"Battlefield Christmas"

D. VanThournout -- 12-16-05

I may be biting off more than I can chew here but here it goes.

In my opinion, Christmas has become just about the most perverted display of the commercialization of all that is sacred that Americo has to offer it's "faithful" consumers.

I personally have always preferred Halloween over Christmas anyway since it is more in keeping with the ancient origins of that particular celebration. Halloween comes to us through the Celts. Even that is showing signs of succumbing to "the beast".

Let's take a ride in the way, way back machine....

Long ago Jesus's message of love your enemy was downplayed and Christianity was co-opted by the Romans who seeing they were losing the battle against this new upstart grassroots revolution decided to "convert" to Christianity themselves thus perverting and subverting it politically. And so was born the Holy Roman Catholic Empire.

Interestingly, just as Rome was petering out... Britain was having a moment of inspiration. Having learned the Roman habit of sending a governor with instructions to learn about the local spiritual beliefs in order to pacify an otherwise thoroughly disgruntled tribe. Kind of a reverse diplomacy. This saved on troops by absorbing the native beliefs into the Roman Pantheon thereby giving the impression of freedom to those conquered. Offered the many "benefits" of roads, the concept of private property, money, trade, and (who could forget) a crap load of shiny trinkets, many within a tribe would willingly work with the Romans against the better interests of their people.

By the time the Roman Empire got to what would eventually become England, it had reached the state of Imperial Overreach. Bitten by hubris, England eventually perfected the art of Empire several hundred years later eventually nearly dominating the globe.

The British Empire sealed it's fate when oppressing the American Colonies and we seized the baton of world domination rising through our genocidal mania in a few hundred years to the present position of garrisoning the globe with over 700 military bases. America, superpower, worlds policeman, worlds oppressor.

Now you may ask; "What has all this to do with Christmas?"

Well... besides the fact that Christianity has been perverted, perverted and perverted some more for political reasons for several thousand years, It doesn't have much to do with Christmas at all!"

Which is exactly my point. There is nothing Christmassy or even remotely Christian about any of the vitriol currently being spewed from the mouths of certain self professed "Christians".

Not to say there aren't wonderful examples of Christianity out there, there are lots of people that practice Jesus's philosophy of love in their daily lives. However the ones cloaking themselves in the robes of goodness for political gain are drowning out the voices of the meek. Speak a little louder please....

Actually, Christianity is one of the younger religions of the world. "Christianity" cannot lay exclusive claim to Our Winter celebration of the solstice. In fact Christians co-opted this holiday from the previous "owners" as the celebration has occurred in various forms every year for about two thousands years before the birth of Christ.

There have always been celebrations in the dead of winter. Winter has always been a time of general depression in the north and because of that, virtually all western cultures have a celebration or two during this dark time of year. We celebrate the time when we can look forward to longer and longer days... seems like a good time!

Christians that suggest that Christmas is under attack are using Orwellian speech. The real truth is that our traditional winter celebration whether you call it Christmas, Yule or Saturnalia, it is under attack by commercialism, draining virtually all meaning from the holiday as corporations urge us all to go out and buy a bunch of cheap plastic crap that most of us don't need. Take away all the junk and you have a gathering of family and friends sharing gifts they made themselves, a nice warm fire and some good food to dispel the darkness of the deep winter blues.

What's under attack is America's common sense. By absolutely the weakest load of inane distraction the spinmeister has ever come up with (I'm toning this down quite a bit, words foul enough haven't been invented yet for me to express my true disgust). One can only hope that Bill O'Reilly of Fox "News" (and the rest of the fools he's gotten to go along with his "Christmas is under attack campaign"), have relegated themselves to the dustbin of irrelevancy for this one.

So as Bill attempts to stir up the evangelical grassroots in an effort to save the doomed GOP about to fall flat on it's face over the war in Iraq and Katrina, he is also continuing a great Roman tradition. Holiday aquisition.

Recently Abraham Foxman, director of the New York-based Anti-Defamation League said; "The polls indicate a very serious thing - that over 60 percent of the American people feel that religion and Christianity are under attack,"

"Every room (from bedroom to classroom) in the American mansion is under assault to impose either de facto or de jure a Christian theocracy - I call them Christocrats," said Rabbi James Rudin, former head of interreligious activities for the American Jewish Committee.

"They are people who believe there should be a legally mandated Christian nation, where the concept of separation of church and state is weakened or abandoned," he added.

Rudin said he has met pastors "who say that Jesus Christ is the ultimate leader of America and that God's law trumps the Constitution ... I'm very concerned."

Interestingly, the very Constitution of which they speak, claims that these rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are not bestowed by any government but are actually god given rights. And therefore free will is good. The very idea that if everyone were able to pursue their own happiness freely, as long as they did not harm others, our society would in fact be an enlightened society is the thinking behind that documentation of a basic moral truth. No one should accept overbearing religious authority. Besides, who would Jesus bomb?

So... Why the "War on Christmas", simply stated:

The Modern Barbarian Hordes

Christmas was consumed by the voracious beast empire long ago. If you want to make it choke up a gift for you, try not to forget what the holiday is all about. This gift comes to you possibly from slave labor, from an increasingly weakened environment at prices that do not reflect the real value of such things.

The role of Christmas in society should be one that inspires good will and a spirit of giving during a time that many go hungry and alone. Instead, in America, Christmas has become a time of receiving. It is now being used as a battlefield for the misinformers at Fox "News".

Christmas is under attack alright... by the Christian right playing themselves up as the victims of an imaginary war on Christmas for nothing other than political gain. They are using an ancient sacred holiday as a battleground. The modern day barbarian hordes are knocking at the gates of democracy. And they do hate our freedoms.

D. VanThournout

Contact the author at DVanThournout@thedeprogrammer.com

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