Tuesday, November 20, 2012

One Explanation for the Grinch?

Billy Hallowell reports on another case of Christian-phobia, this time an outburst of Christmas-bashing:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/water-tower-christmas-cross-to-be-replaced-with-holiday-tree-in-il-town-after-atheists-threaten-suit/

Two factors that may have emboldened these atheists:

1. The Cross has nothing to do with Christmas. The Crucifixion occurred in spring, around Passover. (There's even some controversy whether the "sabbath" mentioned in the Bible was a Saturday, the "weekly sabbath," or Passover, a "yearly sabbath" that could be observed on other days; if Passover fell on a Thursday that year, the "three days and three nights" prophecy could have ended "on the first day of the week.")

Actually, Jesus is connected with the twenty-fifth of December only in a tangential way. We don't know when He was born but it was probably in October. However, on realizing that every culture has a traditional winter solstice festival, the early Christian Church decided to convert that festival into a Christian celebration of giving to those in need, and the image of the Holy Family finding no vacancies in the inns works for calls for charitable donations, at least in the northern hemisphere.

2. The Christmas season starts after Thanksgiving.

Efforts to rush, commercialize, and exploit the Christmas season alienate Christians too, as Christina Cheddar Berk reports here:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/sad-new-poll-claims-45-percent-would-rather-skip-christmas-heres-why/

Please, Gentle Readers, hold your reindeer. Give people time to digest Thanksgiving dinner before you start hanging lights.

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