Our Christmas 'Bedlam' Is A Far Cry From Its Origin, Peaceful Little 'Bethlehem'

Taupo Times, Volume 19, Issue 98, 17 December 1970, Page 5 (Supplement)

Our Christmas 'Bedlam' Is A Far Cry From Its Origin, Peaceful Little

'Bethlehem'

Carols blaring forth from stores' loudspeakers on a busy shopping street . . . mixed and mingling to a near cacaphony. Corner Santa Clauses in many shapes and sizes ringing . . . tolling their bells, on street corners. The noise of rock-and-roll from passing carradios. Shoppers, mostly youngsters, strolling by, a glazed look on their faces as they listen, rapt, to their pocket transistor radios. The clatter of the "el" . . . the honking of impa-

tient horns, the roar of the subway trains, the shrill call of children, the noise, the noise . . . the Bedlam of Christmas in a large American city, the year of our Lord, 1968. A far cry from the beginnings of Christmas, in a little town of Bethlehem, almost 2000 years ago . . . Later, in the 13th century in London, England, a hospital was built for care for the ill and indigent of the teeming city (even in the 13th century London had masses of people) . The Hospital was called St. Mary of Bethlehem. With the passing centuries the hospital became an asylum for the insane

(using terms applicable to the times). Familiarity with the word "Bethlehem" had blurred the name until it was known as "Bethlem." By the time of Shake-

1 speare the place was a horror, a symbol of abject squalor and inhumanity to the unfortunate who were consigned to its regions.

It was to take centuries more for men to regard mental illness as indeed an illness, not a condition which was the work of the Devil. In the 16th century Bedlam was not a hospital administering healing to the suffering, it was a hell-hole where the inmates became lost, where their condition infinitely worsened by the cruelest neglect and abuse. St. Mary must have wept ! As we of the 20th century move into this holy Season, let us keep in mind how, many, many years ago Bethlehem was corrupted into Bedlam, how the unearthly peace of that little town in Judea was mocked with agoniz-

ing conditions of man. Let us remember the true Bethlehem, its real meaning, where long ago a star shone, a Child was born and angels sang of peace on earth and good will toward all men. Let us turn again to that true meaning.