Carl Sagan: TV Evangelist

While he often played the role of scientific high priest, the late Carl Sagan didn't own a set of liturgical vestments.

Thus, he wore his academic regalia as he ascended into the pulpit of New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Oct. 3, 1993, the Feast of St. Francis. The rite for the day -- the ``Missa Gaia (Earth Mass)'' -- included taped cries of wolves and whales and a procession featuring an elephant, a camel, a vulture, a swarm of bees and a bowl of blue-green algae. Musicians sang praises to Ra, Ausar and other gods, as well as to Jehovah.

The astronomer was right at home, weaving threads of science into a mystical litany -- while remaining light years from theism.

"Life fills every nook and cranny of our planet's surface," said Sagan. "There are bacteria in the upper air, jumping spiders at the tops of the highest mountains, sulfur-metabolizing worms in the deep ocean trenches and heat-loving microbes kilometers below the surface of the land. Almost all of these beings are in intimate contact. They eat and drink one another, breathe each other's waste gases, inhabit one another's bodies. ... They have generated a web of mutual dependence and interaction that embraces the planet."

After his death on Dec. 20, Sagan was praised for his work as director of Cornell University's Laboratory for Planetary Studies, as a Pulitzer Prize- winning author and as an apologist for science on public television. He was the rare intellectual who could trade gags with Johnny Carson.

Truth is, Sagan was a talented "TV evangelist," said Robert C. Newman, who, while he has a Cornell doctorate in astrophysics, teaches at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pa. Sagan even opened his most famous programs with an unbeliever's creed: "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be."

"Now, by Sagan's own definition of the methodology of science, this is not a scientific statement. This is a religious statement," said Newman, in a 1981 lecture at Cornell. Sagan could not have researched everything in the past and it's impossible to do lab work in the future. Thus, "the Cosmos is all that is," must be considered a "faith statement," said Newman.

After the Mass at St. John the Divine, I asked Sagan whether his religious views had evolved in recent years. Was he, perhaps, trying to create a kind of modern deism or some fusion of science and Eastern spirituality?

Sagan said that while some of his images may have changed, he continued to reject the notion of a transcendent God that existed outside the world, universe or cosmos.

"I remain inexorably opposed to any kind of revealed religion and reject any talk of a personal god," said Sagan, while posing for news crews with clergy on the cathedral steps. "But millions of people believe in a god that is not that kind of god." Using the classic image of a divine watchmaker, he added: "Some might say, for example, that there is some kind of force or power in the watch -- a set of laws, perhaps. Then the watch creates itself. I'm more comfortable with that kind of language."

In his novel, "Contact," Sagan was very specific about which religions can embrace this concept, and which cannot. In a debate with a Christian, his protagonist explains why she rejects belief in the God of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

"When I say I'm an agnostic, I only mean that the evidence isn't in," says astronomer Eleanor Arroway, who will be played by actress Jodie Foster in an upcoming Hollywood movie. "There isn't compelling evidence that God exists -- at least your kind of god -- and there isn't compelling evidence that he doesn't." By the end of the book, Sagan's heroine accepts that the universe was "made on purpose" and contains evidence of an "artist's signature."

At that point, said Newman, Sagan may have been "dabbling with the concept of a god. ... He may even have been moving toward some form of pantheism. It's hard to tell. What we do know is that he remained totally opposed to the God of the Bible."

Jimmy Carter and the Politics of Sin

In the beginning there was candidate Jimmy Carter, facing waves of reporters demanding an answer to the urgent question: What exactly is a "born-again Christian?"

Most political insiders were shocked to learn that millions of evangelicals, fundamentalists, Pentecostals, charismatics and even some people in historic-church pews fit under this theological umbrella. Most of these folks even planned to vote.

There were more plot twists ahead. The born-again crowd wasn't well organized -- yet. Also, many evangelicals didn't want this particular Southern Baptist in the White House, while others cheered him on. It was all very complex and most journalists acted as if the Martians had landed. The earth moved.

"When I ran in 1976 ... the Moral Majority, so called, Jerry Falwell and them, were not even known. I mean, it was a tiny little movement," said Carter. "Somebody told me, once when I was on the campaign trail, that there was a fellow named Jerry Falwell who was criticizing my Christian beliefs. I didn't know who he was."

Soon, Falwell was on the cover of Time and the media had discovered the Religious Right. Meanwhile, many on the left asked how Carter could mix evangelicalism and politics. Many on the right said his faith wasn't influencing his politics enough.

Today, these debates rage on. While Carter remains a strong supporter of church-state separation, he said he never has understood how anyone can expect politicians to make this kind of division at the personal level. This issue is at the heart of "Living Faith," the former president's introspective new book.

"You can't separate one's own religious faith from your experiences if you're a classroom teacher, or if you're a medical doctor, or if you're a lawyer, or if you have a job in a grocery store," he said. "I never have found any serious disharmony between my own religious faith, which has fluctuated during my lifetime in its sincerity or fervency, ... (and) with my responsibilities as a senator, or governor or president."

Nevertheless, Carter's 11th book contains many references to the religious tensions that shaped his years in the White House and afterwards -- from his chat with Playboy about sexual temptation to theological lessons learned in Middle East diplomacy. He also discusses his agonizing internal debates over abortion, his military career and other issues of life and death.

It will surprise no one that "Living Faith" includes many criticisms of the Religious Right. Obviously, Carter said he doesn't mind that Christians have become more politically active. But he does worry that some evangelical superstars appear to have become more interested in government policies than in asking people to repent of their sins. For example, many act as if homosexuality is the single greatest problem facing America, while avoiding sins -- statistically -- affect many more people in church pews.

For example, writes Carter, "almost all Protestants, including those allied with the Christian Right, will now acknowledge divorce as an acceptable choice for unhappy couples, and they rarely speak out against `fornication' or adultery, although Jesus repeatedly condemned these acts." He notes that the church has fallen silent on other lifestyle issues that threaten millions, such as "smoking, improper diet, lack of exercise, sexual promiscuity, carelessness with firearms and driving while intoxicated."

It may actually be easier for religious leaders to avoid clarity today than it is for politicians -- who are finding it harder and harder to hide. Carter found it especially ironic that Pat Robertson choose to publicly address some of the moral and ethical issues in his own life when he ran for president in 1988. Apparently, no such clarifications were needed when he was merely a powerful Christian broadcaster and educator.

It's important for Christians to be active in the public square, said Carter. But it's even more important for believers to face tough issues in their private lives.

"We are all," stressed Carter, "inclined as human beings to condemn people who commit sins of which we are not guilty. That's human nature."n the beginning there was candidate Jimmy Carter, facing waves of reporters demanding an answer to the urgent question: What exactly is a "born-again Christian?"

Most political insiders were shocked to learn that millions of evangelicals, fundamentalists, Pentecostals, charismatics and even some people in historic-church pews fit under this theological umbrella. Most of these folks even planned to vote.

There were more plot twists ahead. The born-again crowd wasn't well organized -- yet. Also, many evangelicals didn't want this particular Southern Baptist in the White House, while others cheered him on. It was all very complex and most journalists acted as if the Martians had landed. The earth moved.

It's important for Christians to be active in the public square, said Carter. But it's even more important for believers to face tough issues in their private lives.

"We are all," stressed Carter, "inclined as human beings to condemn people who commit sins of which we are not guilty. That's human nature."

Oil, Blood, Money and Ink

Moments after celebrating the 70th anniversary of the first Chinese bishops consecrated in Rome, John Paul II delivered an emotional message to his suffering flock in China.

The underground church is a "precious pearl," he said, in a Dec. 3 broadcast into China on Manila's Radio Veritas. The pope praised the 6 million or more who refuse to surrender and join "a church that corresponds neither to the will of Christ, nor to the Catholic faith."

This was a clear reference to China's state-run Catholic Patriotic Association and the latest sign that John Paul won't surrender in China or Hong Kong. Still, his words drew little media attention. Few U.S. publications have much room, today, for international news and religion news remains a low priority. Thus, it would be hard to name a subject with less journalistic sex appeal than religion news on the other side of the world.

Meanwhile, China is cracking down -- closing many secret parishes and jailing clergy, including at least four bishops. Last fall, reports circulated about more attacks on China's 60 million or more underground evangelicals, while officials circulated a wanted list of 4,000 illegal pastors.

"It's hard to get precise numbers. ... But all the reports agree: more Christians are in jail in China because of their faith than in any other nation in the world," said Jeff Taylor of Compass Direct, a news service that covers global religious issues.

Recently, he noted, his Hong Kong reporter showed a Chinese leader a Far East Economic Review cover that said "God is Back." The Beijing official replied, off the record: "If God had the face of a 70-year-old man, we wouldn't care if he was back. But he has the face of millions of 20-year-olds, so we are very worried."

The China crisis was one of many in 1996. Christians were slaughtered in Indonesia and East Timor, where Catholic Bishop Carlos Filip Ximenes Belo was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Yet another Protestant leader was murdered in Iran. The slave trade continued in Sudan. Terrorists kept killing Catholic priests in Algeria. In Kuwait, Christians remained in hiding.

The oil keeps flowing from many of these nations, mixed with blood. Markets are growing, and so are the graveyards. What this story needs is a political hook to yank it into the headlines.

Last year, a coalition of religious conservatives and human rights activists convinced Congress to hold hearings on religious persecution. This year, the subject may surface in confirmation hearings for Secretary of State-nominee Madeline Albright. Also, Republicans may ask about the persecution of Christians in China and Indonesia, while digging into White House fundraising efforts among that region's amoral entrepreneurs.

But words are no longer enough, said conservative Jewish activist Michael Horowitz. It's time to pass laws similar to those used against the former Soviet Union in the 1980s. Clues to the shape of this legislation can be seen in a 1996 "Statement of Conscience" by the National Association of Evangelicals, which called for:

-- "Public acknowledgment of today's widespread and mounting anti-Christian persecution," including a presidential address, the appointment of a White House advisor on the issue and detailed rules for U.S. diplomats on how to deal with persecution claims.

-- "More fully documented and less politically edited" reports from the State Department's Human Rights Bureau. Human rights officers could, for example, be required to research claims of persecution, rather than choosing an "option of silence" in their annual reports.

-- Cessation of the Immigration and Naturalization Service's "indifferent," "occasionally hostile" and often unreported handling of asylum petitions by refugees fleeing religious persecution.

-- And, finally, the "termination of non-humanitarian foreign assistance to countries that fail to take vigorous action to end anti-Christian or other religious persecution."

"We're not talking about utopia," said Horowitz, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. "In the 1980s, no one could stand up and vote in favor of persecuting Soviet Jews. That's what has to happen now, if we're going to stop China and these other regimes from murdering and torturing Christians."

Top 10 1996 Religion News Stories

Black churches were burning and many pundits, politicos and preachers agreed that Southern racists -- perhaps even radical Christian conservatives -- were waging a campaign of "domestic terrorism."

"It an epidemic. It's a pattern that's very clear," said JoAnn Watson of the Center for Democratic Renewal, in an Associated Press report. At the peak of the media storm, President Clinton joined the chorus, praising the National Council of Churches and like- minded groups that were gearing up to fight the armies of the past. Meanwhile, conservative religious groups received a chilly response when they offered to help rebuild black churches.

Before long, researchers dug deeper and found that church fires were sadly commonplace and the numbers didn't seem to be rising rapidly. Also, racism rarely was the motive, even in arson cases. Most of the vandals were rebellious teens or, in a few cases, headline-hungry copycats and they hit white churches as often, or more often, than black churches.

And so the arguments began. Everyone seemed to agree this story was important, but few could agree on why. Was the national response to these church fires evidence of entrenched racism or of the power of stereotypes? Either way, members of the Religion Newswriters Association of America have selected the 1996 church fires as the year's top religion story.

The second-ranked story was the death of Chicago Cardinal Joseph Bernardin and his remarkable burst of work in his final days. In addition to his last efforts to defend the sanctity of life, he also began yet another attempt to bridge the divide between traditional and progressive Catholics in the United States. The nation's religion news specialists also selected Bernardin as the religion newsmaker of the year.

In the past, the ballot in this end-of-the-year poll has included as many as 50 events and trends. This year's list was only 14 items long and, as a result, many major events and trends were omitted -- including a burst of media interest in book of Genesis and clashes between various religious and political groups over same-sex marriages. I cast my top vote for another story that did not even appear on the ballot -- a stark series of congressional hearings focusing on religious persecution around the world.

The other eight events in the RNA's 1996 list were:

(3) Religious ministries for men continue to grow nationwide -- led by the Promise Keepers movement, with its growing emphasis on racial reconciliation.

(4) The Religious Right, especially the Christian Coalition, plays a major role in national and primary elections. Also, progressive evangelicals and other religious groups on the political left begin new efforts to form their own grassroots networks, such as the Interfaith Alliance.

(5) Speculation increases about the future of three "aging icons" of modern Christianity -- Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa and evangelist Billy Graham. Each faced health crises during the year, while continuing to serve as effective public leaders.

(6) Benjamin Netanyahu is elected prime minister of Israel, with the strong support of the ultra-Orthodox and other voters who told pollsters that they feared their nation was losing its Jewish identity. This highlighted growing tensions between the Orthodox and more secular Jews in Israel and around the world.

(7) Courts strengthen the movement to legalize physician- assisted suicide, creating more clashes between religious groups.

(8) An Episcopal Church court rules that the denomination has no "core doctrine" on marriage and sex. Thus, the panel of bishops dismisses charges against retired Bishop Walter C. Righter, who had ordained a noncelibate gay man.

(9) The Southern Baptist Convention votes to consider boycotting the Walt Disney Co., inspiring the Assemblies of God and several other conservative groups to protest the policies and products one of the world's most powerful media companies.

(10) Pope John Paul II says that the theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis. The pope also says he believes it would be more accurate to discuss "theories of evolution" and he criticizes those who deny that God played an active role in creation.

Tis the Season for Movies

Ebenezer Scrooge repents, George Bailey is born again and Kevin McCallister says his prayers, pounds two burglars and helps heal a neighbor's tortured soul.

It's Christmas at the movies.

Elsewhere in the mall that is America, the Starship Enterprise saves humanity, again, Cruella De Vil chases the latest incarnation of 101 Dalmatians and this year's workaholic Dad -- Arnold Schwarzenegger as a muscular sequel to Tim Allen -- searches for his inner child.

This, too, is Christmas at the movies.

It's that magic season when Americans have time and money to splurge at the multiplex. Still, it's hard to ignore that it's Christmas, which many still associate with faith and family. The result: movies that define "Christmas spirit" as family-friendly fun, with a dash of lowest-common-denominator spirituality. Throw in some snow, twinkling lights, a hint of the supernatural and at least one reference to Christmas and the package is complete.

"I think Hollywood concedes that it's good if, at the end of a Christmas movie, people are left with some kind of vague, warm glow," said Michael Medved, film critic for the New York Post. "People are supposed to hug at the end of Christmas movies, as opposed to collapsing from sheer exhaustion, like at the end of summer movies."

While it's easy to name some movies that are, in fact, about Christmas, there is remarkably little religious content in the films released during this season, said film critic and historian Leonard Maltin of Entertainment Tonight.

"I think of the words `big,' `expensive' and `family,' in about that order," he said. "The closest you get to religion in most Christmas movies is a reaffirmation of the Golden Rule. You know, love your neighbor, have a little faith, good will towards men and all of that. ... It's not going to get deeper than that, because we're talking about the mass market."

Yet almost every year, someone will go one step further -- beyond "holiday" or "Christmas" movie status -- and try to say something about the meaning of the season.

This year's entry is "The Preacher's Wife," a remake of a 1947 classic "The Bishop's Wife." The film's stars have made a concerted effort to signal that this isn't your typical Hollywood take on spirituality.

Courtney Vance, who plays the preacher, was baptized shortly before filming began. Superstar Denzel Washington, who plays the dapper angel, Dudley, told reporters he did his scriptural homework beforehand. "Yes, I believe in God and the Bible," said Washington, the son of a Pentecostal pastor. "I believe we all have angel potentiality as well. There's all kinds of angels that are talked about in the Bible." And singer Whitney Houston, who plays his wife, told Aspire magazine that the movie's gospel music had an impact. "I truly believe the Holy Spirit came down and took over because I saw people on the set affected -- people you never dreamed would be touched -- crying and sobbing," she said.

Nevertheless, director Penny Marshall clearly avoided offensive doctrinal specifics. "This isn't a film about Jesus. It's about the importance of family and community. It has a fable quality. It's very magical," she told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Traditional Christians who see this film, and Hollywood's other vaguely spiritual offerings, can react in one of two ways, said Phil Boatwright, Jr., editor of the Movie Reporter newsletter. They can be offended, noting that legions of movie characters spout the name of Jesus in curses, while folks in "The Preacher's Wife" can't even seem to speak the J-word in church. Or, viewers can be thankful that some movie makers now acknowledge that there's more to life than sex, money, cars and guns.

"It isn't Hollywood's job to preach. What Hollywood can do is get us to think, maybe even think about spiritual issues," said Boatwright. "Still, Christmas is supposed to be somebody's birthday. ... If you're going to make movies about Christmas, you can either deal with that reality or you can leave that out, which makes it pretty obvious that you don't want to deal with it."

Yes, Christmas is 12 Days Long

No doubt about it, 25 minus 12 does equal 13.

Christmas is Dec. 25th. Lovers of carols and party games also know this season has 12 days, packed with pears, gold rings, birds and various kinds of gentry, musicians and domestic workers.

Do the math. It's easy to see why many leaders of newspapers, television networks, shopping malls and other cultural fortresses annually deliver some kind of "Twelve Days Of Christmas" blitz beginning on Dec. 13.

But there's a problem. There really are 12 days of Christmas and, for centuries, church calendars in the East and West have agreed that they begin on Christmas and end on Jan. 6, the Feast of the Epiphany.

"Somebody needs to teach Bryant Gumbel and all the other Powers That Be some church history. They keep getting it wrong," said Father Patrick Henry Reardon, a philosophy professor and priest at St. Anthony's Orthodox Church in Butler, Pa. "If saying that upsets people, so be it. Orthodoxy has been in the business of upsetting people for centuries. ... But there isn't a bit of doubt that the 12 days of Christmas come after Dec. 25."

Journalism's bible -- the Associated Press Stylebook -- is agnostic on this matter. It merely notes that Christmas is a federal holiday observed on Dec. 25 or on "Friday if Dec. 25 falls on a Saturday, on Monday if it falls on a Sunday." There are no entries for the penitential season of Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas, or Epiphany.

The latter feast -- the name means "manifestation" -- probably began in the second century. In the East, this initially included references to the birth of Jesus, along with other signs of the incarnation. Meanwhile, the Western church in Rome developed its own Nativity feast and timed it, for various reasons, to co-opt the date used for pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice or the feast of Sol Invictus, the "Unconquered Sun."

A sermon by St. John Chrysostom in 386 A.D. notes that the East had recently begun celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 and, about the same time, the West adopted Epiphany. This liturgical exchange created a 12-day celebration, a sacred and secular festival after the quiet season of Advent, or "Winter Lent." However, note that Advent does include one festive date -- the Dec. 6 feast honoring St. Nicholas of Myra.

Different cultures celebrated in different ways, but the basic season -- Advent, Christmas and Epiphany -- remained intact. The Protestant Reformation complicated matters and, in the New World of America, the Puritans actually banned Christmas celebrations. Later, waves of immigrants arrived with their religious traditions, especially Italian Catholics and German Lutherans. But this did little to change the civic and commercial nature of the American season. Another pivotal event was the 1822 publication of "A Visit From St. Nicholas," written by a Clement Clarke Moore, a powerful New York Episcopalian.

"Actually, the Dutch already had brought us a secularized St. Nicholas and everything that went along with him," said Evelyn Vitz of New York University, author of "A Continual Feast," a cookbook and theological commentary on the Christian calendar. "But you throw in this amazing mythology created by Moore's poem -- this kind of jolly, pagan elf up on the roof -- and ... you end up with an entire season that has been commercialized and stripped of its larger Christian context."

The big question: What can parents and churches do? Meditations on centuries of Christian tradition can easily be drowned out by the clamor of popular culture. Americans clearly prefer the rites of Madison Avenue to those of Rome or Jerusalem.

"We live in this culture. Our children live in this culture. We can fight, I guess," said Vitz. "We can go so far that we make everybody in our families so miserable that they want to quit being Christians. But it is clear that we can't accept business as usual. We need to recapture a sense of time and a sense of the sacred. We can start by insisting that the church's calendar really matters."

Bakker's Other Conspiracy

It's impossible to tell Jim Bakker's story without mentioning his conspiracy theories.

The former PTL leader has always felt that people were conspiring against him -- especially journalists, politicians and judges. After the 1987 collapse of his empire, he said he had been betrayed by other televangelists.

Naturally, Bakker adds variations on these themes in his tell- all memoir, "I Was Wrong." But one of its most intriguing details is evidence of yet another conspiracy that he doesn't want to discuss. Note this angry passage in Bakker's remarks as he resigned as PTL's president.

"I sorrowfully acknowledge that seven years ago ... I was wickedly manipulated by treacherous former friends and colleagues who victimized me with the aid of a female confederate," he said. "They conspired to betray me into a sexual encounter at a time of great stress in my marital life. ... I was set up as part of a scheme to co-opt me and obtain some advantage for themselves over me in connection with their hope for position in the ministry."

In other words, the first domino at PTL was a scheme that preceded Bakker's 1980 sexual liaison with Jessica Hahn, a conspiracy within his inner circle that preceded "Pearlygate." Yet Bakker has nothing new to say about these "friends and colleagues" and their scheme. In particular, he downplays the role of the bisexual evangelist John Wesley Fletcher, who arranged the tryst with Hahn, and he hardly mentions James and David Taggart, the brothers who many claim controlled Bakker in his final PTL years.

In his book, Bakker confesses many sins. He repents of his "health and wealth" theology, saying he sinfully twisted scripture. He offers 647 pages of near-stream-of-consciousness details about lessons he learned during his trial, divorce and prison years. But he continues to avoid some questions.

"For most Pentecostal and charismatic people, the most serious questions about Jim Bakker were all those allegations of moral misconduct. ... People haven't forgotten that," said historian Vinson Synan of Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. "There does appear to have been a kind of subterranean, homosexual world inside PTL that has never been fully described. That's where so many questions remain."

Many of the questions center on Fletcher. In addition to his ties to Hahn, it was Fletcher who made anonymous calls in 1983 spreading dirt about Bakker. One of those calls went to me, when I was working as a religion writer in Charlotte, N.C., and I later shared my information with reporter Charles E. Shepard, author of "Forgiven: The Rise and Fall of Jim Bakker and the PTL Ministry." Years later, Shepard confirmed that Fletcher was my mystery caller.

Fletcher mentioned Hahn by name in 1983 and also said David Taggart was Bakker's lover. Fletcher was bitter and said Bakker had failed to keep promises and had forsaken him during tough times. But Fletcher did not, during those calls, say what he later said during the "Pearlygate" media storm -- that he, too, had been sexually involved with Bakker.

"I never knew a more corrupt person in my life, period, than Jim Bakker," Fletcher told me. "Now I see him for what he is."

Today, those at the Massapequa (N.Y.) Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, where Fletcher preached in the early '90s, refuse to answer questions -- merely saying that he recently passed away. Tabloid reports said he suffered from AIDS.

The key: Did Fletcher try to manipulate Bakker to gain power at PTL, starting a chain reaction? Or did Bakker betray Fletcher?

"I Was Wrong" neither asks nor answers this question. On the homosexuality issue, Bakker does include a chapter saying that, as a teen, he was molested -- for several years -- by a young man he knew at church. This left Bakker confused about his own sexual identity and he said that while in prison he sought, and received, assurances from a counselor that he isn't gay.

And so the story continues, with Bakker attempting a comeback as a humbled counselor for those who face pain in their own lives. Yet he clearly knows that his return is threatened more by the ghosts of his complicated sexual past than by the legal demons that sent him to prison.

Hanukkah's Alight with Ironies

It was a simple, if mischievous, way to open one of those holiday stories that religion reporters write year after year: "It's beginning to look a lot like Hanukkah."

The rest of my story focused on the history of Hanukkah and the modern trends that have turned this minor holiday into one of Judaism's most important dates.

The telephone began ringing with a vengeance. Some devout Jews never made it past the first sentence and thought I was siding with those who promote Hanukkah as a "Jewish Christmas." Others thought the whole article attacked anyone who wanted to hitch a ride on the train that merchants and bureaucrats call "The Holidays."

The first group of callers stressed the message and traditions of the eight-day "Festival of Lights," which begins at sundown on Thursday (Dec. 5). The latter emphasized the reality of what it has become. Today, Hanukkah is alight with irony.

"The link with Christmas has been made and there's not much that we can do about it," said Niv Bleich, president of the on-line Jewish Communications Network (www.jcn18.com). "It's the old chicken and the egg situation and it doesn't really matter which came first. The big question now is, `What are we going to do?'"

The bottom line: How many Jews want to keep a distinctively Jewish spark alive in this season, as opposed to marching to the mall with everyone else?

The holiday in question isn't even mentioned in Hebrew scriptures. Hanukkah is based on events in 165 B.C., when Jewish rebels, led by the Maccabees, defeated their Greek and Syrian oppressors. The rite of lighting menorah candles -- one on the first day, increasing to eight -- is based on a miracle linked with this victory. Tradition says that when it came time to purify the recaptured temple, only one container of ritually pure oil could be found for its eternal flame. This one-day supply is said to have burned for eight days.

Thus, Hanukkah teaches that Jews must defend the purity of their faith, rather than heed the siren call of the dominant culture. This is a troubling message in the age of Hanukkah bushes and children pleading for taller and taller stacks of presents.

The Jewish Communication Network offers some tongue-in-cheek "Hanukkah Carols" that capture some of these paradoxes, complete with titles such as "On the First Day of Hanukkah" and "I'm Dreaming of a Bright Menorah." The inevitable "Maccabees are Coming to Town" includes these lines: "You'd best be a Jew, or suffer your fate. It does no good to assimilate. Maccabees are coming to town. They know if you're Assyrian. They know if you dig Greeks. They see you on the temple mount, consorting with Hellenistic freaks."

From there, it's only a few clicks to the on-line Jewish Mall (www.jewishmall.com), which offers everything from traditional gifts to UFO dreidels and ceramic-baseball menorahs. The site opened on Nov. 13 and one of the first large orders was from South Korea, said Bleich.

"This isn't for the Jews in New York or Brooklyn. They have a store right around the corner," he said. "But lots of Jews don't live in places like that, anymore. They can't find what they need at their local mall."

Nevertheless, there must be more to Hanukkah than different gift options, said Yosef Abramowitz, editor of Jewish Family & Life! (www.jewishfamily.com). It's important that children go to the mall -- to buy items for the poor. It's important for Jews to network with others who are striving to stay faithful. It's important that parents fight behind the scenes or co-opt modern fads to serve old causes. The times may demand Maccabean tactics.

"But let's be honest. These kinds of strategies will only appeal to a minority," he said. "Only a small percentage of Jews, and I imagine this is also true of Christians, are living lives that have much to do with the actual traditions and teachings of their faith. ... That's especially obvious this time of year."

Stay? Leave? Mainline Tensions, Pt. II

Jim Pinto was hooked on drugs and shacked up with his girlfriend when his life was changed by a soul-shaking conversion experience.

So he quit his job as a bartender, got married and went to tell his local bishop that God wanted him to become an Episcopal priest. This was 1977 and, since Pinto lived in New Jersey, that meant visiting the Rt. Rev. John Shelby Spong.

"I told him all about the miracles that God had done in my life," said Pinto, recalling his encounter with a bishop now known as a global trendsetter among liberal Protestants. "He looked at me and, I'll never forget it, he said: `I believed like you do when I was a little boy. But I grew up.'"

Pinto found another diocese. But he never forgot Spong's warning that he wouldn't be at home in the Episcopal Church.

A few weeks ago, Pinto and most of his interracial church near Birmingham, Ala., decided it was time to go. Christ Church is located in an impoverished neighborhood and had 30 members when Pinto arrived in 1980. Recently, its 300 members completed constructing $2 million worth of buildings to house their work with the poor. The Diocese of Alabama kept the buildings, which is business as usual when a church leaves a mainline denomination.

Pinto is known as a moral traditionalist, including high- profile work in crusades against abortion. So it wasn't a surprise that this priest left a church whose national leaders promote progressive theology and social causes such as homosexual and abortion rights. What caught many off guard was the setting for this story. It isn't news when a traditionalist exits a liberal diocese. This one jumped ship in the Bible Belt.

As described in last week's column, the "seven sisters" of old-line Protestantism face issues more complex than national clashes between left and right. Some parts of the American Baptist Churches, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church are more conservative or more progressive than others. Tensions also exist between local conservatives who clash with liberal regional leaders and between conservatives who differ on how to respond to national trends.

People in orthodox regions are affected by events in progressive regions. People camped in orthodox regions are touched by the decisions of the orthodox who feel trapped in progressive regions. This tune has countless variations.

Some stress hope, others holiness. This painful tension keeps growing as the ecclesiastical pie shrinks.

"We're trying to get people to stay and fight for the faith, rather than walking out and handing things over to the people who want to change everything," said David Stanley, a layman in Muscatine, Iowa, who has been active at all levels of United Methodist life. "We have to keep asking: Does God still have a propose for our church? If he does, then God must be planning to revive our church. We have to have faith that is still possible."

Others stress the sacred ties that bind -- here and now. Week after week, Pinto found himself trying to explain why the Gospel preached in his church differs so radically from that proclaimed by progressives such as Spong. It's all one church, one communion, gathered at one altar, stressed Pinto.

Nevertheless, it's hard to make painful choices about local realities, such as paychecks and property laws, based on decisions in national bureaucracies or even ancient church councils. But, sooner or later, everyone will face choices.

At the moment, many local churches are like airplanes, said Pinto. Even if the planes work fine, and most of the pilots are trustworthy, thousands of passengers remain at risk.

"The problem is with the air-traffic controllers, with the people who run the whole Episcopal Church," he said. "They no longer seem to care when planes keep crashing into each other or flying into mountains. ... Things are out of control because the people in the planes can't trust the people in the control tower."