2014 - The Slow Death of Christmas?

CHRISTMAS:  

A Christian holiday honoring the birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas evolved over two millennia into a worldwide religious and secular celebration, incorporating many pre-Christian, pagan traditions into the festivities along the way.  Today, Christmas is a time for family and friends to get together and exchange gifts.

http://www.history.com/topics/christmas

This would be my father in the photo, back in the late 1950s, if memory serves.  It was when we didn't own much, but what we did own was paid for.  You'll note the "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree, sparse of limbs and, therefore, sparse of ornaments and tinsel.  Notice the homemade popcorn garland?  Dad was putting together my gift, an electric train, while the cat looks to be vomiting a fur ball.  Soon would come a conservative Christmas meal and prayers for family, friends, and the blessed Jesus.    

Church would come later, for now there was prayer.  Mom had been indoctrinated in scripture while she was growing up in Mississippi, and dad was Sicilian so he was steeped in Catholicism.  We wouldn't start going to church regularly, however, until we moved to northern California when I was nine.  He would start his own business, money would start coming in, and my parents would feel the overwhelming urge to screw me over by sending me to Catholic School.  It seems I wasn't learning much in public school and I was "high active" which, today, might be diagnosed as ADD.  Back then we found a way to funnel the energy - nuns.  It took a single Catholic nun to point out that I couldn't see ten feet in front of my face.  Oh, joy.  Black horn rimmed "birth control" glasses.  Buddy Holly, eat your heart out!

Anyone know what happens when optometrists increase the strength of your lenses over the course of years?  Your eyes continue to try and keep up.  Increase, get worse.  Increase, get worse.  Pretty soon you have coke bottle bottoms for lenses.  Thanks, to the practice of medical science I learned about gravity, by constantly catching my heavy glasses every time I bent over and they left my face. 

Where was I?  Oh, yeah...

Christmas, like Christianity, is under attack.  It is being assaulted by our old friends at the LPO, the League of the Perpetually Offended.  When it isn't under attack by them, it seems to be inadvertently attacked by people who would normally do no harm.  The Jew in Seattle that was upset there was no equal space for Judaism in the airport.  Officials removed the offending tree and the Jew cried foul.  He just wanted a space for Judaism, not to have the tree removed.  Recently it was Muslims that wanted equal time for two Islamic holy days on a school calendar.  Official took Christmas off and replaced it with something like "winter break."  The Muslims were incensed at this.  They didn't want Christmas removed; they only wanted their holy days recognized.  The message gets lost in the knee jerk reaction.  In these types of instances, the reaction usually comes from the knees attached to the jerks in charge.  The LPO tends to make more ludicrous requests than these, like asking for the removal of a manger scene displayed in front of a church.  

With threats coming from all sides, believe it or not, Christianity usually finds support from pagans, Wicca, and the Church of Satan.  Fortunately, the LPO, for all their efforts, usually lose their battles in court.  Unfortunately, Christianity now has a newer, more destructive, enemy... ISIS, and all the other Islamic heretics perpetrating acts of terror on innocents, like when they behead children and cut five year olds in half just for being a Christian.  These are not acts that would be condoned by Muhammad or Allah.  This is not Islam.

This is not an attack on Christmas, not directly, but an attack on Christianity, and Christ.  This would be the same Christ mentioned in the Holy Qur'an, with reverence, twenty-five times.  Islam is at odds with Christianity?  No.  Nor is it at odds with Judaism.  These are terrorists, and their affiliation with Islam is an offense to Allah.

"You have freedom of religion given by God to believe in what you believe in. But in a world where conflict is increasing, a Muslim should be a bridge- builder and a peacemaker. It was due to the Muslim practice of Islamic ideals of respect and tolerance that the key of the holiest Christian Shrine in Jerusalem, the church of the Holy Sepulcher, remains entrusted with a Muslim family, as it has been for over 1400 years."

-- Abdul Malik Mujahid, "Treating Christmas with Respect"

http://www.soundvision.com/info/christmas/ctreat.asp

"Many Christians are unaware that the true spirit of reverence which Muslims display towards Jesus (pbuh) and his mother Mary spring from the fountainhead of their faith as prescribed in the Holy Quran. Most do not know that a Muslim does not take the name of Jesus (pbuh), without saying Eesa alai-hiss-salaam i.e. (Jesus peace be upon him).

Many Christians do not know that in the Holy Qur'an Jesus (pbuh) is mentioned by name twenty-five times."

Jesus in Islam and Christmas, 

http://www.islamicity.com/articles/Articles.asp?ref=IC0312-2171 

This notwithstanding, many of you probably read the title for this post and said, what the hell, Christmas is alive and well.  Is it?  reread the definition at the top of this post.  Christmas has evolved.  It is now a time for family and friends to get together and exchange gifts.  That's what it is, according to History.com.  But, truth be known, that is what it's become for the majority of Christians, as well.  If you're really devout you might mumble a "happy birthday" to Jesus, even if it's just at Christmas dinner.  That's if you actually sit down at the table for dinner, an exercise few make time for anymore and one reason for the demise of the American family.

Is Christmas dead?  No.  Christmas is alive and well in the hearts of atheists, and non-Christians, everywhere.  It is a time for friends and family, commercialization and consumerism.  No?  Ask yourself when was the last time you actually sent a letter for Christmas instead of a purchased card.  When was the last time you actually took the time to write more than a few lines on a card that you didn't write to fifty other people?  When was the last time you actually sent that many cards?  And did you give more to the hungry than you put under the tree?  When was the last time you actually thought about the true meaning of Christmas?

Christmas isn't dead, yet.  It is dying a slow, painful death.  Who is to blame?  All of the perpetually offended we pay way too much attention to, just so they can go on being offended over...anything, and nothing?  No.  They are given way too much credit.  Like an annoying fly, one must remember they only exist because no one has swatted them yet.  Is it ISIS and other terrorists?  No.  Christianity, like Judaism and other religions that have suffered the tyranny of intolerance, has weathered worse vermin than this for two thousand years and more.  No.  Christmas is dying because we, all of us, fall victim to one, or all, of the seven deadly sins, and we do so while fighting amongst ourselves.  Racism, sexism, and intolerance, eat at us daily.  It is reality TV, without the TV (which was probably stolen out of your shopping cart during Black Friday).

My parents and I will be celebrating a quiet Christmas this year.  We will have a conservative dinner and open the few gifts which we will put under a small, non-descript, tree.  We have come full circle at my house, only now I am here assisting my parents instead of them raising me.  We will praise the Lord, and I might even take mom to church for Mass.  I will be thankful for the gifts I have been blessed with, my children, grandchildren, their extended family, and my mother and my father.  I will say prayers for all of them, and I will ask God's grace for all of my friends, past and present, that struggle daily to find some inner peace.  I will also send more food to the soup kitchen to feed those less fortunate, for what is Christmas if it isn't a celebration of life? 

Christmas is in the heart.  It is a Christian holy day honoring the birth of Jesus Christ.  That we do anything else on this day is insignificant to remembering why we honor the day.  We should honor the day always, and keep the spirit alive in our hearts throughout the year.  

Christmas will never die, any more than Christianity will.  Where two or three are assembled in His name, there He is in the midst of them.  Have faith.  Have love.  Have tolerance.  Have forgiveness.  Have understanding and reasonableness.  Strive to carry Christmas in your heart throughout the year.  

If all of that fails you, have Christ. 


Note from Pastor Tony, the founder of the Congregation for Religious Tolerance, as well as the author and editor of "The Path," the Congregation's official blogsite:  

Before you go getting your panties in a bunch, it is essential to understand that this is just an opinion site and, as such, can be subjected to scrutiny by anyone with a differing opinion.  It doesn't make either opinion any more right or wrong than the other.  An opinion, presented in this context, is a way of inciting others to think and, hopefully, to form opinions of their own, if they haven't already done so.

It is my fervent hope that we keep open and active minds when reading opinions and then engaging in peaceful, constructive, discussion and debate in an arena of mutual respect concerning the opinions put forth.  After over twenty years as a military intelligence analyst, planner, and briefer, I have come to believe engaging each other in this manner and in this arena is the way we will learn tolerance and respect for differing beliefs, cultures, and viewpoints.

We all fall from grace, some more often than others; it is part of being human.  God's test for us is what we do afterward, and what we learn from the experience.
  

Frank Anthony Villari, Pastor