Oh Come On All Ye Faithful!
As a born again Christian, I feel I have a duty to write on the recent hullaballoo or hoopla that has my brothers and sisters in Christ all a-twitter...the political correcting of Christmas. As far as I can tell, itappears to be mostly the rightwing, who, I know, have the patent and rights on Christianity, that seem to be the most flustered about something that, frankly, I am only hearing from them. Supposedly Christmas trees are being sold as Holiday trees somewhere that I haven't been yet, holiday paper, winter stockings, good tidings decorations, seasonal gifts.....and other such things are really upsetting my peeps.
So, I thought I would take this opportunity to address this problem. If that's what you want call it. Over 28,000 people die every day on this planet from starvation. One billion people live on a dollar a day. Animals are skinned alive for fashion. Pigs, lambs, cows, turkey and chickens by the billions are tortured because someone has decided that they taste good enough to be killed. And what? Your tree isn't labeled as you wish it to be? How can you be upset about the commercialism of Christmas, the materialism, and people missing the reason for the season and you can't seem to bring yourself to delve into your heart and find what true faith is all about? Is Christianity a tree? Is it carols? Is it gifts? Is it labels? Or is Christmas our opportunity to allow the rebirth of goodwill towards all mankind each year? Is it a time to look to our Savior or to what our Savior taught us...to be generous and peaceful and good? What did he die for if not that? Did he die so that the foundation of his doctrine could be placed over courthouses and his name displayed in neon? I mean, do you really think that the humble, service-oriented Messiah who was hanging out with the lepers, the prostitutes, the outcasts of society would be really pissed off about labels and all this crazy concrete silliness? Instead of the abstract and fundamental message of love and forgiveness? Do you even try to get my point here when I say that this is one of the primary reasons I have stopped going to church, a church I loved? Because I could not stand the continuous barrage of "us vs them" from the congregation.
I thought we were supposed to bring people over like in the game "Red Rover" - call them over - "red rover, red rover let mohammed come over", they charge over with all the strength they can muster and if they could break through your line, they grabbed one of your people and took them over to their side. BUT if your line was strong enough to hold them, and it didn't break, they joined your line. No neon. No labels. No signs. No carvings. Just effort and inclusion. Come on over, try us out, if we aren't strong enough, oh well, we'll come over to you and one of my guys will come and get me, but if we are strong enough then you can join our ranks. Cool. But the outward focus, the winning others over by just great, heartfelt, loving action is not what I am seeing. I am seeing a bunch of bitter people who have the upperhand and want more. In case you haven't noticed, you guys are getting a lot of what you wanted, so what on earth are you whining about now? If a cat is labelled a dog, is it a dog? Is your faith that weak, that easily broken by someone putting holiday instead of Christmas on your cards? Does it confuse you? Do you think God cares about all this crap? I can use a blank card, strike that, I can use a piece of ordinary white printer paper and make it into a Christmas card.....is that blasphemous?
I think it is time to start looking inward and analyzing whether each of is really, honestly a Christian as Jesus wanted us to be. Am I bringing people to Christ because I am demonstrating a heartfelt gratitude for the sacrifice, a joy for the new life that has been given to me, and a tolerance for all of God's children? Not everyone is going to believe what I believe and God made it that way for a reason. How tolerant are you of others? How gracious are you towards other religions? Can we start looking beyond the labels and focus on the substance and make this season about busting out the Grinch hearts and filling them with love and kindness and forgiveness towards all mankind....and maybe thinking of the little Grinch dog, too, and doing the right thing for them as well? Wouldn't that be such a better way to go this holiday season?

Merry Christmas! And to all my friends and loved ones of other religious beliefs - Happy Holidays! Peace and Joy be unto all of you!