favorite Christmas song (Brightest and Best being my first) and that is Collin Raye's "What if Jesus Came Back Like That?". When I first heard that song I literally gasped. It is incredibly fitting.

Day-Liah, be of good cheer, I feel that we will eventually figure it all out and get ourselves right.

Merry Christmas to you all. Isn't a great time?

CB

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 11:22 PM

I went to the Church of the Nativity in November, 2000. It has been a tough time since then, but it sounds like the area around the church has returned to a semblance of normalcy.

The "little town of Bethlehem" is now a bustling part of the Jerusalem Metropolitan area, well within Palestinian territory - the church is about five miles from the checkpoint. To the east, there is a wonderful view of the barren hills of Judea. You can't quite see the Dead Sea, which is maybe 20 miles to the east, amybe a bit more. Bethlehem is not a particularly prosperous area, but it's not horribly impoverished. The people were friendly, and fun to talk with.
Averybody speaks English.

I'm glad to see that things have settled down in Bethlehem, at least a bit. I guess I don't know who's in charge there just now, but it sure sounds like it's more peaceful there than it has been.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: *daylia*
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 09:21 PM

Thanks kytrad for your heartwarming story! And to Jon for being true to his own heart regardless of being told otherwise!! Trust a child to be the bringer of Hope!!!

:-)   daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie)
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 08:56 PM

Here's a little story, may be apropriate-If not, my apologies for butting in:

When one of my sons was small, about 6, and large for his age, he was asked to take the part of the Innkeeper in his Sunday School Christmas play- it was last-minute as the person taking the part had got the flu. Jon was dressed hurriedly into his costume and given his lines, " Sorry, there's NO ROOM at this inn!"

The play began, progressed, and finally Joseph and Mary arrived at the Inn door. Joseph said, "We have traveled far and are very weary and so cold, and my wife is about the give birth to our first child. We have heard there is no room here, but will you please help us?"

Jon threw the door open wide and said, "Oh well, in that case, come on in!" Can you imagine the reaction of the director, the cast, the audience? Pandemonium- then the director quickly had Jon change his mind, and refuse the visiters...against his will, though.

Maybe that's the bit of hope we're looking for- that sometimes there is enough basic good in people to take a stand, and open the door.

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 07:48 PM

That should be:

The wintry wind blows cold and dreary,
See, He weeps, the world is weary,
Lord, have pity and mercy on me.

For once it wasn't my mistake - I just lifted the words from the site I linked to which has the the whole song, because I was feeling lazy - and I never checked them. Mistake.

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 07:35 PM

I doubt if I've ever been to a Carol Service where we didn't have "O Little Town of Bethlehem". Sends a slight shiver down the back these days, mind you. (For some reason the fourth verse often gets left out - which I think is a shame, especially the last half of it.)

Another Carol which has the same poignancy in the context of the present situation in Manger Square is "Come, come, come to the manger", with its chorus ending "Stars of morning, o'er Bethlehem sing," and lines such as

The wintry wind blows cold and deary,
See, He weeps, the world is weary,
Lord, have pity and mercy on me.

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: *daylia*
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 02:03 PM

GUEST, thank you for the lovely lyrics! I've rarely seen more than the first verse of that carol. It chases those hopeless feelings away ...

Now if everyone could believe that He IS come already, in our minds and hearts right here and now! Waiting for us to manifest Him in our "mundane' daily lives ...

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 01:24 PM

I appreciate the idea this thread was started with, and think it is an excellent idea for a song with a music video. It would be very powerful done with audio and video of the occupation with a "O Little Town of Bethlehem" aspect to it. Read the lyrics again, with the idea of the Simon & Garfunkel song, and I think there is a tremendous potential for something like 7:00 News/Silent Night really impacting a whole lot more people than Simon & Garfunkel reached with theirs.

Just think of what the a news footage from the occupation would look/feel like, set to these lyrics:

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see the lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee to-night.


For Christ is born of Mary,
And gathered all above,
While mortals sleep, the angels keep
Their watch of wondering love.
O morning stars, together
Proclaim the holy birth!
And praises sing to God the King,
And peace to men on earth.


How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of his heaven.
No ear may hear his coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.


Where children pure and happy
Pray to the blessed Child,
Where misery cries out to thee,
Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching
And faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks,
And Christmas comes once more.


O holy Child of Bethlehem!
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us to-day.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel.

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: *daylia*
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 12:47 PM

Yeah, irony works very well and the message is an important one that NEEDS to be heard, depressing or not.

I just like BALANCE. People need encouragement, need to believe that there IS a solution - and that THEY ARE IT!!! Even if that solution has eluded us for the last couple thousand years or so ...

Peace and Hope

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: Mr Happy
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 12:24 PM

not much changed really- 2000 years ago the romans were occupying bethlehem!

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 12:21 PM

Military occupations are notoriously difficult to portray in a cheery light, which is why irony serves some of us quite well.

What could be more ironic than Jews holding Muslims hostage in one of Christendom's holiest cities on one of it's two high holy days of the year?

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: *daylia*
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 12:05 PM

Yes, it is a powerful message - and powerfully depressing too. To add "Silent Night" at the end of that song is ironic indeed.

May I suggest that the song be followed immediately by one of HOPE? Maybe "This little light of mine ... I'm gonna let it shine" or something. Out of kindness to those of us who have a hard enough time emotionally during the Christman season.

Peace and love

daylia

Subject: RE: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Dec 02 - 11:50 AM

I think one of the most compelling news stories of the year was the occupation of Bethlehem and the hostages in the Church of Nativity.

I like the idea of doing a song like 7:00 News/Silent Night with "O Little Town of Bethlehem". It would undoubtedly be a powerful piece, just as the 7:00 News one is.

Subject: BS: Occupied Bethlehem No Room at the Inn
From: GUEST,Billy
Date: 22 Dec 02 - 10:34 PM

No Christmas in Bethlehem this year, apparently. Watching the news tonight, I was reminded of Simon & Garfunkel's 7:00 News/Silent Night.

So what songs have we for the 2002 Christmas Occupation of Bethlehem?

Here is a lyric for the above song I found online:

This is the early evening edition of the news.
The recent fight in the House of Representatives was over the open housing section of the Civil Rights Bill.
Brought traditional enemies together but it left the defenders of the measure without the votes of their strongest supporters.
President Johnson originally proposed an outright ban covering discrimination by everyone for every type of housing but it had no chance from the start and everyone in Congress knew it.
A compromise was painfully worked out in the House Judiciary Committee.
In Los Angeles today comedian Lenny Bruce died of what was believed to be an overdoes of narcotics.
Bruce was 42 years old.
Dr. Martin Luther King says he does not intend to cancel plans for an open housing march Sunday into the Chicago suburb of Cicero.
Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogleby asked King to call off the march and the police in Cicero said they would ask the National Guard to be called out if it is held.
King, now in Atlanta, Georgia, plans to return to Chicago Tuesday.
In Chicago Richard Speck, accused murderer of nine student nurses, was brought before a grand jury today for indictment.
The nurses were found stabbed an strangled in their Chicago apartment.
In Washington the atmosphere was tense today as a special subcommittee of the House Committee on Un-American activities continued its probe into anti-Vietnam war protests.
Demonstrators were forcibly evicted from the hearings when they began chanting anti-war slogans.
Former Vice-President Richard Nixon says that unles there is a substantial increase in the present war effort in Vietnam, the U.S. should look forward to five more years of war.
In a speech before the Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in New York, Nixon also said opposition to the war in this country is the greatest single weapon working against the U.S.
That's the 7 o'clock edition of the news,
Goodnight.
Silent night
Holy night
All is calm
All is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.