Merry Christmas Already

Don't get me wrong, I like Dizzyland, but with the entire place already decked out with Santa, Christmas trees, wreaths, ornaments, music, and fake snow, it was weird that nothing in the whole park (that I could find) said Merry Christmas. The most glaring spot was on Small World. The closest they came was Feliz Navidad, but it's in Spanish. Even the new section that's supposed to represent the US said Ho Ho Holiday. The Chinese section said Happy New Year.

I know it's a post Christian nation, they keep telling us, but for pete's sake, would the Hindus, Muslims, and the rest really throw such a fit over using "Merry Christmas" once in a while? I don't think they would, and it was offensive to me that they did not. Disney has  "Gay Day Celebration,"  "Happy Hearts Day," for disabled people, and "Deaf Awareness Day," but won't call a horse a horse at Christmas.

The one exception is a Candlelight Processional, where a procession of carolers sings traditional Christmas carols and a celebrity narrates the biblical Christmas story. They do this once a year and it is supposed to be great, and it packs out every time.

The poor corporate decision to not use the term Christmas in the other two months they have the park decorated for *Christmas* is baffling.

Pay it Off

"I had always thought that Christians were supposed to stop sinning and attend church, so they could then donate money to the pastor so he could lead people into a relationship with God. Some of these radical college students I met actually wanted to be a part of serving others personally rather than paying someone else to do it." Eric Bryant, Peppermint Filled Pinatas.

A little bit cynical maybe, but Eric makes a very good point here. He's talking about when he was in college and met some people who went to Baylor who acted out their faith differently than some people he knew who were cultural Christians who seemed to attend church and live, we can assume, in hypocrisy.

This is one of the most frequent charges I hear against the church and her people. They say one thing on Sunday, and live another way the rest of the week. There are hypocrites everywhere because there are people everywhere. People are human and will always fail you in one sense or another, so finding some hypocrisy in a group of people should not be surprising. Also, it's much easier to dismiss a message that is difficult to hear if it requires changes and action by you, not just criticism. It something that Christians should be very aware of and should work to change if they can.

It's even more challenging once you've accepted the basic tenets of Christianity. This personal charge to change the way you operate is not just one that requires you keep your word to fix your hypocrisy, it goes to every part of your life. God doesn't want to just selectively pluck the obviously diseased leaves, he's ready to give a wholesale pruning. Jesus said it was like being reborn.

Once you're ready for that he'll work on upkeep, too, and present you with new challenges to make you grow. One of the big areas he's given us is with telling others about him, and going out into other cultures to do this. He tells stories of hurt people who are helped and says go and do likewise. He says, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?"

He tells his followers to "go and make disciples of all nations", but it's easier, as Eric put it, to pay someone else to do it. When you say, "The cost of going there and doing the work myself would be better spent if I just sent them the money," you are saying that you would rather pay someone else to do what God is asking you to do. God would rather have your time and work than your money.

The benefit of doing the work is experience, and the journey, and the change you will make in someone's life. The chance you would have to do that is what God is after, not the chance to click a donate now button. You can alleviate some guilt, I guess, by donating to the cause or paying someone else to "go and do likewise," but you're really cheating yourself. He wants you to help the widows and orphans, and to care for the sick and help those who are unloved. You're his proxy while you're here.

It wasn't easy for him while he was here, and if you are feeling like you've done your job by giving to the shelter, you're only half right.

You are missing the hardest, yet most fulfilling part.

Herbert Bayard Swope

The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor | Illustrated Guide to Familiar American Trees by Charlie Smith: "It's the birthday of journalist Herbert Bayard Swope, (books by this author) born in St. Louis in 1882. He said, 'I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure — which is: Try to please everybody.'"

J.M. Barrie Quote

"When you wake in the morning, the naughtiness and evil passions with which you went to bed have been folded up small and placed at the bottom of your mind and on the top, beautifully aired, are spread out your prettier thoughts, ready for you to put on."

This is from the book Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. It was written in 1911, and contrary to the Johnny Depp version in the movie Finding Neverland, Barrie was actually a hot dog vendor on the streets of Cleveland, Ohio, when he wrote that. His inspiration was a not a young boy with a sick mother, but a mean old landlady who berated him for his rent at least three times a day. He ended up spending his life in prison for her murder, when he threw her into Lake Erie with an old fashioned ice hook through the chest.

It must be bedtime.

Garrison Keillor Quote

That's the thing about Christianity -- it goes right straight to the hard part. Jesus didn't lay out a twelve step program, sort of a gradual step up. He just said love your neighbor as yourself. There are no incremental steps that lead up to this. Love cool people, love young people, love your grandchildren, love people who give you nice gifts, love Cary Grant and Betty Davis, love old blues singers who are dead, love some of your neighbors. It just goes right straight to it -- love your neighbor as yourself, give all you have to the poor and follow me. To Wham! The impossible. You start with the impossible.

Johnny Cash Quote

I'm still a Christian, as I have been all my life. Beyond that I get complicated.

- Johnny Cash

I don't know if I heart Huckabee, but I am certain about the rest

Mike Huckabee is getting flak for possibly showing something covertly Christian in the background of one of his pre-Christmas ads for Prez. Of course it's ridiculous, but shouldn't the critics of this one be embarrassed a little, too? From Reuters:

Huckabee, who has come out of nowhere to lead Republican polls in Iowa and challenge Giuliani for the lead in national polls, took criticism from Republican candidate Ron Paul on Tuesday for a "Merry Christmas" advertisement that included a book shelf behind him that looked like a Christian cross.

Hey Ron, he used to be a preacher. What do you expect? Maybe he could preach a
sermon and get Patti Labelle's choir to sing backup.

At least he's more up front about what he believes than Mitt Romney. A message board I occasionally visit had a question about whether or not Romney was a Christian. The answer to me seems obvious -- no -- but that's because I have more than a cursory interest in what it means to be one.

Ron Paul has a lot of internet buzz but I think you'd be hard pressed to get anyone to vote for a guy who is more wooden than Al Gore, hero of American environmentalists.

There's Freddy Thompson, who unfortunately, looks half dead. McCain always sounds like a normal guy until he's pressed on one issue or anther, then sounds like he's a populist. The rest don't seem to have half a chance.

There are the Democrats to consider but let me give you half a dozen reasons why I can't seriously consider one of them for the job:

• Anti-Christian. Not only that, but anti-God.
• Gun control. I'm agin' it.
• Abortion. I'm agin' it, too.
• axes. I'm agin' 'em. They ain't.
• Socialism and Big Government. I'm agin' it.
  

That's a short list, and nothing to do with the individuals running. Obama's church attendance has made the news, and that seems better than the psuedo-religion that worships State that most candidates have. If these guys were serious about their faith, and could convince me of it, I would take a look around at different parties, and I've been a Republican since 1980.

Of course, you would think that would mean they would have to change their stance on a few key issues.

Or they could go the RINO route, like Arnie. It worked for him.