The Omega Letter Intelligence Digest
Vol: 51 Issue: 9 - Friday, December 09, 2005
Sheep to the Slaughter. . .
An elementary school in Wisconsin recently changed the name of 'Silent Night' to 'Cold in the Night' -- changing the lyrics to remove any hint of Christianity.
The school's "Winter Program's" rewritten Christmas carol "Silent Night" turns the celebration of the Birth of the Savior into a winter weather report:
"Cold in the night, no one in sight;
Winter winds whirl and bite.
How I wish I were happy and warm,
Safe with my family out of the storm."
Ridgeway Elementary School's lawyer explained that the school was following its policy of including other mainstream traditions and religions, putting up decorations of Santa Claus, Kwanzaa symbols, menorahs and, according to the lawyer, Labafana.
Labafana? That 'mainstream holiday tradition' taught as being on a par with Christmas required a little research.
It appears that Labafana is an Italian version of Santa Claus, only Labafana is a witch who makes her delivery rounds riding on a broom. According to the legend, Labafana was invited by the three wise men to come see the Christ child, but she demurred, saying she was too busy.
At some later point, (if I am understanding the legend correctly), remorseful, Labafana suffered a psychotic break, and now travels throughout Italy each Christmas Eve, delivering presents while in search of the Christ child.
The 'true meaning' of Christmas! While celebrating Kwanzaa by singing about freezing during a snowstorm, kids can wait for a witch on a broom who is recycling presents she intended to give Jesus, had she not been too busy to stop in and see Him on His birthday.
In the nation's capital, the White House broke with its tradition of sending out Christmas cards and sent out a 'holiday greeting' card wishing recipients a politically-correct but utterly meaningless 'Happy Holidays' -- as if everybody were taking off to Cancun on vacation.
It took an Act of Congress (literally) sponsored by House Speaker Denny Hastert [R-Ill] to restore the name of the National Christmas Tree from its absurd alias as America's 'National Holiday Tree'.
Assessment:
The whole Christmas debate is problematic for many Christians. First, there is the historical truth about Christmas. We'll get the negatives out of the way first;
An annual celebration of the Birth of the Savior is entirely without Scriptural support. Nowhere in the New Testament was there any mention of celebrating His birth. The angels were announcing a one-time miraculous event taking place in real time, not setting a precedent for an annual birthday party.
"A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth." (Ecclesiastes 7:1)
Rigid traditionalists accurately argue our salvation was obtained by the Man Who accepted responsibility for the sins of mankind, not a helpless baby in a manger.
It is unlikely in the extreme that Jesus was born in December. It was too cold for shepherds to be on the hilltops with their flocks. They would winter in pastures in the sheltered valleys below.
December 25 marks the Roman pagan feast of Saturnalia, which is itself a ripoff of the Babylonian feast celebrating the traditional Chaldean 'son-god' Tammuz.
In 19th century England, Christmas was a time of drinking and carousing. It didn't gain respectability as a religious, family-oriented holiday until after Charles Dickens published 'A Christmas Carol' in 1840.
In the United States, Christmas was banned in some places until the late 19th century. The Puritans prohibited any "pagan revelry", and in 1659 enacted a law in Massachusetts which provided that "Whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like... shall be subjected to a fine of five shillings".
Thomas Nast did for American Christmas what Charles Dickens did in England. (Nash and Coca Cola)
Nast was an illustrator for Harper’s magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s and he depicted Santa’s workshop at the North Pole and his list of good and bad children. Then in 1931, Coca-Cola ran a series of advertisements depicting Santa as a fully human giver of gifts, exactly as he appears today.
In 1939, Robert May, an advertising agent working for the Montgomery Ward department store, developed Rudolf, the ninth, red-nosed reindeer as a highly lucrative sales ploy. Santa Claus and his reindeer did much to advance the capitalistic interests of the commercial sector, and in-store displays featuring Santa became common place.
Ok, now that we've gotten all that out of the way, what difference does it make? Some people view Christmas as a celebration of the Birth of the Savior.
It doesn't matter if it is the correct calendar date -- it doesn't make any difference if there is no Scriptural support for celebrating birthdays, either. There's no Scriptural prohibition -- and God looks at the heart, anyway.
Paul addresses this issue head-on, saying, "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." (Romans 14:5)
Christmas is an American cultural holiday, but it is NOT a secular holiday. It is an American custom to celebrate the Savior's birth on December 25th, and has been as long as any living American can remember.
According to polls, Christmas is celebrated by 96% of all Americans, regardless of their religious persuasion as a cultural holiday, but, as already noted, that is not the same as a secular holiday.
Labor Day is a secular holiday, enacted expressly to honor the American labor force. Christmas is a religious holiday, enacted expressly to honor the Birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
It doesn't matter whether one is a Jew, a Christian, a Buddhist, an atheist or a humanist, whether one believes in Him or not, Jesus IS the reason for the season.
And since there is no Scriptural requirement to celebrate Christmas, it follows that there are no Scriptural rules outlining the appropriate method to do so.
The 'religious rules' observed by some Christians prohibiting Christmas trees, Christmas presents, feasting, etc., are as man-made as the cultural rules that mandate them.
"He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it." (Romans 14:6)
Christianity in America, although probably in a form unrecognizable to the Founding Fathers, is still the religion of the vast majority of Americans.
So, why is it that a handful of secularists can so bamboozle the majority that even department stores depending on Christians for their annual profits feel safe forbidding employees from wishing customers a 'Merry Christmas'?
Because they can. We let them.
We even help, in the name of 'Christian tolerance' -- an odd oxymoron to choose for a religious worldview that revolves around the unquestionably intolerant doctrine that salvation comes only by faith in Jesus Christ.
The history of Christian persecution shares a common thread with the history of Jewish persecution. The Apostle Paul was quoting the Old Testament when he observed;
"For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." (Romans 8:36)
The Bible says that during the Tribulation, Christians and Jews will be rounded up for their faith and slaughtered wholesale for refusing to offer worship to the antichrist.
This was another one of those prophecies that I read as a young man and thought, "it could never happen in America." But that was before saying "Merry Christmas" in public was a crime.
It doesn't sound so unbelievable anymore.
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