Don’t arm yourselves for the “War on Christmas”

I delved into WORLDmag.com for ideas for this post and found an opinion piece by Warren Cole Smith about the ongoing “War on Christmas.” (This is a crosspost)

First of all, Jesus is most certainly not the reason for the orgiastic spending spree modern Christmas has become. I certainly think anyone should be able to say “Merry Christmas” if he or she wants to. But given what this holiday has become, there’s a part of me—a big part of me—that wants to keep the Jesus I worship as far away from this commercial debauchery as possible.

Secondly, there are the words themselves. “Christmas” is derived from “Christ’s Mass,” an expression first recorded in the 11th century. “Holiday” is a word derived from “holy day,” an expression that likely has an even more ancient, and no less religious, derivation. Indeed, the phrase “Merry Christmas” was unknown until the 16th century, and it connoted the idea of a Christmas that was—shall we say—festive. In other words, “Merry Christmas” may have been a medieval euphemism for “bottoms-up.”

And, he points out, the advertising they need to “Keep Christ in Christmas” costs money to make, and therefore costs money to buy. Just look at all the crap available via World Net Daily and that’s just bumper stickers.

What was once a quiet and solemn occasion to honor the birth of a baby has become completely commercialized and above and beyond everything the original holy Christian day had been set aside for.

The Manhattan Declaration

A Call of Christian Conscience

Putting the Fun in dysfunctional

Another Thanksgiving perspective via the Addams Family.

The Ritual Sacrifice with Pie

In honour of a holiday tradition, I provide readers with a piece of a post from last year. Whether it’s turkey or tofu, hope everyone’s eating their fill!

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It’s been a while since I trumpeted the fun that is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so a quotable bit from their Turkey Day ep in season four, called Pangs (transcript edited for proper grammar because it was annoying to leave it looking bad):

Gerhardt : And that’s why it’s appropriate that the ground-breaking for the U.C. Sunnydale Cultural Partnership Center is taking place so soon before Thanksgiving. Because that’s what the melting pot is about– Contributions from all cultures, making our culture stronger…

Willow : What a load of horse hooey.

Buffy : We have a counterpoint?

Willow : Yeah. Thanksgiving isn’t about blending of 2 cultures. It’s about one culture wiping out another. And then they make animated specials about the part where, with the maize and the big, big belt buckles. They don’t show you the next scene, where all the bison die and Squanto takes a musket ball in the stomach.

Buffy : Ok. Now, for some of that, you were channeling your mother?

Willow : Well, yeah, sort of. That’s why she doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving or Columbus day– You know, the destruction of the indigenous peoples. I know it sounds a little overwrought, but really, she’s…She’s right.

Buffy : Yeah. I guess I never really thought about it that way. With Mom at Aunt Darlene’s this year, I’m not getting a Thanksgiving. Maybe it’s just as well.

Anya : Well, I think that’s a shame. I love a ritual sacrifice.

Buffy : It’s not really a one of those.

Anya : To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It’s a ritual sacrifice, with pie.

Sarah Palin’s Religious Beliefs

Thoughts about Earth as it is

Olivia Judson has an interesting take on an Evolve-By Date that’s worth commenting on. I offer my own thoughts between paragraphs.

SNL on Palin

SNL on Obama

This video I found very entertaining 😀