Student Soap Box

Why Christmas?
Let’s Not Forget

by Colin Chisholm

Christmas: images of food,
presents and Jolly old Saint
Nick. Let’s do some critical
some thinking on the subject.
Why do we celebrate
Christmas? What is
Christmas all about?
Christmas is the greatest
holiday of the year, it’s time
to spend with family and
friends, to give and receive
gifts. Christmas gives us time
to take a step back from life,
relax NO EXAMS NO
PAPERS. These are some of
the great things about
Christmas. There is, however,
a more important point to
Christmas than the presents
the food and Santa Claus.
Christmas is the celebration
of the birth of the Jesus
Christ.

Next question: Why do we
celebrate the birth of Christ?
It comes down to who Christ
is and what he did. Jesus
Christ is God; he created the
universe; he created you and
me; he knows everything
about each one of us. Christ
left heaven and came to earth
for us. He died for us and,
defeating death, Christ rose
from the dead, returning to
heaven in his physical human
form. Christ came to be a
sacrifice for the sins of
human kind, paying the
ransom fee so that we could
be freed from death and have
eternal life.

“But now God has shown us a
different way to heaven not
by being “good enough” and
trying to keep his laws, but
by a new way (though not
new, for the scriptures told
about it long ago). Now God
says he will acquit ustideclare
us “not guilty” if we trust in
Jesus Christ to take away our
sins. And we all can be saved
in this same way, by coming
to Christ, no matter who we
are or what we have been
like. Yes, all have sinned; all
fallen short of God’s glorious

ideal, yet now God declares us
“not guilty” of offending him if
we trust in Jesus Christ, who in
his kindness freely takes away
our sins.” (Romans 5:21-24
Living Bible)

Christmas is more than a
holiday of gift giving. Jesus
Christ gave the first Christmas
gift, the ultimate Christmas
gift: eternal life. The question
now is, are you willing to
receive it.

CHRISTMAS - GOD

IS WITH US!

By Catherine Casey (RC
Representative at UNBC
Chaplancy)

So much of what we do to
celebrate Christmas reflects
wliat we have appropriated
culturally. At this stage can
anyone explain why turkey is
predominantly the meat of
choice for this celebration?.
What does a Christmas tree
have to do with celebrating the
birth of Christ?.

From the beginning the
celebration of Christmas
appropriated elements from
the culture of the time. When
Christians first started
celebrating Christmas they
chose a time that had become a
major festival. The Festival of
the Unconquered Sun was
celebrated during the days
after the Winter Solstice.
While non-Christians
continued to celebrate the
return of light and hope in the
midst of the darkness of
winter, Christians began to
celebrate the birth of Jesus.

The themes of light and hope
were also part of the Christian
celebration, but having found
meaning in the life, death and
resurrection of Jesus, they
celebrated the light of God’s
presence in the world, and the
hope that conquers all forms of
inhumanity, destruction and
even death. The celebrated the
hope that came from the
Unconquered Son.

Today, we have to remind
ourselves that the meaning of
the celebration is not found
primarily in the Nativity scene
and the placing of the baby

Incarnational theology affirms
what we know and experience:
* the greatest gift God has
given us is our humanity, with
its strengths and limits,
because it is only in accepting
our humanity that we can
accept the God who dwells
within.

* that we should take the time
to listen to each others pain
and to offer support.

* that we all need healing and
to be challenged to grow.

* that such growth and healing
can only take place in
situations where genuine
community is being built.

* that God hates our sin as
much as we do, but God loves
us unconditionally.

* that God believes in us and
trusts us more than we believe .
and trust in ourselves and so
has bade us God’s presence

—Rhys Pugh

UNBC has a new
Macintosh
Computer’ Lab.
According to
Computer Lab Co-
ordinator Myron
Gordon, the new 14
computers in room
5-153 are to
“| ..service a
minority
population of the
university—Mac
Users.” The new
IBM-compatible
Power Macintosh
have assorted
games and
Microsoft

Over the Edge Dec 6, 1995 page y |

ARTICLES OF
OPINION

An Anarchist

Christmas
by Paul Berard

Most people believe that Anar-
chists have no beliefs of anything. This
is not so. Anarchy, in its truest form,
is the ability of all people to set their
own code of rules to follow.

For my part, I celebrate Christ-
mas.
Let’s face it. Most holidays are
anarchy in action. Thousands of
people uproot themselves and fly,
walk, swim, drive, or crawl x-million

and power in the world.

* that whenever reconciliation,
forgiveness, tolerance and
unconditional love are made
manifest in our lives, then the
Incarnation is made manifest.

UNBC’s Mac Lab

programs on them,
as well as Netscape
2.0 and UNIX. One
of the advantages of
Macs on the internet
is their higher speed
than UNBC’s IBM’s,
and their ability to
quickly download
audio video images.
When I was in the
lab, some students
-had connected to
Sony Music and
were downloading
clips from Music
Video.

Graduate Student
Bob Campbell says,

miles to see people in far off places or
inhabit mountain lodges to get away
from it all (such lodges are usually
jammed full of people and their junk,
but I suppose its not like home, right?)

Every holiday has a great deal
of anarchy that surrounds it, but
Christmas provides MONTHS of fun ©
and chaos.

Let’s talk shopping!

Ever tried to drive to the mall
around Christmas? It starts the day
after Halloween. The stores pull down
the Halloween displays and Santa’s
happy, cheery, please-buy-me face is
stuck everywhere.

Anarchy IS the Christmas shop-
ping frenzy. Anarely IS everybody
giving once a year, (its also hypocriti-
cal, but hey, at least we DO give some-
time!)

Christmas is about giving and
getting, but the rules are extremely
vogue and unformal as to how one is
to go about it. Yes, Christmas, it is
truely for the Anarchist at heart. May
society continue to embrace our art!

“T like the simplicity
of Macs,” and indeed
their relative ease of
use and speed of
processing are their
great advantages.
On the downside,
though, they cost
approximately twice
as much as a regular
IBM.

UNBC’s new 14
computers (and a
good pi printer) are
located in room 5-
153 and Kenneth
Poon is the Lab
Assistant, so drop in