North Pole Dancers

Published on by D. G. Hart

John Fea’s piece about the War on Christmas reminded me of an entirely new front in that potential conflict. While listening to Philadelphia sports talk radio this morning, a show that my wife wishes I would abandon because of the too frequent banter about the female form, I heard an interview with dancers from a local “gentleman’s” club. They spoke of upcoming attractions — North Pole Dancers — that feature women wearing (and then not wearing) Santa outfits that would put audience members in the “spirit of Christmas.” I understand that the birth of Jesus involved some exposed flesh of both mother and child, but to associate a direct violation of the seventh commandment (sixth for Roman Catholics) with the incarnation is well nigh unfathomable.

It made me wonder if secular Turkish culture would ever stoop so low as to try to capture the “spirit of Ramadan” in strip club events. In many cities in Turkey visitors will find advertisements (and more) for clubs that feature scantily clad women. Turkey is by no means innocent. And perhaps the market forces of Islamo-Calvinism have tempted Turkish entrepreneurs to abuse Islam for the sake of profits. But I find hard to believe that Islam could ever be so domesticated as to allow Turks to confuse something holy with something so profane.

The market forces that underwrite the American Christmas make me think that Pope Francis was on to something. Now if he could only join Reformed Protestants in a call for ending the church calendar.

10 thoughts on “North Pole Dancers”

  1. Dunno where you find or think up these images to accompany your writing, Darryl. You rival drudge for my favorite website! Sorry, I was the kid who just looked at all the pictures of a book without reading, and you know what they say about the more things change..

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  2. Andrew – DGH is a master “instigator” who not only knows how to compose very clever blog threads, but an ever fresh way to push the buttons of the Callers, (Flim and the) Bee-Bees, the GC variants, etc. It’s like having a smattering of all the so-called right wing AM radio critics, the profane sports commentators, and the confessional Reformed rolled into one. You just can’t get this stuff anyplace else.

    Shhhhh – don’t tell anyone, though. We don’t want all of them to stop publishing their vulnerable material.

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  3. George, I’m all for staying on my meds and keeping to our script. I won’t spoil this gravy train if you won’t. It’s just too funny for at least SOMEONE not to acknowledge the same. Can I think up more convoluted sentence than the last? I may need to visit the sites if our favorite cartoon characters for ideas in thst vein..

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  4. Agreeing in a roundabout (“Yes” reference) way, Christmas is about flash, indulgence, superficiality, and consumerism so it makes perfect sense to throw money at Santa Strippers. I hear there’s a sign that says “You May Look at the Ho, but Keep Your Claus Away.”

    Oh, you want a set-apart time to meditate on Christ? You can do that 52 times a year.

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  5. MM – yeah, I go through the same routine this time of year. I usually tell people to find and listen to a YouTube of Yogi Yorgesson’s (Harry Stewart) “I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas” and to get out of my face. Then, for most of December I stay completely away from the malls, order what gifts I absolutely have to on-line, and find agnostic streaming audio radio stations who won’t even play secularized versions of X-mas songs … with the exception of maybe Miles Davis’ masterpiece “Blue Christmas,” written by the talented Bob Dorough (of School House Rock fame for those of you who don’t listen to jazz). Then, when I absolutely HAVE to go to relatives’ houses on that fateful eve, I usually just sit and glare at people as if to say, “Why aren’t you serving me adult beverages??”

    Meanwhile, I privately consume any good material I can find on Advent and the Messianic fulfillment during the month.

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  8. There’s Christmas (nov 1- dec 25,5pm)

    And there’s Christmas (Dec 24, sundown – jan 6, or feb 2).

    It’s easy to separate the two, because they have nothing to do with each other (but hard on the kids to have to explain to their friends we don’t get a tree til Xmas eve). Everyone just thinks we’re Jehovah’s Witnesses

    We celebrate Christmas (and Easter) the same 52 days you do, too.

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  9. Katy – you’re blessed to belong to one of those groups of Christian believers (I’m afraid to use the word “denomination” on this blog site) who follows the liturgical church calendar. I miss that quite a bit.
    While this expository preaching around a single segment of scripture business is a fine thing, it’s a shame that it can’t be combined with worship that follows an ordinary path through redemptive history each year. We can’t hear the same thing repeated over and over again enough.

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