Melville Cooke

I am rather amused, not in the belly laugh manner but in the sharp expulsion of breath in a cynical 'ha!' way, when Christians complain about the commercialisation of Christmas.

Sure, the merchants play the season to its snowy hilt in this sunny country and others where 'we have neither summer nor winter ...' and Christ came with the crack of a whip and the branding iron sinking into dark flesh. They are, however, merely following the example of the Church, which makes a darned good living selling its only product, salvation, through its corporate spokesperson, Jesus. (No need for Rising Stars and text-in voting here.)

That December 25 is not the actual day Jesus was born is, for the purpose of the psychology of the sale of salvation, academic. (Those who are interested can examine the Roman festival of Saturnalia, eventually a seven-day festival from December 17 that celebrated the god Saturn, as well as the Scandinavian festival Yule, in which logs were lit in honour of thunder god Thor, and their connection to Christmas). The fact is that it exists and without the Jesus figure there would be no crucifixion, no resurrection and Mervyn Morris would not have written the poems 'Malefactor Left' and 'Malefactor Right'.

And there would have been no huge church buildings (isn't it interesting that Jesus and his disciples did not build an edifice, for if the heavens cannot contain God, then how can a building do so, and took up no collection, instead living on their collective effort?) which make a hell of a lot of money. Or, to put it the correct way, make a lot of money out of hell.

Christianity operates on the famed 'lead or gold' principle of the Colombian drug cartels. A judge or a policeman or a potential informant would sometimes get a grim present from a drug lord, a bullet and an expensive item or cash. At other times the choice would be stated in words. Whatever the method, the options were clear; co-operate and be wealthy, go against us and die.

No middle ground

There was no middle ground, no option to stay out of the fray and enjoy a nondescript life.

This is almost the same choice that Christianity offers, accept and get an everlasting life of ease, do not accept and get an everlasting life of torture. It seems to me that the cartels were a bit more humane. At least you would just die and be done with it, not be put in a place where some little nuts with forks grin and chant 'more fire!' as they put on the heat.

The option that I have chosen, to live well, die and make space for the many generations to come in this world without end, is apparently not on the Christian list.

Now people will pay a lot of money to avoid this torture. Put the other way they will pay a lot of money to live forever, to catch the sale of salvation that is advertised by the birth date of Jesus. Since the various church organisations in Jamaica do not declare their accounts, I have no idea how much money they actually have, or what assets they have title to. However, I do know that there is no such thing as a poor church; no matter how squalid the community, the buildings of the various denominations stand out. Every mickle makes a muckle and between voluntary work and collection, the churches virtually have a licence to print money - tax-free.

I do not attend, but sometimes pass by the big tents where the crusades take place. Then a few months later I will pass some blocks and steel on the spot. And it grows from there.

The cruellest thing is that the merchants may hike their prices at Christmas and call it a sale, but at least they come back down. The sale of salvation is year-round and it does not come with a jacket and free credit.

Melville Cooke is a freelance writer.