[Vision2020] Merry Christmas (I think)

[keely emerinemix]

As the only person on this list who has spent time one-on-one in person with both Joan Opyr AND Jerry 
Falwell -- yes, it's true -- and as a worshipper of Jesus Christ, who I will see in person some day, let me just say that once again, Joan hits several nails right on the head with her rhetorical hammer.  Her postscript is what I should have engraved on my Christmas cards.  

O'Reilly's idea that Christmas celebrates the birthday of "Jesus the philosopher" is pathetic.  No one who worships Christ as Lord believes him to be just an especially enlightened philosopher, and those who don't worship him don't care.  So, really now, is it a hallmark (no pun intended, Joan) of true devotion to empty the Savior of all that Christians believe him to be and then fill up the holiday with the excreta of commercialism, just so we can triumphantly say that we're a "Christian" nation celebrating his birth?  Jesus as mannequin, mascot, mammon or man -- why bother?  Wouldn't Jesus prefer that he be worshipped in spirit and in truth by those called by his name, rather than as a float or a giant balloon in the Macy's parade of false piety that Christmas in the U.S. has now become?  

Yep, we Christians are really persecuted by "happy holidays" and "season's greetings," and I hope that after we pay off our Visas and give last year's stuff to Goodwill, we rise up to express our outrage -- if it doesn't take us away from talk radio for too long. The poor, oppressed, lonely and brutalized have hogged the spotlight of victimization for too long . . . although damned if they've gone largely unnoticed by such a "Christian" nation.  Huh.

And by the way, I'm not beholden to Dec. 25, Jan. 6, or Jesus-as-leap-year-baby; I'm beholden to him and grateful for those shameless agitators who speak truth and shake things up.  Bless you, Joan.

And the rest of you as well,

keely emerine mix
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Joan Opyr 
  To: Vision2020 Moscow 
  Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 5:47 PM
  Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Merry Christmas (I think)


  Tom forwards the following from Dale Courtney's Blog:

  “I've noticed a curious tendency in the mainstream media to label this as a battle against the secularization of Christmas. Actually, that battle has been ongoing for decades. What's new this year is a concerted effort by the secularist Left to purge Christmas altogether (Christian and secular) from our culture.”

  Yeah, this seems to be the latest theme on Fox News, played ad nauseum on The O'Reilly Factory, Hannity & Colmes, and the rest of the paranoid, right-wing echo chamber.  O'Reilly recently went so far as to tell a Jewish caller to his radio show that "overwhelmingly, America is Christian.  And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus.  So, you don't wanna hear about it?  Impossible . . .  if you're really offended, you gotta go to Israel then."  Nice, huh?  If you don't love that seedy-looking department store Santa, or if you're not enjoying the four-thousand, nine hundred, and fifty-sixth playing of Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" over the PA system at Wal-Mart, then emigration is your only recourse.  America: love our hokey, crass, commercialized Christmas or get the hell out of our country.  We mean it -- git!

  Listen, if a memo was sent by "the American Left" to all Jews, Muslims, Pagans, secularists, agnostics, atheists, and people who hate the Hallmark Store telling us that now was the time to put the "X" back in X-Mas, how come I didn't get a copy?  Why am I not on Scrooge's mailing list?  What did I do wrong?  Did he not see that big honking menorah I put up in my living room window?  Next year, I'm going to light up the shrubbery with Stars of David.  

  Honestly, I do wonder just what it would take to satisfy the likes of Dale Courteney, Bill O'Reilly, and Jerry Falwell.  Must we all fall down and recognize December 25th as the birthday of Jesus?  What about Orthodox Christians, who celebrate on January 6th?  Or Jehovah's Witnesses, who believe passionately in Jesus as the Messiah but don't celebrate Christmas?  Since the Biblical evidence suggests that Jesus was born sometime in the spring, it's all very tricky.  Why does Jesus have an official birthday, like the Queen of England?  December 25th originally marked a Roman celebration honoring the pagan god Mithras.  The first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine, decided it might be handy (and induce more converts) to combine the two.  But never mind.  Who needs history when we can have clap-trap?  

  So, happy birthday, Jesus.  I hope you get a really nice cake this year and not one of those candied fruit doorstops that Safeway sells for a dollar a loaf.  (Make that fifty cents a loaf if you celebrate on the less popular January 6th.)

  Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
  www.auntie-establishment.com 

  PS: Come on, Dale, Bill, and Jerry, tell the truth.  It's all about buying stocking stuffers at The Dollar Store, isn't it?  If you really gave a damn about Christmas -- if you really cared about Jesus the philosopher -- you'd quit worrying about whether or not the staff at Target said "Merry Christmas" or "Season's Greetings" and worry instead about the poor and the hungry, the needy and the homeless.  Someone this year would have a job thanks to you, or a good meal, or a warm place to sleep.  Instead, I suspect, you'll just buy the kids a Nintendo.

    


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