<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>Ralph,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Shame on you, again, for trying to ridicule people of faith. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I believe in the Spirit of Saint Nicholas. A man endowed by his creator with the ability to help children. I do not believe in the media market hyped materialistic Santa Clause designed to boost sales and profits. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>St. Nick on Christmas Eve brought me every year as a child, without fail, the most important gift of all, the Love and Birth of Jesus Christ and the sense of family and good will from my community. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As for the materialistic Santa Clause that brings only materialistic gifts, he fails all the time. His gifts usually break within a year, cause deaths in department stores, spreads greed and self deception, and materialism. I believe he is real, but I don't believe in what he stands for. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I am sure you will find many Christians in agreement with my words that the corruption of St. Nick's image and purpose is a grave disservice to children and adults everywhere. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Best Regards,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Donovan<BR><BR>--- On <B>Thu, 1/1/09, Ralph Nielsen <I><nielsen@uidaho.edu></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid">From: Ralph Nielsen <nielsen@uidaho.edu><BR>Subject: [Vision2020] Fragments of our Lord<BR>To: "vision 2020" <Vision2020@moscow.com><BR>Cc: "Donovan Arnold" <donovanjarnold2005@yahoo.com><BR>Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 1:02 PM<BR><BR><PRE> DO YOU BELIEVE IN SANTA CLAUS?
For many years millions of people have believed in Santa Claus. Today
millions more believe in him. Why do so many claim Santa as their
personal
friend? Because they have found that the true way to know Santa is to
believe in him. And the only way to receive his gifts is to become like
little children and have complete faith in him.
Of course some people - agnostics, atheists, freethinkers, liberals, and
secular humanists - claim that Santa Claus is a mythical being who was
invented by humans. But these scoffers and doubters will never destroy
people's faith in him, for as long as people believe in free gifts they
will believe in Santa Claus.
Human gifts have to be made out of earthly materials; Santa creates his
gifts out of nothing. Human gifts have to be paid for; Santa gives us
his
gifts for free. Some people think he needs to be reminded of what they
would like, but Santa already knows what we need. All we have to know is
that Santa Claus is alive and loves us. All we have to do is to make a
personal commitment to believe in him. So won't you, too, accept
Santa's
offer of free gifts? Just kneel down, bow your head, close your eyes,
and
reverently say to yourself:
"Dear Santa Claus. I truly believe in you and want you for my personal
friend. Let me humbly accept your gifts, not because I deserve them, but
because it is your will that I should receive them. Let me not doubt,
but
increase my faith; for the harder I believe in you, the more real you
become. Amen."
I few days after I wrote this I heard a preacher on the radio
praying, "... for the harder we believe in you, the more real you
become." And I thought I was making this up.
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</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>