Beer for the Baby Jesus

Now, Religion In The News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from The Baptist Press, November 26, 2004, with the headline, “Lots of Six-packs for the Baby Jesus.—An Australian beer company is offering six cases of beer for the safe return of the Baby Jesus figure that belongs in its traditional nativity scene. Officials at the South Australian Brewing Company, which sits along the River Torrens in Adelaide, said security tape shows a man climbing a fence and lifting the Baby Jesus from the manger that has been part of the brewery’s Christmas display for 45 years. The Christmas riverbank display has been an icon event in South Australia, and this is the first time that anything of this kind has happened. Mark Powell, managing director for the brewery told The Australian, ‘We are very concerned about the wellbeing of Baby Jesus. We are calling for his swift and safe return.’”

Tom: Dave, you’re giving me one of those looks like “Where did you dig THAT up?” Now, now, now think about this. I do have a criteria, all right? It’s seasonal, all right?

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: It has religious content…

Dave: Mm…

Tom: …and so on. It’s, people think it’s important enough to, I mean, this is The Australian, this is an international story, I got it off The Baptist Press, so they thought it important enough, and if you think this is a little bit over the top, I mean, you tend to think that about some of these things that I bring up, next week, and I want our listeners to get ready for this, we’re going to talk about, and I’m serious here, the grilled-cheese sandwich that looked like Mother Teresa that an organization, which I’ll reveal next week, bought for $25,000 and has it on display.

Dave: Uh, you’re sure it wasn’t the Virgin Mary…

Tom: No…

Dave: …on the grilled cheese?

Tom: This is Mother Teresa.

Dave: Mother Teresa.

Tom: Yeah.

Dave: Oh.

Tom: Well, anyway, let’s not jump ahead…

Dave: Okay.

Tom: Let’s, let’s address this. This is important. An Australian beer company has a manger scene; you see any inconsistencies there, or is this just all part of people’s spirituality?

Dave: Well, Ruth and I were just in Adelaide in September, 2 ½ months ago. I don’t recall driving by the South Australian Brewing Company, and certainly, they probably didn’t have their…

Tom: Manger scene.

Dave: …nativity scene…

Tom: Yeah, would have been a little early…

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: Although it’s getting earlier and earlier, year after year.

Dave: But, you know, I don’t see why a brewing company can’t have a nativity scene if they want to! Now, in the US, they would probably be criticized for having a …. Aren’t we kind of doing away with nativity scenes, at least on public property? Of course, if this was their private property, I guess they…

Tom: Right.

Dave: …could do that. But, their concern about the wellbeing of Baby Jesus makes me wonder whether these are Roman Catholics.

Tom: Well…

Dave: They might…

Tom: They offered six cases of beer for its safe return. There’s… so you can see it was a priority for them.

Dave: Yeah.

Tom: (laughing) I can’t believe this!

Dave: But, but Tom, uh, Catholics, they have Baby Jesuses all over the world. I’ll never forget being in France, and I was speaking at a conference, and Ruth and I went into a cathedral, I forget the city now, beautiful stained-glass windows, and there was a depiction on the stained-glass window. Now, not too often they do this, but sometimes, there’s a scene of Jesus and Mary in heaven and then the poor souls in purgatory down below in the flames…

Tom: Mm-hmm, crying out.

Dave: …crying out for help! And they were not crying out to Jesus. It said, “Marie, sauvez-nous! Mother Mary, save us!” Why were they crying out to Mary for help? Because Jesus was… not a baby, He was about 5 years old, I would say, 4 or 5 years old, between Mary’s knees, standing there in heaven. Now, only Catholics could come up with that, because they believe that this little wafer is actually Jesus, although Jesus is in a glorified, resurrected body at the Father’s right hand, they think they can turn this wafer into Jesus so that He will suffer again, you know, be immolated, or you know that at Fatima, Portugal, there, where we’ve also visited, along with Our Lady of Fatima, a little Baby Jesus came floating on a cloud of light and said there would never be peace in this world until the world was dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of His mother, Mary. Of course, she has her peace plan and so forth. So, I wonder why they’re concerned for Baby Jesus; it really isn’t Baby Jesus, because Jesus is no longer a baby. Now, they’re depicting something from the past, but about the wellbeing? Well, if it’s a little doll or something, couldn’t they get another one for less than the six packs of beer would cost? I…I don’t know…

Tom: Six cases, Dave!

Dave: I’m sorry, for less than six cases of beer would cost. I don’t know what a case of beer costs.

Tom: Well, Dave, this is part of the problem, is that the world has taken us over. They’ve made advertisements, they’ve made…

Dave: Right.

Tom: Inducements to buy products with all of this kind of thing – let’s go back to the Scriptures. The incarnation, the virgin birth, Jesus born in Bethlehem, fulfilling prophecy, and so on. This is truth according to the Word of God. But the things that concern us, which you just articulated, are now we have these historic events that took place in fulfillment of prophecy, now they’re distorted. You mentioned the infant Jesus, a holy card that I had as a youth, as a Roman Catholic youth—The Infant of Prague,” Jesus as an infant, and the concept there is that, Jesus, yes, you wanted to look to Jesus, but His mother was really the one calling the shots. His mother was the one that was in control here. The Madonna and the Child, that’s what that’s all about, Dave.

Dave: And, Tom, this infant, like many others, there are infants all over the world, they pray to this infant.

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: They actually believe that this little image they have, a little image of an infant, this—you have a picture on this card…

Tom: Mm-hmm.

Dave: …and they had a doll, the Baby Jesus of Prague, you know. But, they’re all over the world, so how many different Jesuses are there? And Jesus is not a baby anymore, and yet they pray to the Baby Jesus. Tom, it seems that anything except the crucified, resurrected, glorified Christ, who paid the full penalty for our sins—they will go for that, but not the truth of the Word of God.

Now, a beer company, you know, I’ve got some pictures. I have a liquor store—since after 9-11, you know, everyone was saying, “God bless America.” I have a liquor store with a big sign out in front: “God Bless America.” I have a picture of an adult movie place, you know, with naked dancing girls and so forth, and they’ve got “God Bless America” out in front. It’s something, I guess, that businesses want to latch onto in order to get some more customers, but I don’t think this is what God wants, and it certainly is not going to make any points with Him.

Tom: Yeah, and that’s part of the delusion, Dave. Many do think, “Hey, if I make this overture to God, I’ll get blessed.”