Tag: christmas

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Opinions

Good Tidings & Good Grief

By Molly Connolly

As the holiday season runs its course, we see familiar scenes of warmth: being wrapped up in flannel and knit blankets, lilting melodies drifting through the air with warm sugar and spice scents swirling around us. We see friends and family gathered around tables filled with favorite foods as good conversation and love abounds. However, in those beautiful moments of fellowship and company, it can sometimes make the spaces once taken up by loved ones who aren’t with us anymore that much more obvious.

Grief in a season marketed on the basis of curating an exuberant display of joy, excitement and sociability can make an already incredibly complex experience that much more difficult to process. The ever-looming pressure to be a chipper Kris Kringle for Christmas can make the growing and groaning of grief feel Grinchy. If we’re lucky enough to not be the ones grieving, which can be complicated in its own right, seeing friends, family or loved ones in pain, being distant, or just not quite being themselves can be tense, awkward or even isolating, not just for us, but for all involved. 

I want to encourage all of us to take those tense or awkward moments, or the moments where we feel alone in our grief, and embrace the heart of our hurt. When we are missing the loved ones we no longer gather with, I want us to reflect on the memories and traditions we had with them. Continue those traditions or make new ones in remembrance of them. Allow yourself to be sad, angry, and hurt when those feelings come up. You do not owe anyone the comfort of convenient emotions, and you deserve to feel fully and deeply in all circumstances.

 For those who are not grieving but have someone close to us who is living with grief, don’t be afraid to be beside them at this time. Be a constant and supporting presence. Ask them about their lost loved one. Don’t force a silver lining, but give them a way to share the love they have for the person they are missing. In those moments we are given the bittersweet blessing of getting to share this love, and learn about the love we wouldn’t have been able to experience without that person.

There isn’t any right way to process loss and there isn’t a set way to support someone going through that process, but I urge each and every one of us to take those opportunities to grow closer together rather than to shy away from those “uncomfortable” or “inconvenient” emotions. Instead, embrace it all throughout the holiday season. Ways we can incorporate the grieving process can take a myriad of different forms, whether that’s trying to follow their famous cookie recipe, watching their favorite Christmas movie, singing along to their favorite seasonal songs, hanging up their stocking and filling it with some of their favorite snacks. Regardless of its form, let that love be lifted up in ways the season already encourages. Let laughter, tears, and everything in-between flow freely and make space for those feelings to be felt for those around you. ★

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Opinions

Christmas Music in November

By Abigail Young

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I don’t love Christmas music. I can get into the holiday spirit as much as the next person—at least toward the end of December. However, hearing Christmas music in the early weeks of November tends to get on my nerves. It still looks like fall outside, and I don’t appreciate having early Christmas cheer encroach on my favorite season, fall. Christmas music is also largely the same every year (Mariah Carey). Especially when it’s played for two whole months before Christmas day, it can get a bit old and is not as enjoyable when it’s actually Christmas time. 

This seems to be a widely debated topic at Houghton. In the last few days and weeks, I have overheard many conversations in the dining hall, dorms, and even a chemistry lab about whether we should start playing Christmas music now or wait until after Thanksgiving. Some of these have been surprisingly heated. Those who want to start playing Christmas music in November often claim that there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a particular genre of music or beginning to celebrate Jesus’ birth early. Those who would rather wait tend to point out that much of the Christmas music being played is more related to commercialism than Christ’s birth. Personally I prefer to wait until after Thanksgiving to start playing Christmas music. This is partially due to personal preference, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with starting to play Christmas music in early November. However, I think waiting to play Christmas music until at least after Thanksgiving could help us appreciate November and Thanksgiving more and might make Christmas more meaningful. 

November at Houghton can be a difficult month. The weather is cold and miserable, and this time in the semester, October break (which was too short anyway) is far behind, while Thanksgiving break is not close enough. We have deadlines closing in and an endless burden of assignments to finish. Even while we may enjoy friendships, classes, and the many other gifts Houghton has to offer, a lot of us are waiting for classes to end and Christmas break to start. Some people probably start playing Christmas music in early November to feel happier and start looking forward to the Christmas season. However, I think playing Christmas music this early may cause us to skip over November to get to Christmas, and I think there is something to be said for living in the present moment, even if the present moment isn’t our favorite. Even though November can be cold, stressful, and boring, there are still good things happening. It might be harder to appreciate those good things if we are already starting to celebrate Christmas. Waiting to play Christmas music might help us look forward to and enjoy Thanksgiving more, which is sadly often overlooked. Also, spending some time waiting before starting the celebratory aspect of Christmas might help us to appreciate Christmas more and understand the meaning of it better when it does come. 

Waiting is a theme of the Christian life, especially during Advent, where we remember how the Israelites waited for a Messiah and also how we are waiting for Christ’s return. I have often heard in chapel and elsewhere at Houghton that waiting is something that can help us grow and become closer to God. November can also be a time of waiting. I think we often want to skip over things that are boring, unpleasant, or cause us to wait. However, even though November is not the most pleasant month, maybe we could use it as a time to grow and specifically try to notice God’s presence within us. ★

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Opinions

Johnny Cash, Longfellow, and Peace.

joanna-friesen-rgb
Photo by: Anthony Burdo

I love Johnny Cash. Yes, I said love. Not like, not appreciate, not admire. Now that that is solidified, onward. Around Advent, my favorite song is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” and particularly the version sung by the aforementioned star of country western. This is adapted from a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow called “Christmas Bells.” In the piece, Longfellow muses on the centuries-long tradition of the church proclaiming peace in contradiction to Christmas in the midst of the American Civil War. He laments; “and in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,” I said; “For hate is strong, and mocks the song of peace on earth, good-will to men!’”

How did Longfellow resolve this? He trusted that the witness of peace, even amidst war, would ultimately prevail, although in 1863 he could not see peace immediately. “Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:  ‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep; the Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail, with peace on earth, good-will to men.’” Symbolically, bells entail resurrection, celebration, and the marking of occasions.

What are we to do in the tensions of life? War and peace. Refugees and comfortable American suburbanites. Historical witness and present reality. Especially in Christmas, there is the age-old temptation to suspend reality and exist in a sugar-coated bubble. Turn on “Frosty the Snowman,” decorate a fake tree, spray pine perfume on it, veg out on frosted cookies, exchange gifts churned out in the factory of big box stores and materialism, and call it a night.

I really don’t like Christmas music. The music that fits at Christmas time are the songs that get at this tension. These are the songs that are honest about the disjunctions of life, “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “I Heard the Bells On Christmas Day,” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” These songs admit that there is a gap between the hopes of Christmas, and the present reality. Although we celebrate, we recognize that peace is not normative, and must continue to be hoped for, even 2,000 years plus down the line.

joannaquoteWe celebrate that Christ has come, yet in the same story Herod is slaughtering the innocents, and the holy family flees to Egypt as refugees. There is an expectation of peace, and an “already but not yet” tension. How can we celebrate Christmas, yet witness in faithfulness that acknowledges the tension?

For the sake of the full circle, back to Johnny Cash. My favorite song of his is “Man in Black”. Here, he describes the purpose of his wardrobe. He consistently wore black, and if you listen to them right, most of his songs were preacher-songs, describing the pain and the ups and downs of human life. He wore black to identify with the “beaten down,” amidst the current culture of “streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,” reasoning that “I’d love to wear a rainbow every day, and tell the world that everything’s OK, but I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,

’till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.”

At Christmas, as odd as it sounds, it seems right to follow in the footsteps of Johnny Cash.

Joanna is a senior theology major.

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Opinions

Operation Christmas Child

It has been hard to avoid the sight of Operation Christmas Child boxes around campus the last few weeks. In years past, I have been the one filling them with dollar store toothbrushes, coloring books, school supplies, dolls, socks, etc. This was a project undertaken by countless years of youth groups as well as within my own family.

This year I haven’t.

Sarah SlaterI was considering why I had become so uncomfortable with the images of smiling children with their shoeboxes of toys, and I think I realized why. This semester, for my senior seminar, I’ve been studying a myriad of nonprofit organizations and the different ways they give back. My concern about Operation Christmas Child is simply this: that it tries to do a lot of things, and it doesn’t do any of them particularly well.

What are you trying to achieve with your shoebox of gifts? If you are trying to have a personal connection with a person on the other side of the world, sponsor a child or find a pen-pal. For the past few years I have been writing to a Kenyan middle-schooler through Empowering Lives International. Her name is Gloria, and she wants to be a professor at a university. I have no doubt in her capability to do so. But the reason I know she can achieve her ambitions is because we have a (limited) relationship. I have written to her and received responses over time. The recipient of your shoebox, on the other hand, is unknown to you, and you are equally anonymous to her.

The level of monitoring appropriate to various types of programs is frequently debated in the international development community. One approach is known as outcome-based aid, which according to the definition used by the World Bank attempts to tie disbursement of aid to specific results achieved by the recipient of the aid. This approach to development has received some pushback due to the intangible, long-term character of many interventions.

It is even more difficult to hold mission-based programs to standards because of the non-coercive element that should be inherent in preaching the gospel. It should never be a condition that someone need to become a Christian in order to participate in a program. On the other hand, how can we know if a given program is doing anything? One standard to look at is the impact a given program will have over the long term. Over the years, it has become apparent that giving out free things tends to have a net negative effect, destroying the ability of local entrepreneurs and farmers to make a living.

Of course Christians run mission hospitals, schools, feeding centers, water access programs and many other sorts of projects around the world. But there is a clear difference between showing the love of Christ through sacrificial service, and giving people things in exchange for listening to the gospel. The one is in the tradition of the disciples; the other is in the tradition of American consumerism.

Mediocrity is not something we accept readily in most aspects of our lives. When it comes to international development and Christian mission, though, it sometimes seems like good intentions are good enough. But to paraphrase blogger Jamie Wright, good intentions do not relieve us of our responsibility to engage carefully with the world. Part of responsible engagement is taking the time to think through what you are supporting. If it were your sister in need, would you prefer her to receive a single box of gifts at Christmas? Or would you wish instead for school sponsorship and medical care, or the love of a pastor or missionary in her own community?

It’s amazing that you feel called to participate in the spread of the good news. The last thing I would ever want to do is discourage that impulse. And if Operation Christmas Child is something you’ve thought through and truly believe in, I can’t find fault with that.

What I can do, though, is encourage you to carefully consider what you are doing when you fill that box with a washcloth, a ball, soap, crayons. And think if there is a different way you could achieve your goal of encouraging school attendance, good hygiene, a happy childhood, or the spread of the gospel.

Operation Christmas Child is not the worst thing a person could do to show love at Christmas. But I would argue that it is far from the best.

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News

New York City Barber Comes to Houghton

MJ Ganci left behind her family, partner, and home in Queens, New York when she came to Houghton in February to pursue her dream. That dream would eventually become “Capones Cuts”, a barbershop located inside Buddy’s Place on Route 19.

HattieBurgherCapone'sCMYKOn annual visits to see a friend in Alleghany County, multiple people approached Ganci asking her for a haircut. That’s when she decided she needed to introduce the New York City style to Western New York. “I bring style, designs, and I know what is in right now,” she said.

Along with that distinct city style, Ganci uses hair tools that “no other barbershop has within a 30 mile radius.” Another aspect Ganci wants to bring is comfort to those who come to her shop. “I want to make my shop as a second home for people and to provide a homey atmosphere,” said Ganci. To help create an inviting atmosphere, she has a sign-in book in the corner of her shop where customers can put in their information so she can send them items such as Christmas cards.

 

Ganci’s business has already attracted many of Houghton College’s professors and students, who get a discount when they present their student ID. “Her design skills are amazing and the passion she has for her work really shows how much she loves her job,” said senior, Enrico Sukhdeo. Sukhdeo, who wasn’t sure what to expect when he walked into Capones Cuts, was pleasantly surprised by Ganci’s skills. “I’ve gotten my hair cut from some very skilled barbers in the past and she is definitely in that category,” he said.

Douglas Gaerte, professor of communication, decided to go to Capones Cuts because he was too busy to go to Olean, where he had been getting his hair cut for more than fifteen years. He too, was satisfied with the results. Gaerte said, “She is fantastic. She was very attentive to the way I like my hair and took her time to learn my preferences.” Both Gaerte and Sukhdeo plan on seeing Ganci again the next time they need haircuts.

PhyllisGaerte_Capones

Attempting to start her own business, Ganci faced some difficulties along the way. “I went to at least ten different places in Fillmore, Cuba, Belfast; and no one wanted to rent me space,” said Ganci. Just when she felt like nothing was going to work out, Ganci drove down Route 19 and saw a rental space sign at Buddy’s Place. “I just ran in there hoping to get something, and I’ve never felt so welcomed,” she said referring to the other businesses that occupy the building. “I believe in God, and I believe He brought me here for a reason.”

She puts an emphasis on people pursuing their dreams. “If you have passion you can do anything,” she said. “I am forty-one, so it’s never too late to live your dream. If I can do it, then you can do it.”

Even though Ganci recognizes Houghton and Queens are on opposite ends of the spectrum, she doesn’t deem that as an excuse to not bring quality of service to the area. She said, “It’s not a million dollar place, but I will make you feel like a million bucks.”

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Stories In Focus

A Ritual to Read to One Another (As Well as On Your Own)

If you are anything like me, you looked forward to Christmas break largely due to the plethora of time simply spent sitting at home in uninterrupted silence with a book. Once break finally arrived, you had time to read and linger over the author’s words without feeling the pressure of assignments and other obligations clouding your thoughts.

Courtesy of ndbooks.com
Courtesy of ndbooks.com

Now, break is over and the time to read for pleasure has diminished greatly.  The booklist you have added to over break may now sit unattended for months.  However, I urge you to find and make time for yourself.  Solitary time to reflect is essential to every individual.  Though if you think that you don’t have the time, I suggest not only reading a novel, but also begin having a daily dose of poetry intermingled with other activities to ensure even on busy days you allow for at least a few minutes of reflection.

Recently, I have become fond of a contemporary American poet, Denise Levertov.  In particular, Levertov’s collection, Evening Train, is dear to me.  Through her poetry Levertov describes faith as elusive and often discusses the tension of her relationship with the divine. In her iconic poem, “Suspended” she writes, “I had grasped God’s garment in the void/ but my hand slipped/ on the rich silk of it.” Though unable to tangibly sense her faith or feel security she concludes this poem stating, “For though I claw at empty air and feel nothing, no embrace,/ I have not plummeted.”  Unsure of God’s presence she still feels some comfort there, perhaps dormant, but still there.

Faith is a prominent theme for Levertov. Her sublime mountain imagery becomes a common archetypal device for expression of faith. In her poem, “Witness” Levertov writes, “Sometimes the mountain/ is hidden from me in veils/ of cloud,” but then states, “Sometimes I am hidden from the mountain.” Her experience with God is a reciprocal relationship: with the disappearance of the mountain she loses the desire to search. With the disappearance of her faith she loses the desire to seek God’s presence.

In her poem, “Elusive” she writes, “The mountain comes and goes/ on the horizon/ a rhythm elusive as that of a sea-wave.”  God, like a mountain, escapes her view.  Yet, Levertov emphasizes the fickle elusiveness, because that is the inherent nature of faith.  Faith is not a tangible experience.  It is an intimate relationship that would not exist if we possessed factual knowledge from which deductive reasoning would ensue.

Levertov treasures faith as a personal and fragile necessity that humanity must pass down from generation to generation.  For this reason, her poetry is steeped in contemplation of the divine.  In this post-modern age where academics are plagued with doubts and questions of faith Levertov offers comfort.  Comfort which you, like me, may deeply appreciate.

Having shared a poet dear to me I encourage you now to find a poet that you can relate to and revisit their words daily.  Then read another poet, and another.  Let their words wash over you like the ocean’s daily tide.

And if you will indulge me for one last short paragraph, I offer a quick list of some more favorites you may wish to explore.  Classics such as John Donne, William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Rainer Maria Rilke come to mind as well as many moderns such as William Stafford, Wallace Stevens, Franz Wright, and recent American Poet Laureate Billy Collins who wrote a book, Poetry 180, designed to make poetry more accessible to high school students.  And if you are new at this ‘poetry business’ I suggest Collins’ “How to Read Poetry” for starters.  As Collins writes, be mindful not to,“begin beating it [the poem] with a hose/ to find out what it really means.” So give poetry a try and you may find that a poem a day keeps the stress away.

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Opinions

Are Students Just Looking to be Entertained?

Earlier this week, CAB decided to cancel its Houghton’s Got Talent (HGT) event due to lack of student participation (for further elaboration, see “Houghton’s Got Talent Cancelled” on the front page of this issue.) A student life representative came to the Star office that evening to discuss the issues surrounding the cancellation. He posed a question: “Are Houghton students looking to be entertained more than they are looking to be involved?” I think that this is a worthy question to explore and my response would be a resounding “yes.”

WebQuoteNow, given this specific example, we could talk about the problems of the HGT event itself and why students may not have been very excited to participate in it. For one, the conceptualization of HGT appeared to be much too like SPOT, especially last fall’s SPOT, but with significantly less hype attached to it. For another, it wasn’t very well advertised – consisting of an email announcing auditions over Christmas break, with a few mentions on social media. (And, if you’re like me, you’re much less likely to keep up to date with emails over break, much less think about school.) Finally, though the event was apparently a hit several years ago, there hasn’t been a standing tradition of holding it every year, making students much less likely to participate since they don’t know what to expect.

These are all important considerations before we could make the catch-all conclusion that students are less inclined to participate campus events and organizations anymore. In fact, as a singular event, we could dismiss the cancellation of HGT as a defining example, given all the problems outlined above. Yet, when we think about it, I think we can see it as part of a larger trend indicating a deadening of student life and participation.

Let’s consider a few more examples. A good example may be the decreasing involvement in student government organizations on campus. This can be seen most notably in the desperate emails pleading students to run for the empty class cabinet positions. It also evident in the SGA elections where there is only one name running on the ballot. Student government organizations appear to be running increasingly on a small group of people, with less input coming from the wider student community. (Be honest, have you ever attended an SGA meeting during your entire college career?)

Even here at the Star, we’ve noticed a drop in participation. Finding writers to take on stories is getting a lot harder than it used to be. This could be due to the drop in enrollment (for example, when I first began working on the paper in my freshman year, enrollment was hovering a little above 1,100, perhaps more; now it is about 900) but I don’t think this explains all of it. Many students that we have emailed seem to be less willing to tackle on important college issues and a little more hesitant at seeing their name in print.

There also seems to be less activism, less response to the changes or events that take place on campus. Always excepting the comment board in the cafeteria, students have been taking weaker stances on college issues and, if they haven’t, they’ve been keeping their opinions to themselves. Here at the Star for example, there have been significantly less letters to the editor and less opinions pieces taking on strong stances about college issues and events. Houghton is in the midst of a great period of change, we have a lot to react to, either in protest or support. For instance, there is the always-problem of low enrollment prompting financial problems, program cancellations, rising tuition, a new athletic complex that is taking on more and more debt – among others. I have yet to see a strong, public student opinion on any of these issues.

Where is the spark? Where are the young upstarts looking to change the world (or, at the very least, their campus)? Again, I think we have become too complacent, looking too much to being entertained. Or maybe it’s not looking to be entertained that’s the problem, but our own apathy.

Let’s fix this. We can revitalize our campus by getting involved – whether it be something like writing a letter to the editor, attending an SGA meeting, drawing up a petition, or even something weird like putting together a juggling act for the school talent show. We can do it.

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Opinions

Death, Joy, and Christmastime

Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa etc., but for my purposes Christmas), is fast approaching. School has a tendency to push the holiday to the background, but very soon we will be suddenly remembering that we must buy gifts for parents and siblings and best friends before slogging home through December slush. And when we arrive, we will be faced with the reality of how we feel about this particular holiday.

Christmas is associated with joy and warm fuzzies, and comes with a wildly heightened atmosphere, more so than any other holiday in our society. It’s an atmosphere fed by people of ymany different backgrounds—Christians place exaggerated emphasis on family, love, and giving of oneself, and in general, everyone focuses on parties, food, festive décor, good cheer, and buying presents—of which consumer culture takes eager advantage.

In the movie Love Actually, a compilation romantic comedy set on the backdrop of the countdown to Christmas, the characters constantly use Christmas as both a reason and an excuse for their various behaviors. A secretary confesses her love to the Prime Minister, “Because, if you can’t say it at Christmas, when can you?” A groom’s best friend confesses his love to the bride, “Just because it’s Christmas, and at Christmas you tell the truth.” A boss urges his employee to confess her love to her co-worker, because “It’s Christmas.” Much is expected at Christmas. Much is connoted—people are meant to experience love and people are meant to travel to their childhood homes to gather around warm hearths and exchange heartfelt gifts with loving family members.

It’s a difficult time to have bad memories.

christmasThe hefty amount of people with disjointed families and/or scarring experiences can easily feel marginalized when the seeming majority is swimming in a dream of sugar plums and packages tied up in string. My parents announced their divorce in the fall of my 7th grade year. Christmas was the last day we were ever together as a family. Fortunately, my experience has not soured my feelings towards the holiday itself as much as it could have, and as much as it certainly has for others with similar or worse experiences.

Two years ago in a chapel service before Christmas break, Dr. Bruxvoort Lipscomb read her essay “On Death in December,” explaining her associations between death and Christmas. She listed three tragic deaths her life that had each occurred in December, and each involved a mother losing a son. Her essay focused on a painting of Madonna and Child by Bellini in which the Christ-child appears dead, and she pointed out that Christmas is, in reality, the celebration of a baby who was born so that he could eventually die. She concluded with confession that when she thinks of the births of her own children, she thinks also of their inevitable death. In that moment, it seemed to me an unnecessarily morbid distortion of what should be a joyful holiday.

A few weeks later, my aunt died.

I’ve since experienced my fair share of grief. My aunt was the second in a series of deaths of four loved ones over the past two years, and marked the first time that I glimpsed, from my stubborn place several rows back at the viewing, a disquietingly real body within a casket. Her death made true for me the words that Bruxvoort Lipscomb had shared: Christmas is indeed a season about “birthing death.”

While this truth may not have always been apparent to me throughout my life, I know now that it was the only reality for my mother. At childhood Christmases she would ever hang a small stocking for my deceased sister above the fireplace alongside the rest of the family’s larger, teeming stockings. She asked that we write notes to Baby Jesus and place them in the stocking, and I never understood the connection between my sister and Jesus, until two years ago. But for her, and for Bruxvoort Lipscomb, and for many others like them, Christmas has always meant something a little different.

It’s common for people with contrasting experiences to feel animosity towards one another. Those who have had mostly pleasant Christmases throughout their lives, as I have, tend to feel that those who appear more cynical are putting a damper on the Christmas spirit. Those who have not been so fortunate tend to feel isolated and misunderstood. Christmas needs to be sacred. Christmas needs to be changed. Christmas is perfect. Christmas is unimportant.

I don’t think Christmas is really either of these things.

Similar to the inflated perception of what a “Christian family” should look like, the concept of Christmas tradition is also far from what the Christian religion would actually call for. We started out with the basic idea for a celebration of Jesus’ birth, and tacked on pagan practices along the way, partly to aid with evangelical efforts, partly just for fun. Like Valentine’s Day, the holiday is now so strongly tied to distorted, Hollywood versions of love that do more harm than good. But Valentine’s Day is a simple holiday, based primarily on legends and trivial customs. Christmas is not such a throwaway holiday. Christmas has roots that are vitally important to Christian beliefs, and it should not be treated in the same way. Both overly positive and overly negative perspectives on Christmas are too simplified to do it justice.

I have found great hope in the Christmas story of Jesus’ birth and promise, but I have also found great hope in Bruxvoort Lipscomb’s version of Christmas, one that takes an honest look at the future of the baby Jesus. Taking both viewpoints together can lend to the holiday the depth and dignity that it deserves. Don’t cheat yourself this Christmas by focusing on only one aspect of your experience. To be sure, Christmas is a time of deep joy, but it is not a holiday to be taken lightly.

 

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Opinions

The Irrelevancy of Cheerful Intentions

With the close of another Thanksgiving season, I am excited to begin celebrating all things Christmas. I want to sing cheesy Christmas songs, eat lots of Christmas cookies, and wear wonderfully ugly Christmas sweaters, every-single-day. While this may actually be rather child-like, I have also come to appreciate the Christmas season’s emphasis upon giving unto others with the intent of selfless appreciation. Unfortunately, living in a consumer-oriented context, the bargain-hunting aggression of ‘Black Friday’ has come to more readily define ‘Christmas-like’ giving. The influx of consumerism during this season has simultaneously translated into innumerable opportunities for material charity amongst citizens of the Global North. It is initially daunting to challenge consumer-based charity, specifically with its popularity among respectable citizens. However, there persists a need to re-conceptualize consumer-based charities popular during this

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holiday season. A needed shift in perspective specifically highlights the lack of depth, cultural relevance, and disregard for recipient perspectives. At the core of its shortcomings, however, consumer-based charity needs greater understanding for the complexity of human-related issues.

At the forefront of consumer-focused charity during the Christmas season is an initiative facilitated by the Samaritan’s Purse named Operation Christmas Child (OCC). Since 1993, OCC has collected shoeboxes from its participants in North America, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Each participant is to fill a shoebox with hygienic items and toys that Western children typically see as essential or enjoyable to play with (i.e. toothpaste, socks, crayons, coloring books, kazoos, etc.). Through OCC, participants are encouraged to label their toy-stuffed shoebox with a sticker indicating a preferred age and sex of the child who will receive the box. According to the Samaritans Purse website, these boxes are intended for children of the Global South who are ‘living in difficult situations’. Through participant’s shoebox donation, OCC mobilizes ‘privileged’ families of the Global North to ‘share the good news of Jesus Christ’ with ‘underprivileged’ children of the Global South. Unfortunately, introducing Jesus Christ through toys and knick-knacks promotes a simplistic view of Christianity in association with Western consumer culture. As a result, the nature of Jesus Christ adopts attributes of our capitalist society rather than the magnitude of his humanity, divinity, and relevance.

In addition to its non-contextualized approach to evangelism, OCC promotes a one-way relationship between the ‘giver’ and the ‘receiver’, lacking parameters for reciprocity or consistency from year-to-year. In narrowing its concept of charity to a linear flow of western materials, OCC has missed potential for deeper impact through long-term relationship building. Further opportunities involve the development of healthy relationships among consistently participating communities, while better engaging the voice of OCC recipients to define such relationships. Never accessing the capabilities of mutual relationships undermines the diverse expression of opinion amongst both donors and recipients, further hindering the determination of relevant outcomes. Just as one would wish to give a gift relevant to a family member’s indicated ‘wish list’, the voiced desires of OCC recipients need be better involved in determining the outcomes of donor strategies.

Operation Christmas Child currently represents a Westernized view of Christmas, evangelism, and the Global South. As members of the Houghton student body, it is critical that we better critique the premise of OCC and its campus-wide participation. From this perspective, we each are challenged to re-conceptualize the intents, means, and effects of how we choose to give. Moving forward into this holiday season, let us contemplate the wonderful attributes of Christmas, while also reflecting upon its increasing focus on consumerism. In doing so, may we continually contemplate our well-meaning intentions with the valuable humanity of our neighbor, both local and abroad.

 

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Stories In Focus

Home for the Holidays? International Students and Breaks

A homecooked meal, relaxing with your family, and the simplicity of being home are things most of us take for granted. International students on the other hand will not be experiencing these luxuries for the upcoming Thanksgiving break. Rather than with their families, most international students spend their Thanksgiving breaks with friends or host families.

Houghton’s intercultural student program has set up programs for the international students who do not have the option of going home with friends. “Internationals who want host families are connected with a family who will ‘friend’ and provide some home atmosphere for them,” said Margo Kettelkamp, intercultural student program coordinator.  Senior Danny Kim, a student from South Korea, said “Houghton has done a great job with adapting international students to the campus and making sure there are places for the students who don’t have anywhere to go during breaks.”

Senior Paul Seddon, a student from the United Kingdom, was previously unaccustomed to celebrating Thanksgiving, “It was strange at first but I enjoy it now.” It was the extreme extent to which we celebrate holidays which took Kim off guard. “Thanksgiving I understand, Christmas, of course. But why on the Fourth of July do you all need to get together and eat a hamburger, hot dog, sausage, and everything else in sight to celebrate our founding fathers? That’s something about one of your holiday’s that confuses me.”

Along with adapting to celebrating our holidays international students also have to go without celebrating theirs. Kim misses Hangul Day, the holiday celebrating the Korean written language. Seddon misses Guy Fawkes Day on November 5th when, in the early 17th century, Guy Fawkes planted gunpowder under Parliament but was caught. Also, on November 11th, the United Kingdom celebrates Remembrance Day. “It’s similar to veterans day, except 11 minutes after 11 we have a minute of silence for our veterans,” said Seddon. Then, with a smile, Seddon added “There’s also Pancake Day, it’s the day before Ash Wednesday, everyone uses all their eggs, flour and milk and make pancakes. It’s called Shrove Tuesday.”

One group of international students that are often overlooked as internationals are the Canadian students on campus. While some of them live close enough to be able to travel home for the weekend if they wish, they still experience the feelings of not being “at home.” Canadian Thanksgiving takes place on the second Monday of November. Senior Sarah Munkittrick said, “It would be nice if October break could be extended to a week so we could celebrate Thanksgiving with our families.” Munkittrick also said, “Houghton does do a lot for the Canadians during Thanksgiving; there’s a special meal, a chapel, and dessert at the Lucky’s. It’s just nice to be home though.”

While celebrating holiday’s away from home is something most international students have grown used to, it is not always easy. “After a while you can start to feel like a bit of an intrusion being at someone’s house for so long,” said Seddon. As Kim spoke about the challenges of being away from home he paused, then thoughtfully said “No one can listen as well and make my comfort food like my mom and there’s no one who loves me unconditionally.” With a slight chuckle, he added, “like my dogs.”