Please leave me some feedback via the poll below, and feel free to elaborate in the comments section. And thanks for stopping by! Happy New Year, friends!
Why is this day different from all other days?
The Birth of Jesus- Luke chapter 2:
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea,
to Bethlehem the town of David,
because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.
She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them,
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David
a Savior has been born to you;
he is the Messiah, the Lord.
This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Merry Christmas!
Happy Decemberween!
My goal today is not to tell you what to think, but merely to encourage you to think about what you think, and to think consistently about it. And by “it,” I mean them, and by “them” I mean Christmas and Halloween- although this has lots of applications. It’s like duct tape or bacon.
Every Halloween we hear that we should NOT celebrate Halloween for one of two reasons:
- It has roots in evil paganism, and so, even though the majority of us have no idea what that means or what used to be done in its name (And whatever it was, it was certainly not dressing up small children as licenced movie characters and going door to door asking for candy from friends and neighbors) it’s an evil pagan holiday.
- Evil Pagans today do evil pagan things on that day, and non pagans do sinful things on that day in its name, and so it’s an evil pagan holiday.
Similarly, every Christmas we are told that wishing people a Merry Christmas is offensive because:
- Christmas has its roots in Christianity, and so even though the majority of us have no idea what that means or what used to be done in it’s name (And whatever it was, it was certainly not about a fat man in a red sleigh pulled by flying reindeer coming down your chimney to put toys in a sock) it’s still a religious holiday specific to the Christian church.
- Religious Christians do religious things on and around that day, and non Christians do spiritual things or at least intentionally moral things during this time of year, such as remembering the poor, and so it is a religious Holiday which needs to be renamed and made more secular because it is a Christian holiday, which is somehow offensive.
But of course we are told we CAN celebrate Halloween because, whatever it USED to be, it’s now a holiday focused almost entirely on playing dress up and eating sugar. Similarly, atheists and Jews LOVE Christmas because it’s now primarily about lights and festive parties and eating too much and buying presents and lots of other things which basically boil down to pretending its everyone’s birthday all at the same time even when it is not.
So here’s what I advise: Let’s all understand that a holiday is what you make of it. The DATE does not determine if it is a religious or a pagan holiday. Neither does the name. A holiday is sacred if you honor God, just as a Tuesday afternoon is sacred if you use it to honor God, and it is pagan if you use it to worship anything other than God- just like other days, your money, and rock n roll music.
That Easter is a holy day where in we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead does not somehow make sacred the ridiculous notion that a rabbit is hiding colored eggs in your backyard with baskets of candy. That Halloween may have been a date where Pagans did evil things doesn’t taint with evil your six year old daughter’s Disney princess costume, nor the Snickers fun size candy bad she got from the family next door.
So what will you decide? That Satan gets certain calendar days, and there is no way to redeem them? Or that God is God over all, and as long as we are honoring Him, we can do it every day in a million ways? Let me know what you decide. I’m going to honor God today with a tall cup of Egg Nog and a cookie. Merry Christmas my friends, and #JesusLovesYou
Posted in SocioPolitico
2 Comments
Proof that Atheists aren’t 100% Insane! (Maybe!)
I never thought the day would come, but I have found a ‘unicorn’ which I guess I had assumed did not exist because, in my 40+ years in the Christian church, Christian pop culture, and general Christian book store musings, web sites, books, magazines, podcasts, etc., I have never seen. BUT IT EXISTS. And this proves that maybe…
JUST MAYBE…
Atheists aren’t 100% insane.
Posted in atheism, Uncategorized
Tagged atheism, atheists, baptist, fundy, Steven Anderson
11 Comments
Someone tell Santa that the ground is LAVA!!!
Canadian rabblerouser and language-police protester Jordan Peterson has said that telling your kids that Santa is real is not wrong, because, as he says,
“Look, I think “lying” is the wrong way of thinking about this. Santa Clause is a game. Its a game of pretend. And Children play games of pretend all the time, so I don’t see any harm in it at all.”
This question comes up every year around this time- Is it wrong to lie to your kids about Santa? Professor Peterson here has taken the popular approach of deciding that it is not REALLY lying, because its fun. Yes, you are intentionally convincing your children to believe something which you KNOW not to be true, but its OK because its FUN! THEY enjoy it- until they’re sitting on his lap at the mall, at which time they scream and cry as if they suddenly think they are on a playground slide covered in spiders which ends in a meat grinder. On the other hand, there’s not a mall-Santa in the world as terrifying as the average Mall Easter bunny. But I digress. Continue reading
All the Things are Bad: Charlie Brown Edition
Remember when black Americans had to deal with oppression and injustice? Apparently no one on America’s social justice left does. I mean, it doesn’t take a LOT of research to find out what it was like decades ago when, in certain neighborhoods filled with Democrats who were still bitter about how the Civil War ended, a young black boy could be literally beaten to death for whistling at a white girl. THAT is what we USED to mean by oppression and injustice- being murdered for being flirtatious. Today, only Brett Kavinaugh would have been attacked for that behavior.
Today’s warriors for social equality have a different idea of what it means to be oppressed. Today, oppression for black Americans means being forced to sit in a lawn chair… ALONE.
And by “Being forced” of course we mean, “Being invited by someone who considers you a friend” and by “alone” we mean “On the side of the table with the least amount of people.”
But that lawn chair is a REAL lawn chair. The struggle is real.
Posted in SocioPolitico, Uncategorized
2 Comments
All the Things are BAD: Veggie Tales Edition
In case you were ever tempted to think that anything is good, California has apparently been gathering groups to inform us that ALL the things are bad. Today’s group is- and once again the believing is hard to be doing– a group of students at a California college’s “Annual Whiteness Forum.” Part of the reason this is hard to believe, aside from the cartoon like conclusions which all seem to have originated from the mind of a Sponge Bob villain of some kind, is that the group is run by Professor Dreama Moon.
I suspect we can easily decode this professor’s stance on the legalization of weed, but I digress.
Bunny Poops Cannot Be Removed with Good Works
Welcome to Cooking with Rent A Friend! Today we’re going to be making an easy recipe that everyone will love! We’re going to be making some cookies. This is an old family recipe; it goes all the way back to our first parents Adam and Eve. But don’t worry- this isn’t Grandma Eve’s Apple Cobbler Surprise!
[audience laughter]
Continue reading
The Burning Rubber Duck of Sin
Welcome back to the GOSPEL! To refresh your memory, here’s the hot rockin’ acronym that’s been lighting up the top of the Pop Metaphysical Charts:
G– God made you to have a personal relationship with Him.
O– Our sins separate us from God.
S– Sin cannot be removed with good works.
P– Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again.
E– Everyone who trusts in Him alone has eternal life.
L– Life with Jesus starts now and lasts forever.
So far we’ve taken a good look at the person we call “God.” He made you to have a personal relationship with him. In a previous episode I unpacked some of his defining traits, but summing up the eternal God in a two page semi-weekly blog is like drawing New York City on a Napkin.
This week, we’re going to take a look at the second letter in our acronym, whose name I am not allowed to say on account of it being copyrighted, trademarked, and owned by Harpo Studios. But I think you know the one I mean. You may remember this vowel from the start of the Canadian National Anthem, or from the end of the names of some of your favorite cereals and canned spaghetti’s.
G, Davey, Who IS Mr. God Person?
To the casual observer, theology can seem like a dense underbrush of spiky vines, meshed grasses, towering trees, stinging insects, and near lethal allergens. This is how the rain forest in the Amazon Rain Basin appears to me. I’ve not been there, but I spoke to a friend about it. She went to the Amazon to work on a medical boat, providing assistance to the poor villagers who live on the river. Apparently I was absolutely correct.
It’s a miracle that anyone survives living there.
Their average stinging insect is the size of a single engine plane. To be fair, the Chicago Suburbs has all the allergens, stinging insects and humidity of the Amazon, but far more traffic due to construction, and where they have trees, we have political corruption. But I digress.
A Bit of Orange 