Red states, blue states, me states, you states

The Year of our Lord 2000 was the year of The Map.

You know the one: red states, blue states, false states, true states, me states, you states.

No, this isn't one of those fake Dr. Seuss poems that flooded the Internet during the White House war that threatened to steal Christmas. This column is about the annual Religion Newswriters Association poll to determine its top 10 news stories.

Religion specialists in the secular press said the top story was the selection of U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, "an observant, yet modern, Orthodox Jew" as the first Jew nominated by a major U.S. party to serve as vice president. Both parties courted religious voters, this time around. I agreed, but added a sentence on my ballot noting that exit polls later showed that the greatest divisions in American life still center on clashing moral, cultural and religious beliefs.

Which brings us back to The Map, the amazing USA Today graphic that showed the 676 Al Gore counties in blue and the 2,436 George W. Bush counties in red. It was a refined version of the election-night television maps that started pundits chattering about big states vs. small states, big-city life vs. small-town values, East and West coasts vs. the Heartland.

"The divide went deeper than politics. It reached into the nation's psyche," said Washington Post sage David Broder, on Nov. 8. Gore won by 27 percent among voters who praised the economy. Bush won by 30 percent among those worried about spiritual decay. Broder concluded: "It was the moral dimension that kept Bush in the race."

The national psyche? This election cut America's soul. It pitted a resurgent Religious Left vs. a demure Religious Right, oldline churches vs. megachurches. It wasn't secularists vs. the religious, as the Democratic duo of a Southern Baptist and an Orthodox Jew made clear. But clearly there were religious overtones in the hot cultural issues.

This election was Hollywood vs. Nashville, "Sex in the City" vs. "Touched by an Angel," National Public Radio vs. talk radio, "Doonesbury" vs. "B.C.", "Hotel California" vs. "The Okie From Muskogee." It was The New York Times vs. National Review Online, Dan Rather vs. Rush Limbaugh, Rosie O'Donnell vs. Dr. Laura, Barbra Streisand vs. Dr. James Dobson, the Supreme Court vs., well, the Supreme Court.

It was hard to ignore exit-poll questions about "religious observance," noted conservative Kate O'Beirne. "About half of the Republicans attend church at least once a week; nearly half of the Democrats go to church seldom or never. ... Married folk in the countryside who attend church have more conservative views on abortion, gun ownership, gay rights and the role of government."

What happens next? Keep studying The Map.

The other top stories in the RNA 2000 poll were:

2. In a historic pilgrimage, Pope John Paul II prays at Jerusalem's Western Wall and, meeting with Holocaust survivors, expresses deep sadness at acts of hatred against Jews by Christians. He holds strategic meetings in Jordan and in Palestinian territories.

3. Hopes for an agreement between Jews and Palestinians dim after Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount spark waves of violence between Israel and Palestinians. Talks at Camp David break down over control of the Old City in Jerusalem.

4. Vermont approves same-sex unions despite protests by state's Catholic bishop and other clerics. The United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) defeat proposals to bless gay unions. Episcopalians pledge "pastoral care" for those living in "life-long committed relationships" outside marriage.

5. The Southern Baptist Convention bans women from serving as church pastors and adds more conservative language to its Baptist Faith and Message doctrinal statement.

6. Vatican issues Dominus Iesus, restating Catholic doctrine that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, alone, and that the true church "subsists"' in its fullness only in the Catholic Church. Many criticize the document's tone as anti-ecumenical.

7. Former President Jimmy Carter exits the Southern Baptist Convention, citing its swing to the doctrinal right. Also, the Texas Baptist Convention votes to withhold more than $5 million from SBC seminaries and executive committees.

8. Pope John Paul II, in a solemn penitential rite, asks God's pardon for sins committed against other groups by members of the Catholic Church.

9. The Episcopal Church's General Convention approves pact with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, clearing the way for mutual recognition of clergy and hierarchies.

10. The Rev. Vashti McKenzie of Baltimore becomes the 2.3-million-member African Methodist Episcopal Church's first female bishop.

Oh joy, a Christmas vision

There are only 365 shopping days, give or take a few, until next Christmas.

And all the people said, "Oh joy."

"Honestly, there's an argument to be made for Christians pretty much conceding Dec. 25th – just handing it over to the secular world – because we're just not getting anywhere," said Dan Andriacco, communications director for the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati. "I'm not saying that we give up on Christmas. I'm saying that we need to stop thinking of Christmas as what happens on Dec. 25th."

In a recent St. Anthony Messenger article, Andriacco joined a growing chorus of Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox Christians and others urging churches to skip "The Holidays" and start following centuries of Christian traditions. At the very least, this would mean honoring the four-week penitential season of Advent (Nativity Lent) preceding Dec. 25 and then celebrating the 12-day Christmas festival that continues until the Jan. 6th Feast of the Epiphany.

What would this mean? Here are some tips, from Andriacco and others.

* Here's a tough one: Invite St. Nicholas into the Advent season, rather than Santa Claus. As a rule, Americans ignore the Dec. 6th feast of St. Nicholas of Myra, the 4th-century patron saint of endangered children and the poor.

"The real guy is a better example than Old Goodiebags," writes Beliefnet.com columnist Frederica Mathewes-Green. "He's a man of courage and compassion, and the kind of person you'd like your children to know."

A renewed St. Nicholas emphasis would offer wonderful opportunities to share stories and gifts with children, but also to emphasize another tradition – gifts for the needy. My suggestion? Churches could, on the Sundays between St. Nicholas Day and Christmas, collect diapers and blankets for new mothers who need help.

* It's crucial, said Andriacco, to celebrate Christmas during Christmas, instead of during Advent. This may mean avoiding shopping malls or taping favorite Christmas movies and specials to watch later, to avoid the tidal wave of ads. It will mean going against the flow.

"If we are really going to get into the spiritual disciplines of a season of waiting, a season of rest, then we will simple have to slow down and party less," he said.

* The season offers deadly traps, even for the idealistic. Some have tried to replace expensive gifts with handcrafts and keepsakes. Writer Julie McCarty noted that this, ironically, may require busy people to pour more time into preparations. The last thing many people need right now is even higher expectations. The goal is to save time for faith and family, not to create more work in the name of simplicity.

"Experience has taught me that I am simply not going to stitch a quilt, stencil homemade Christmas cards, or assemble a memory book for each niece and nephew," she confessed. "My closets stand as witnesses to my unfinished projects from Christmases past. If Martha Stewart enjoys making her own wrapping paper, let her do it."

* The days before Christmas are a traditional time to go to confession, for those in sacramental churches. This is highly appropriate today, since "The Holidays" produce more than their share of burdens. Christmas also should be a time for reconciliation with family members, rather than drowning out their voices with waves of football games and movies.

* The December calendar in most homes and parishes is a train wreck, with concerts, parties and services competing with the private schedules of singers, volunteers and clergy. Then many people have to travel. By mid-month, folks are wiped out.

Here's a radical idea: Put some of next year's concerts and parties in the actual 12-day season after Dec. 25. Take your choir caroling on the 10th day of Christmas and you'll be the only show in town. You might get arrested for being subversive, but it would be worth the effort.

"If we take the church calendar seriously, then that will automatically steer us away from many of the trappings of the secular season," said Andriacco. "So we're not saying that people should skip Christmas. Just the opposite! We're saying, 'Let's celebrate all of it. We want the real Christmas.' "

Hanukkah – freedom or death

It's almost time to fire up the big menorah in the public square.

It's time for office workers to mix blue-and-silver Hanukkah decorations with symbols of Christmas, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice and, this year, Ramadan. It's time for school children to fry potato-and-onion pancakes and spin four-sided dreidels with Hebrew letters that stand for "a great miracle happened here." It's time for parents to max out their charge cards.

Party planners can find many alleged "carols" on the Internet, such as this revised Santa Claus verse: "They're grinding their swords, sharp as a pin, a guerilla war, they're going to win. Maccabees are coming to town." Let's skip the even sillier "Eight Days of Fire," sung to the Jerry Lee Lewis classic.

The bottom line is that the eight-day "festival of lights" begins at sundown on Thursday, Dec. 21. For millions this has evolved into a super-holiday matched one-on-one in a cultural showdown with Christmas.

Hanukkah is here, but what are folks all fired up about?

"The problem, as any rabbi will tell you, is that Hanukkah has traditionally been a minor Jewish festival," observed Columbia University historian David Greenberg, at Slate.com. "It commemorates the successful Israelite revolt in the second century B.C. against their Syrian oppressors, and their refusal to assimilate into the prevailing Hellenistic culture. Specifically, it celebrates the miracle in which, according to lore, a day's worth of oil fueled the candelabra of the Jew's rededicated temple for eight days."

Hanukkah has a unique message, but one that often is drowned out as millions – of all races and creeds – stampede to the shopping mall. Many say that Hanukkah celebrates religious liberty and religious pluralism. Others emphasize its message that Jews must defend the purity of their faith, when they are tempted to assimilate into a dominant culture.

I found myself dwelling on this second Hanukkah theme during a Dec. 8 press conference by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. This was not a Hanukkah event – but it could have been. Around the world, religious minorities are under attack when they refuse to buckle under to oppressive majority regimes.

This commission accused U.S. officials of timidly defending religious liberty. For example, a State Department report in 1999 criticized seven "countries of "particular concern" – Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and particular movements in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. The commission pressed, unsuccessfully, for the inclusion of four more in the 2000 report – Laos, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan. It must be hard for U.S. diplomats to admit the situation is getting worse, instead of better.

The commission's Dec. 8 critique included reports on abuses in all of those lands and more. In Iran, four Baha'is have been sentenced to death for apostasy and "Zionist Baha'i activities." In China, violent crackdowns continue on the Falun Gong movement and Protestant and Catholic churches that refuse to kneel before state. Regional officials in China executed at least eight Uigher Muslims on charges of "splitting the country."

The list goes on and on. Efforts to control religious minorities can be seen in Russia, where legislation threatens to the "liquidation" of thousands of small religious groups. Even the French National Assembly has created a list of 173 "dangerous sects" – including the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Unification Church and even some Baptists – that could be shut down if believers are caught committing crimes of "mental manipulation."

"Even the Europeans are headed in the wrong direction," said Jewish conservative Elliott Abrams, chairman of the religious freedom commission. "What's even worse is how that is going to be cited by (regimes) that are aggressively oppressing their religious minorities. They'll be saying, 'Look, we're modeling parts of our laws on what they're doing in Belgium and France.' "

The most appropriate time to remember the plight of oppressed religious minorities is the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day, said Abrams. But it sure wouldn't hurt if this solemn, and historically accurate, theme appeared amid the glitter of "the holidays."

"Hanukkah is the festival of freedom," he said. "But what often gets lost is that this meant freedom or DEATH. ... Millions of believers around the world face the same choice today."

Martin Marty and the soul of DC

A glance down from an incoming airplane is all it takes to see that Washington, D.C., is messed up.

Long ago, architect Pierre L'Enfant had of vision of grand plazas combined with a simple, logical grid of streets. But now visitors see politics all over the place. The Supreme Court sits in judgment across the street from the U.S. Capitol, which wrestles with the White House for symbolic supremacy on the map. Highways run into rivers and the National Mall, while cathedrals gaze down from distant hills at memorials to the secular saints.

Where is the heart of Washington? And if a city doesn't have a heart, where is its soul?

"We are in a society called 'pluralist,' "said historian Martin Marty, during a recent speech entitled "Building the Holy City on the Hill" for the College of Preachers at National Cathedral. "Our cities don't have that single axis. They don't have walls. They may have beltways, but they keep no one out. Commerce, industry, religion, academic life, media life, malls, all ... throw this off."

So Washington is not a New England village, in which all roads and energies converge on one marketplace, one government hall and one church, he said. People inside the Beltway worship all kinds of things in all kinds of places. Thus, it's hard to pinpoint the "soul" of America's complex and fragmented capital.

"It is a secular city," said Marty. "Believers may interpret it as God's gift, but it's not organized on those lines."

Nevertheless, he insisted that Washington does have a "soul," which he defined as: "The integrated vital power of any organic body that is full of awareness, openness to possibilities, expressive of freedom and having purpose." The good news for the city is that powerful displays of "soul" often follow moments of pain, conflict, sickness and anger. So he urged his listeners to keep their eyes open, right now.

During his 35-year career at the University of Chicago, Marty has been much more than a scholar whose 50 books and 40 years of Christian Century essays helped define an era of church history. His work has repeatedly bridged the wall between academia and the news. Any mention of his name is usually accompanied by the Time magazine quotation proclaiming him America's "most influential living interpreter of religion."

And Marty remains the master of finding grace in chaos – such as the storms currently gathering over Washington. For starters, he said, it's safe to say that no one on Capitol Hill is talking about building utopia anytime soon, in this day of almost supernaturally thin voting margins, non-existent mandates and bitter 50-50 splits over virtually every moral, cultural and political issue in sight.

This is good, he said, since most attempts to build utopias lead to bloodshed and war. Often, people who are divided, and know it, manage to get more work done than the people plagued by delusions of unity and perfection. The most crucial, creative decisions are almost always made right after the best-laid plans fall apart, after the utopian quests go astray. That is when progress often takes place in a fallen world full of flawed people.

"I am assuming," said Marty, "that the search for the holy city of Washington is going to go wrong, because you have to work with the crooked timber of humanity – conflicting interests, conflicting wills, conflicting visions of the good. ... We never say that we learn by trial and rightness, nor by trial and triumph. No, we learn by trial and error."

It's true that anyone searching for "soul" in Washington can look in churches. There are, he noted, 92 brands listed in the Yellow Pages – between "chiropractors" and "cigars." But they also should search in schools, where a janitor may help a student through a troubled day. They should visit an unheralded recovery program for prostitutes. "Soul" may even show up in efforts to replace out-of-date voting machines. Angels live on many of the city's forgotten streets.

Washington isn't perfect. That's the good news. And don't worry, said Marty, about times of conflict. Never forget that " you can't get justice without argument."