On BBC Radio 4?s Today programme this morning, they were covering the extraordinary events of ninety years ago, Christmas Day 1914, in the No-Man?s-Land between the trenches in World War I.
In the first Christmas of that terrible war some British and German soldiers, close enough in their trenches to hear each other, began to sing carols and call out to their opponents. Soldiers ventured over the parapets and met with their enemies, laughing and joking, sharing songs, even exchanging gifts. They spent Christmas day acting out the real spirit of Christmas. Famously, in places, they even organised football matches.
It was a never-to-be-repeated event. High command, on both sides, were appalled and outraged at the spontaneous fraternisation and saw the loss of ?proper military spirit? as a catastrophe. Orders were issued to the men to return to their lines, and measures were put in place to ensure that no such outbreak of goodwill could ever recur in future Christmases. Neither did it.
I listened to the whole program, fascinated.
Did you ever, in your congregation, hear of someone, or some family, who enjoyed a spontaneous outbreak of good sense and decency ?
Maybe that young couple with the disfellowshipped parents, who allowed - for a time - a thawing of the cold war, letting nanny and granddad spend time with the kids, even spending more time themselves with them than was strictly necessary?
Or the parent of, say, a talented teenager, who figured that it wouldn?t maybe be so terrible if his musically gifted child was allowed to develop their talent at college ? ?so long as she keeps up her hours in service!?
Whenever the loss of proper militaristic ?theocratic spirit? occurred, and there was a spontaneous outbreak of common sense and reasonableness - how did High Command in the congregation react?
You know the answer. The examples given above, or the single mother who ?saw no harm? in buying a birthday present for her child, or the brother who allowed his son to socialise with the perfectly decent (non-witness) family next door ? all these people end up getting counselled for their ?weakness?.
High Control requires constant effort and vigilance on the part of High Command.
Let them take an inch, and before you know if, you?ve lost them for good.
After the events of Christmas 1914, the British and German army top brass never made that same mistake again with their men.
My wish for the coming year is that the basic, inbuilt human impulse to good sense, kindness, and a balanced sense of proportion will continue to seep through among the millions of decent Jehovah?s Witnesses, and corrode from within the harsh and dehumanising control structures of the Watchtower Society.
Merry Christmas to all friends here on the forum.
Duncan.