As I understand it, the only appropriate way to properly honor the Winter Solstice is to honor the date of Christ's birth. After all, we are a nation built by Christians, as Christians, for Christians. Anything that seems to be contrary to that notion is a part of the "War On Christmas."

Hmmmmm.

The fact is that for this country's first 200 years (early 1600s to early-mid 1800s), Christmas celebrations were rare. In many parts of the land, Christmas celebrations were outlawed - by code or by the equally powerful customs of, ummmmm, Christians who had immigrated from Europe.

Those Founding Fathers? Well, Congress was in session most Christmas Days from the beginning (1789) until ~1855. Why? It was a work day because Christmas was NO BIG DEAL to the FFs - or to the rest of "Christian" America.

Another fact: for the 1st 400 years of Christianity, Christmas as a day of feasting (or worshiping) did not exist. Even the most devout of Christians celebrated various pagan festivals and holidays involving the Winter Solstice. Around 400 AD the Christian church created a Holy Day in an effort to redirect the flock's attention to matters more Holy. The effort backfired, but that's a whole other story. The pagan celebrations continued - in Europe - to this day. In the colonies - and later in the USA - Christian celebrations of Christmas didn't catch on until well into the 19th century (the 1800s).

While we're at it.... scientists and Bible scholars agree:

• Christ was not born in the year 0
• Christ was not born on December 25 (however, several people of note - including your favorite blogger - were born on 12/25). The above-mentioned action by the Church is what pegged the day as December 25 - during the pagan feasts.
  
• The "manger story" is highly suspect; several elements of the story defy logic and the prevailing customs of Palestine 2000 years ago.
• The "Christmas Star" was probably not a star. More likely it was an astronomical phenomenon that only existed in the context of viewing the skies from the planet Earth. That same phenomenon would not display from any other angle, from anywhere else in the universe.
  
  The Christmas Star's only real significance would have been to astrologers.... people who explain everything in terms of how stars and planets appear in the sky (and only from the Earth). Astrologers are an anathema to Christians and to scientists. The "3 Wise Men" were simply astrologers who became curious about an astronomical anamoly. I hear they wrote fortune cookie texts and had an astrology-based advice column in the Daily Papyrus. They were what we would today call "Iranians" because they lived (and wrote their advice column) in what we now call Iran.
  

None of this screed is intended to diminish the significance of Christmas. My intention is to strip away the hogwash surrounding Christmas. With reality in mind, you readers can now contemplate or celebrate or ignore Christmas - for all the right reasons.

As for the "War on Christmas," it is simply a propaganda campaign designed to direct hate and discontent at people with whom some people disagree.

Take that, Bill O'Reilly¹ - and your fellow-traveling band of morons.

¹ Why Christmas Matters (by Wee Willy O'Reilly)

Labels: astrology, christian, christmas star, pagan, paid holidays, solstice, War on Christmas

[ source: CBS News ]

Christians and Christianity have been in Iraq since 35 C.E., when the Apostle Thomas went eastward to spread the Gospel. The church has thrived in peace with its Muslim neighbors for fourteen centuries.

Over the centuries Iraq's Muslims and Christians survived invasions by Mongols and Turks. They lived and thrived within a nation whose majority was Islam.

Under Saddam Hussein's regime, Christians were respected and treated as were any other Iraqi citizens. Tariq Aziz, Saddam's most valued adviser, was a Christian.

A million strong (albeit a minority) they enjoyed religious freedom - free to build churches, free to worship, free to speak Jesus' language (Aramaic).Most Iraqi Christians lived in a neighborhood called Dora, where Christians, Sunnis, and Shiites had lived together.

Now Iraq's Christians are fleeing their ancestral home to avoid being persecuted, hunted, kidnapped, and and murdered in the Shia vs Sunni civil war that rages on in Iraq. The frequent funerals are often conducted without the bodies of the deceased. Nearly all of the Christian churches have been abandoned or are destroyed. Most of the surviving members have fled to Jordan and Syria. Those who stay risk their lives and live in abject poverty. For many of those left behind, the only significant food is the weekly meal provided by the Church.

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What changed everything was the American invasion, occupation, and destabilization.

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Reverend Andrew Canon White is an Anglican chaplain and the Vicar of Baghdad. According to White, "The situation now is clearly worse than under Saddam."

"There’s no comparison between Iraq now and then," he told [CBS reporter Scott] Pelley. "Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians. Probably ever in history. They’ve never known it like now."

The U.S. military cannot help very much. Protecting the Christian churches would lead to the murder of more Christians. According to U.S. Army Colonel Gibbs, Islamic militants would view that as a Christians' collaboration with the U.S. forces.

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Has "The Surge" helped? Possibly, but it's hard to tell, since Christians were fleeing before the surge, and have continued to flee during the surge.

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This misery is testing the faith of Iraq's Christians.

"[This is ] happening because religion has gone wrong," [ Canon Andrew ] White told Pelley. "And when religion goes wrong, it kills others."

Pelley asked, "The Muslim religion has gone wrong, is that what you're saying?"

"It has. And in the past, Christianity has gone wrong," White says. "And what I say to people very clearly is that the history of Christianity is no better than the history of Islam."

"Some of your parishioners must ask you 'Why is God allowing this to happen to us?' " Pelley asked.

"To them I say, 'God is with you and he is with me and I am with you and I'm not going away,'" White replied.

Labels: christian, christian in Iraq, Christianity, civil war, persecution, saddam, shia, shiite, sunni, Tariq Aziz

We were told that we invaded Iraq to, in part, bring a better life to the people of Iraq. How have we done?

1. They no longer have to live under Saddam Hussein, with his torture and killing of Iraqi citizens.
2. There are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in their midst.
3. They had a national election a few years ago
4. There are no terrorists collaborating with Saddam.

Now the Iraqi people enjoy the best of the dreams of American conservatives. Here's a Top Ten (or so...) List of the coolest things about living in Iraq:

• No Gun Control.
• Only 1 legislative body to buy.
• A free market, restrained only by guns and bombs.
• No one watches Michael Moore's movies.
• A pure supply-and-demand system with low supply, high demand, and astronomical prices.
• People willing to stand in line and pay any price for gasoline.
• No trial lawyers.
• It's easy to keep the peasants happy: free air conditioning in every building.
• No Canadians next door.
• Gated communities rock!
• No credit card bills.
• Law according to a book of faith, written many centuries ago, as interpreted by whomever has the biggest, baddest arsenal to enforce the law.
• No illegal immigrants.
• An unregulated health care system where them that gots is them that gets; everyone else gets eaten up in the dog-eat-dog world of natural selection (that same 'natural selection' process which doesn't exist, according to many conservatives).
• No Pure Food and Drug inspectors.
• Huge demand for items containing lead and spent uranium (are you listening, China?)
• No liberal media.
• Don't have to waste money on infrastructure such as roads, bridges, sewage treatment, water treatment (clean water is for losers, anyway).
• No liberal professors in the colleges, corrupting the children.
• Everything is privatized - even the militias.
• Don't have to worry about having to sue businesses.... or neighbors."
• No Social Security.
• Can build noo-kew-ler power plants anywhere, any time.
• No minimum wage.
• Most minorities know their place and lay low or leave the country.
• No zoning laws.
• Education only for those who can afford it.
• No environmentalists.
• Tax collectors too afraid to venture out to collect.
• No pollution control laws.
• Might makes right.
• You don't have to get confused by saying 'reform' when you mean 'get rid of'.
• No damned 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Amendments
• Cops don't have to bother with "you have the right to remain silent, you have the right to an attorney...
• Religious freedom, as long as you worship at the right place.
• No worries about having the right shoes or dress for the occasion.
• Women's health issues are not worth considering.
• A "Flat Tax" on income (really!).
• No saftey inspectors.
• Screw the U.N.
• No insurance premiums to pay.

and the number one cool thing about living in Iraq

No Democrats.

Dick Cheney: if you're reading this, try to not get any on the keyboard. It makes the keys all sticky.

Labels: christian, conservative, flat tax, free market, gun control, iraq, jewish, liberal media., liberal professors, minimum wage, religious freedom, social security, unregulated, Zoroastrian