Want More Christ In Christmas?

[Fiannan]

If every Christian made it a point to buy ornaments with a religious theme and send cards that likewise have such a theme then it would go a long way towards keeping Christ in Christmas. Maybe use this time to invite friends and relatives to church and take your family to nativity shows.

I realize that corporate America would like to secularize the holidays (makes it easier to make up ad campaigns) and there are always those who despise Christianity and want to erase Christ from any public place but the best way (on an individual basis) to stand up against these forces is to double one's personal efforts to confront this.

Who is with me on this one?

[Latter Days Guy]

Totally agree with you! Some of the local government councils here in the UK tried renaming Christmas as Winterville a while back! How daft is that!

[Dror]

I've been thinking that if we must make a big production of giving gifts at this general time of year, why not do it for St. Nicholas Day instead of Christmas? That would help decommercialize Christmas, with (at least) two benefits: (1) it could help us focus more on Christ at Christmastime, and (2) it could help "de-stress" Christmas by taking some of the pressure off.

As for the Christian nature of Christmas, I think it is as religious as we choose to make it. There is no shortage of religious Christmas cards, ornaments, creches, etc. There may be a few cranks out there who get offended when somebody puts a nativity scene up in the public square, but there is no grand conspiracy, no "War on Christmas" in real life.

On a (mildly) humorous note, the other day my boss was griping all day long because of a story he heard on the radio about a rabbi in a city at the other end of the country who threatened to sue the city over its Christmas decorations. Well, that was an isolated incident. Here where we live, I go downtown, see Christmas decorations all over the statehouse, Christmas lights, wreaths, etc. on many, many building, a huge nativity scene in front of one office building, a Christmas model train display in a bank, etc., etc. Similar things in all the suburbs. We have good-sized Jewish and Muslim communities here, and we live in a "blue" county, but ne'er a complaint! People even have the nerve to say "Merry Christmas" to each other here! =

As you pointed out, businesses are out to make money. I don't think they care whether their wares are religious in nature or not, as long as they sell. So it's really a matter of what we buy.

Dror

[Fiannan]

GB-UK -- I have heard that there are some politically correct types in England trying to de-Christianize Christmas. I was happy to read that local Muslims have united with Christians to stop all this PC stuff because they don't want to get the blame for such actions.

Maybe the two communities need to work together as in Islam their view of the last days is that Christians and Muslims will unite to wage war on the unbelievers and be victorious. Of course, in their view Jesus returns and then asks Christians to become Muslim so oh well.

[Dror]

GB-UK -- I have heard that there are some politically correct types in England trying to de-Christianize Christmas. I was happy to read that local Muslims have united with Christians to stop all this PC stuff because they don't want to get the blame for such actions.

Maybe the two communities need to work together as in Islam their view of the last days is that Christians and Muslims will unite to wage war on the unbelievers and be victorious. Of course, in their view Jesus returns and then asks Christians to become Muslim so oh well.

I didn't know the Muslims believed that. What about the Jews? Are they considered believers (for purposes of waging war on unbelievers), who will then be asked to convert to Islam after the war? After all, Judaism is one of the great monotheistic Abrahamic religions.

Dror

[Winnie G]

I think it is important to remember that we are not the only ones around us.

Canada has dealt with this due to the governments increasing emigration policy.

Canada has a large none Christian population now.

This came about due to the low birth rate among the population.

Yes forks its our fault. We started to have 1.5 children not even replacing our self’s and governments chose emigration to fix the problem.

Now Canada has Holiday Trees and Santa Clause parades and the Festival of Lights.

It is now Happy Holidays.

I think it was really driven home when Wall Mart stopped selling Nativity sets worth buying. Now it is made in China crap I would be ashamed to buy and forget Christ like Christmas cards. I could not find any this year.

We need to say stop but we also have to understand Jewish kids have dealt with this for years. They do not get the eight days of Hanukkah off from school. Even my son’s old school chooses every year to hold Grad at a large church auditorium every June leaving the Jewish Grand’s left out. (They cannot go in to another place of worship)

I know that now, when you open a calendar, you see Kwanza, most of the Jewish Holidays, and of course all Christian holidays, and even the soltis holidays, but others have to always Mark other holidays on our calendars. I think it is sad that we live in a countries where we are all supposed to feel free to practice religion, yet the religions that are observing holidays other than the Christian ones have to suffer at work, school and banks, etc.

So yes we have to buy more but until we start having larger families and increasing our numbers we will be left with what we made OUR BEDS.

In the mean time be aware of others and their feelings,

[Guest Soul_Searcher]

I think Winnie makes a good point.

I was talking about this with someone the other day an they were getting upset over all the people trying to take Christ out of Christmas, and i said i agree, it's wrong. They looked shocked until i said " They are just as wrong as the fools who try and turn halloween in to some stupid harvest festivle, taking out all the tradition that came with a once holy day"

Sadly Christianity doesn't have a great reputation for tolerance, not that other faiths might have a much better history. You reap what you sow, and sadly it's come full circle, wish we could avoid it, but as long as we have to deem some other peoples view and faith as wrong and evil, it makes a target of everyone.

Over time i hope we al lsee how silly it's gotten and just learn to live and love and get past the garbage.

Merry Christmas all, best wishes and a prayer for you and your loved ones.