Reprinted from Why ‘The Muppet Christmas Carol’ Is a Radical Christian Classic
By Mitchell Atencio – sojo.net – Dec 12, 2022
[Ken Gray] Coming off our recent radio-play production of A Christmas Carol, I decided it was time to watch the Muppet’ 1992 adaptation of the classic Dickens tale.
Upon release, the film was variously reviled and celebrated by critics and audiences alike. That said, it has grown in critical acclaim over the years, attracting a cult following, and was declared “the greatest Christmas film ever made” as well as “among the most glorious of all Dickens adaptations” by The Guardian in 2023. The Wikipedia article is worth a careful browse. I for one really enjoyed the musical adaptations including Caine’s singing. Much of the text is identical with that of our radio play. It was fun to see how the film responded to cues I recognized; I almost found myself reaching for a nearby keyboard.
I was inspired by an article by Mitchell Atencio of the Washington DC-based Sojourners Community. Admittedly, Atencio’s comments are a bit “Bernie Sanders visits the Cratchits” feel to it. Still Atencio offers some potent reasons to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol instead other more traditional versions. Agree? Disagree? Let me know.
[Mitchell Atencio – edited for length]
- “Even the vegetables don’t like him.” —Townsperson
In the opening number of the film, we see the town decry the evils of their main exploiter, Ebenezer Scrooge (Caine), i.e., Mr. Humbug, Mr. Grim. In the Muppet version, every creature in the town — from horses and heads of lettuce to housecats and “meeces” (a poor family of mice) — decry the cruelty of their capitalist overlord who “charges folks a fortune / For his dark and drafty houses.”
This mirrors the biblical text, which tells us that not only does creation reveal and proclaim the glory of God, but that “the whole creation has been groaning together as it suffers together the pains of labor,” (Romans 8:22).
As Lisa Sharon Harper writes, “[creation] longs for those who will follow the Spirit of God, those who will follow God’s ways, those who will work for reconciliation between humanity and God, as well as humanity and the rest of creation.”
We need reminders that capitalism and exploitation don’t just harm human creation, but all members of our earthly family. Through talking heads of lettuce and a family of poor mice, The Muppet Christmas Carol gives just that.
- “We should have known our evil deeds would put us both in shaaaaackles.” —Jacob and Robert Marley
This one is pretty obvious: As they stomp and sing in their ghostly, clanking chains, the Marleys (Statler and Waldorf) sing that Scrooge is “doomed … doomed for all time,” and show some awareness that they (and, by affiliation, Scrooge) should have known better.
Jesus said the rich would struggle to get into heaven like a camel (or, as some scholars say, maybe a thick rope) through the eye of a needle, literally exclaiming: “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23). James says that the rich should “moan and groan” for what is about to come to them.
Throughout their song, Marley and Marley (Whooooo!) bemoan what they “should have known” which suggests no one warned them. It’s a fair objection; after all, Christians in this country (and others, as you’ll see below) have convinced themselves that prudential faith includes mass accumulations of wealth, and that poverty is just a part of the process . . .
- “It is the American way … it is the British way.” —Scrooge’s headmaster
During Scrooge’s visits to Christmas past, he watches as his school-age self sits and listens to the final instructions from his headmaster (Sam the Eagle). The headmaster exhorts Scrooge to “keep his nose to the grindstone” and tells him that he is becoming a “man of business.” Then, the fourth-wall breaks, and we’re let in on another joke at the expense of colonial empires.
“You’ll love business — it is the American way!” the headmaster says. Our narrator, Dickens (Gonzo the Great), interrupts to point out that the story is originally set in England. “Oh — It is the British way,” the headmaster corrects himself.
In this scene, we see a key insight into the global reproduction of colonialism and capitalism: Capitalist logic — including the desire to become a “man of business,” consumed with success — will flow easily from one context to another, unless we choose to resist it . . .
Christians can interrogate and resist the forces of racial capitalism, drawing on the work of scholars like Nathan Luis Cartagena to, as he told Sojourners, “move in more decolonial ways and address the church’s egregious history.”
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[Ken Gray] I will leave you, faithful readers to draw your own conclusions. Let me conclude then with some lyrics from When love is found/It feels like Christmas. Warm; fuzzy; fun. Happy Christmas to all.
It’s in the singing of a street corner choir
It’s going home and getting warm by the fire
It’s true, wherever you find love
It feels like Christmas
A cup of kindness that we share with another
A sweet reunion with a friend or a brother
In all the places you find love
It feels like Christmas
It is the season of the heart
A special time of caring
The ways of love made clear
It is the season of the spirit
The message, if we hear it
Is make it last all year
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 
The Muppets Christmas Carol is without a doubt one of my favourite Christmas delights, particularly for the songs which are so beautifully arranged and work so well with Dickens words. I agree with Atencio’s thoughts though I suspect that the association with what I consider to be true Christian values is more to do with Dickens’ original text than the movie itself. Dicken’s was a Christian and so is his original story. What I love about “A Christmas Carol” is that it speaks about caring for others and perils of consumerism in a way that is accessible regardless of religious beliefs and this is undoubtedly why it is so infused in our consciousness almost 200 years after it was published. I think the Muppet version is such a lovely recreation because of the songs. The lyric that always gets me is simply this: “Wherever you find love, it feels like Christmas” which is the perfect way of saying “Honor Christmas in your heart year round” Which really is what we should be doing, always.
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