"Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays"

Image via Google images

For a long time I was one that would get aggravated by the "politically correct" usage of "Happy Holidays" and rant about "the reason for the season" and so forth. But my thinking has changed somewhat. Let me explain.

First, I am still opposed to hard-core "political correctness", the kind that enforces "speech codes" and "trigger warnings" and "safe spaces", and fines people tens of thousands of dollars for refusing to decorate a cake, and all that crap. Like it or not, this IS a free country, and people should be able to believe and say what they want.

But, that goes for those on BOTH sides of the divide. If I will not allow them to force me to be silent, then I must not force THEM to be silent, either. They are perfectly within their rights to believe and say anything that they wish. If I demand the freedom to think they are wrong, then I must allow them the same freedom.

OK, that dispenses with the secular reasons for my change of heart. Now for the theological ones. I now think that saying "Happy Holidays" is actually more appropriate for many people, and that they shouldn't be given a lecture or cold shoulder for it. A peaceful and loving response is the only appropriate response.

Many of us choose to celebrate December 25th as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Sure, it is highly doubtful that our Savior was born on that date. Unlike the dates of His death and resurrection, we were never given that information. It is still good to celebrate his nativity, though. Although Scripture does not provide the calendar date of his birth, it does detail it at length in both Matthew and Luke's gospels. So, the early church chose that date in December to celebrate the event. There are many theories to explain why it was chosen. Some make sense, some are bizarre. But now, 2000 years later, it is what it is.

However, the majority of the population are not Christian. They are Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and pagans, and atheists and agnostics of all stripes.

This is also the season of the winter solstice, a time when cold and darkness is at a peak in the northern hemisphere. It is normal for people to want to have feasts and celebrations during this period to ward off the winter doldrums. People in the our hemisphere have been doing this for long before Christ was born.

For those that want to celebrate just to be celebrating, I say go for it! Eat, drink, laugh, and be merry. But, for those that do this just for the fun of it, I also say, "Please, DON'T say 'Merry Christmas'. I'd much rather you say 'Happy Holidays'. Not for reasons of "political" correctness, but for reasons of "spiritual" correctness. Individuals that have not trusted in Jesus as Savior, that have not acknowledged his Lordship, truly have no business saying "Merry Christmas". In a very real sense, by doing so they are taking his name in vain. Not a good thing.

So, far from getting angry about people saying "Happy Holidays", you should consider the possibility that it is probably better that they do so. And when they do, just smile and wish them well also. And maybe find a way to tell them about the birth of the Suffering Savior rather than yell at them.

Anyway, such is my opinion.

Y'all have a good day, and come back and visit with me again!

Going to See Christmas Lights and Decorations

Hello everybody.

Contrary to popular belief, I love Christmas. I love my Savior, and I love celebrating the Son of God's entry into this world as a man. I love telling people how he came to live a perfect life, to die a horrible death to atone for the sins of His people, and to rise again from the dead to reign eternally over His kingdom. I love that very early in church history, the church chose this dark and dreary time of year to celebrate the Light of the World.

So, last night the Debster and I took one of her best friends, Inge, to see The Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows' annual Christmas "Way of Lights" display in Belleville. Afterwards, we drove through a couple of subdivisions to see some decorated homes. Inge is about 80 years young, and quite healthy and spry, very limber and athletic, for her age. But she doesn't like to drive at night or in heavy traffic. She and Debster have been friends for over thirty years, and we both love her to pieces. You can't find a better, more warm-hearted and loving person than Inge. 

What follows are a few semi-random thoughts about the whole thing.

I really wasn't too enthusiastic about going to Belleville. Not that I have anything against the town, for I don't. It's a pleasant enough place. No, one problem is that I truly believe that the Roman Catholic Church teaches heresy, such as idol worship, Mary-olotry, works-based salvation, promoting their traditions to the same level as God's Word, papal infallibility, and many other damnable things. Because of this, I am very uncomfortable with doing something that may seem to support this organization. But, the Debster really wanted to go, as did Inge, who, as it happens, is also a rather devout Catholic.

(I just want to interject here that the revulsion I have for what the Roman Catholic Church teaches does NOT extend to the members of that church. There are a lot of wonderful people in that church, including many of my friends and relatives. I love them all, and pray that the Lord will release them from their spiritual bondage and take them into His own family.)

Anyway, the other problem I have with this particular drive-through display is strictly logistical in nature. The driving lane is not clearly marked, with several turn-offs into other parts of the complex that are not, strictly speaking, part of the tour. Although they have people stationed along the way with lighted wands to direct traffic, they are for the most part teenagers that just wave the wand in random manner. The road itself does not have curbs or reflective paint on the edge, so if you drive through with your lights off as requested, it is quite easy to veer off the road onto the grass. Passengers in the car are treated to a breathtakingly beautiful display of lights and displays narrating the birth of our Savior. The driver of the car, which would be ME of course, is, in the meanwhile, developing quite a headache trying to stay on the proper path, not drive off the edge, and not hitting people wandering around on foot, in the dark, often wearing dark clothing and hence virtually invisible. Also trying to avoid rear-ending the car in front which apparently doesn't have tail-lights. 

To make matters worse, there were a couple of displays you could go through on foot, and we didn't spot them the first time through until we were past the turn-offs for them. So I had to go back through a SECOND time so that the Debster and Inge could get out and go through the petting zoo, and go into the building that housed a display of Christmas trees from around the world. As we were leaving, the Debster asked me to go back a THIRD time because we forgot to go see the display of decorations made from Lego blocks. At that point, I had to put my foot down. No way I was putting myself through that again!

Once we had finally put Belleville in the rear-view mirror, it was time to wander through a couple of subdivisions. There were a fair number of homes that had beautiful displays of lights. Personally, I am partial to strings of pure white lights outlining a house and trees and such. But there were a number of beautiful colorful displays as well. One thing I was sad to see was that Nativity scenes were very rare; I think we saw only one or two. All the rest were straight secular displays. Often pretty, yes, but also quite empty of any true meaning.

Well, enough rambling on about this. I'm going to close with a quote from a public post that someone put up on Facebook recently:

To All My Liberal Friends: 

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2016, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other countries nor the only " America " in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes. 

To My Conservative Friends: 

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year

Thanks for reading!
God bless you all!

Ron and the Debster

Are "Christmas" movies anti-Christian?

Santa and Ralphie in a classic scene from
"A Christmas Story"

I have to admit it. Like many, if not most, Americans, I am a fan of the classic 1983 movie "A Christmas Story". It is packed with iconic images and lines. Other than that one movie, however, well, not so much.

My beloved Debster on the other hand, detests that movie. I don't understand that. As near as I can determine, it is the only Christmas movie ever made that she doesn't like. In fact, because of her addiction to Christmas movies, mostly from Hallmark but also from wherever else she can find them on our satellite network, our DVR is filled with them. Even though we almost always delete a movie or show after we watch it, she is recording many more than she can watch, so by the time the season will be over, she will still have plenty to watch for the rest of the winter, and probably well into the spring and even beyond.

Since I am "glucose intolerant" or "pre-diabetic", I have to severely limit my minutes per day of watching these syrupy-sweet "films" to avoid going into diabetic shock. However, I still have seen enough to have formed one important opinion: Most of these movies are, at their core, quietly anti-Christian and thus Satanic. Yes, I said that, and I mean exactly that.

The bottom line is that these movies promote the popular culture, not the Christian message of the birth of the Savior. Jesus is seldom if ever mentioned in any of them, unless somebody happens to sing a "religious" carol in the movie. If the birth of Jesus Christ is mentioned, it is usually to promote the idea that he came to promote peace on earth, or some such liberal drivel.

You see countless scenes of families being reunited, of rifts being healed, of people doing kind things for strangers, of curmudgeons being turned into sweet lap-dogs, and so on. There is nothing wrong with sweet wholesome story-lines as such, but when they are used to distract from or to over-ride the message of the Savior, then that is Satan at work behind the scenes. After all, Satan doesn't care if everyone "loves" everyone else. He is primarily concerned with keeping people from worshiping and glorifying God.

Then there are those that are a little more overt in their message. These types of "Christmas" movies usually involve "angels" getting involved in peoples' lives to "help" them in some way. All-time classics such as "It's A Wonderful Life" and "Miracle On 34th Street" are among this group. Yes, I know. Classifying some of the most beloved movies ever as Satanic is going to get me in a lot of trouble. But so be it. I calls 'em as I sees 'em.

I watched part of one with the Debster the other day called "How Sarah Got Her Wings". It was a sweet feel-good movie, much like a modern "Wonderful Life". It was teaching that you must do good things and love people if you want to be allowed into heaven. "Sarah" kept getting sent back to earth to finish taking care of her "unfinished business" before she ran out of time and would be sentenced to "purgatory" forever. Not only is the movie quite lame and insipid on a secular level, it is purely pagan in its "gospel" message. Jesus is never even mentioned, at least in the bits that I saw.

Then there are the so-called "comedies" such as "Elf" and "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and a myriad of others. They take the vulgarity to a whole new level. 'Nuff said about that.

I put up a post on Facebook asking for suggestions of truly Christian Christmas movies. I have hundreds of Facebook friends, and many of them are solid Christians. Yet I received only two suggestions. One was the cartoon classic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and the other was the 2006 film "The Nativity Story". Both are good. No question about that; I heartily recommend them both. But, one is, well, a child's cartoon, and the other is a straight re-telling of the Biblical account of the birth of Jesus. There are apparently no movies set in anything resembling modern times that actually convey a solidly Christian message about the birth of Christ and what it means for us today. That is a shame. And, I think, it is a telling example of how unChristian this nation really is. Hollywood can take some of the blame for this, as the purveyors and, as some have pointed out, the shapers of our culture. But the blame also lies on the population in general. If there was an actual demand for good Christian movies, more of them would be made.

Maybe Kirk Cameron will make a Christian Christmas movie. I don't see anyone else on the horizon that could and maybe would do it. Do you?

I for one am vowing to avoid the Satanic influence of these movies. And I urge all who truly take the name of Christ to do the same.

And yes, I guess that means I'll be giving up my annual watching of one of my once-favorite movies. Good by, Ralphie! I hope it all works out for ya.

God bless you!
Ron

I have serious problems with "Santa Claus" ...

pic downloaded from Google Images

OK. I'm going to get myself in trouble here, but that's OK. This is something that's been bothering me for many years. Because of it, my wife thinks that I'm a "Grinch". My daughter-in-law came close to banning me from seeing our young grandson for fear that I might say something and "spoil his Christmas". So I know from first-hand experience that this is NOT a popular viewpoint.

The problem is that I think it is wrong to teach very young, impressionable, and trusting children that Santa Claus is a real person that really lives at the North Pole and really flies all over the world in a sleigh pulled by magical reindeer in order to deliver presents to good children and pieces of coal to naughty children.

I don't really have a problem with telling children about Santa, as a form of fiction, like a fairy tale or the like. Kids can have fun with that kind of story telling, just like they would with Little Red Riding Hood or Snow White or The Little Mermaid or ... well, you catch my drift. My problem is teaching, and insisting, that the story is REAL, not fantasy/fiction.

There are numerous reasons that any person, religious or not, can understand even if, like most, they don't agree. First, it is an outright LIE, and lying is never good. Second, there is a strong potential for damaging the trust your child has in you, when (s)he finds out that you've been lying all those years. Third, once the truth comes out, it can cause issues with differentiating truth from falsehood. There are other reasons as well, that I'm not going to go into here. A quick Google search yielded many detailed article and essays on serious mainstream websites such as CNN, Business Insider, and Psychology Today that go into greater detail.

As a Christian, I have other reasons for concern about this fraud.

To begin with, there is a corollary to the trust issue. How many children after finding out that the Santa they had been taught was a real person really wasn't, have then, rather logically actually, taken the short step to believing that Jesus isn't real either? I don't have a solid number, but I personally know several people that have rejected Jesus as anything other than a myth because of being disillusioned about Santa. (And the Easter bunny, the Tooth Fairy, etc. But that's another post for another time.) If there are a handful among my comparatively tiny sample, how does that translate into the entire population? You do the math, as the saying goes.

The Santa myth completely overshadows the real reason that the holiday even exists in the first place. Christmas is about the physical birth of Jesus Christ. The second Person of the Triune God took on flesh and human nature. Yet today, after a casual look around almost any place in the country, you would think this is about trees decorated in such a way that the most fanatical druid would approve, about spending billions of dollars, and often going into debt, to buy buy buy and buy some more. You might think it's about cutesy little songs about jingling sleigh bells, or about a nutcracker that comes to life. And all of this happily supervised by a fat old guy in a red suit with white trim laughing "Ho! Ho! Ho!" all the time. You would find very little if anything about Jesus in the average family or school or community "holiday" celebration. And I have a problem with that. Anything that distracts from worshiping our glorious Savior is a problem, and you couldn't find a bigger distraction this side of hell itself.

Everyone is more than happy to proclaim the seasonal motto of "Peace on earth and goodwill towards men", and smile at strangers and give to charities. (Did you know that many charities receive the bulk of their annual donations during the month of December?)

What most don't know is that the phrase is from the Bible, specifically Luke 2:14. It was the angels proclaiming "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men" as they announced the birth of the Savior of the world. The phrase has nothing to do with truces during a holiday and about everybody wishing everybody else well. No! It means that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity had come to earth, had taken on a human nature and human body, and was going to live a perfect and sinless life and then die as a ransom for many, and then be resurrected in power and glory. And because of that, peace would be possible between God and man. Not man and man, but God and man. And that goodwill between God and man would exist, not between man and man. It meant that God's white-hot wrath over sin would be spent punishing Jesus as my substitutionary sacrifice, and that Jesus would triumph over sin and death for me. Any "peace" and "goodwill" between men would be secondary.

The Bible is very clear in teaching that salvation is strictly by the merciful grace of God, completely on HIS terms, and is contingent upon complete faith and trust in Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. "Being good" doesn't get you into heaven! It might make your mommy smile and your daddy give you a nice pat on the head, and maybe even a gold star from your teacher, but it WON'T get you into heaven! And just as "being good" isn't going to count towards getting INTO heaven, being "naughty" doesn't count in keeping you OUT, either. Because EVERYONE is "naughty", aka "sinful". EVERYBODY!!! Teaching children that "being good" wins you gifts from some silly-looking supernatural super-being, and that being "naughty" wins you bad things, you are going exactly the opposite of the gospel message.

Christian parents, there is no way you can completely shield your child from being bombarded with the pagan, anti-Christian nonsense about "Santa" and all that entails. So it is incumbent upon you to make sure your child understands the truth from the very beginning. If you think it necessary, tell your child the stories. Read "The Night Before Christmas"  with them. Go see "The Nutcracker" ballet. Have fun driving around after dark to "Oooh!" and "Ahhh!" at the beautiful lights. By all means, have fun! Fun is good! BUT you must, I repeat MUST, make absolutely sure that your child knows that Jesus, and His birth, was a REAL event with REAL consequences, and that "Santa" is NOT real, but only a character in a story.

If you can succeed in doing this, you will be doing your child the biggest favor imaginable.

If, and there most likely will be, there is a negative reaction, or if you or your child is questioned about this, a simple answer should suffice. Something along the lines of, "Yeah, I know all about Santa! He's a funny storybook character."

Well, I'm tired of typing, and I'm sure you are tired of reading, so to everyone who as made it this far, Merry Christmas! from Ron and the Debster.

I want to feel festive, but it just ain't happenin', ya know?

Well, 2014 is almost over. And I have to say, I'm glad to see it go. It has been a rough year in many ways.

So many losses.

left to right:
cousin, Vern Buske, on New Year's Day
brother-in-law, Dan Green, on April 2
mother-in-law, Mary Hicks, nee Miles, on September 16
cousin, Jerry Cline, on Christmas Eve 
(Also, lost a very dear friend, Donna Westenberger, for whom I do not have a decent photo, to Lou Gehrig's Disease on Dec 16.)

My beloved Debster has had two major surgeries, one in June to replace her left knee, and one just two and a half weeks ago to replace her right knee. She has been laid up for most of the last six months recuperating and rehabbing, and still has a quite a way to go.

I've been battling a bad case of cellulitis, which almost put me in the hospital; only some fast talking, almost begging to tell the truth, with the doctor convinced her to allow me to try home treatment first. My leg is still a mess from that. Probably will be for several more weeks, according to the doctor.

And besides the Debster's knees and my leg, we both have other health problems that just keep nagging at us, some semi-serious, some just annoying.

Our van decided to to blow a head-gasket and crack the block. It had to be junked. The Blazer, with almost 260,000 miles on it, is on it's very last legs. Our only reliable car, at the moment, is the 1992 Oldsmobile that we bought from her mom's estate. Only has 96,000 miles on it, but it is still 22 years old, and won't hold up forever under regular daily use. So we're going to have to break down and buy a much newer vehicle by spring, at the latest.

Had to change employers at the end of October. My old employer lost their contract for the job I was on. I got picked up by the new company that got the contract, but although the hourly rate is the same, I lost a lot of benefits, not to mention some hard-won seniority.

My beloved home town of St. Louis, MO has virtually gone up in flames in the aftermath of the Mike Brown shooting in Ferguson in August; the northern part of the county will not fully recuperate any time soon, if ever.

I'm not even going to get into the state of national politics and events; all that does is make me see various shades of red and want to start throwing things.

For years I have detested the American version of Christmas. A holiday to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child is fantastic. I could get into that. Only Easter is more important, as far as I am concerned. But, in the nation, it is all about consumerism and greed, with a thin veneer of charity and love and cheer. Not about Jesus Christ at all. Even in the best of churches, as they supposedly celebrate "The Reason for the Season", it usually winds up being primarily a showcase for parents and other relatives to ooh! and ahhh! over their children in the "Christmas play". The Child has been forsaken for the sake of the children.

Well, you all will just have to forgive me for this, but, as a well-known personage once said, "Bah! Humbug!"

Happy New Year, everyone. 2015 has to be better than 2014. It couldn't be much worse.

Thanks for taking the time to read. I promise, I'll get back to my normally cheerful self in  a week or so, after the "holiday" season is over.

Ron