Taking the Christ out of Christmas?!

Oh! I thought you were going to talk about Mas, my favorite holiday...hehe.

hahaha! maybe to be PC we should change it to that!

"for playing secular Christmas Music at their holiday concert"

Did you mean religious music? Secular means "worldly" as opposed to religious. Unless you mean that they were criticized for playing music that wasn't religious enough.

It has already been posted in several places that, following the text of the Bible, December 25th was NOT the day that Jesus was born. Mary and Joseph were, according to the Bible, in route to a census, which fixes the date of Jesus' birth around the Jewish holiday of Sukkot or in early October (maybe late September.) See http://www.btinternet.com/~prgreetham/Wisemen/chron3.html for a detailed explanation.

The December 25th date was adopted, at least in part, because it was an important date to some of the pagan tribes that were converting to early Christianity. Just like the symbols of the evergreen and misteltoe, both of which have pagan origins.

Regardless of that, the Christmas holiday has taken on a meaning of it's own. It means the spirit of fellowship and goodwill to all, both values that Jesus espoused and would embrace today.

Well, in reality there are really two Christmases (or is it Chirstmi?).

There is the Christian celebration of Christ's birth and the secular celebration of shopping, exchanging gifts, getting drunk on egg nog and singing "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer".

Apparently some school systems have launched efforts to keep the students from getting drunk. Of course they are also concerned about students blaming antlered mammals for grandma's demise (not to mention the total lack of respect for elders the song celebrates). With all this at hear, they have apparently opted to try to erase the whole secular side of Christmas completely.

Oh yeah, and we can't have the other side of Christmas mentioned now can we.

actually they played both sacred and secular...but i thought the secular part was more shocking...like holly jolly christmas..there's no religious ties with that song...

for as many hits as my blog is getting, i'm suprised i'm not getting more comments

Absolute rubbish. No one has any idea what day Christ was born. They chose the day of a Pagan festival. You may have heard the term "yuletide"!!!! The holiday many of us celebrate come December 25 is much more like Yuletide than anything to do with the man who started a religion 2009ish years ago. So why shouldn't people be allowed to sing songs that don't mention JC? If we celebrate Xmas for other reasons, we should darn well be allowed to do that. Go celebrate your man-God in your little church!

Larry iI give you an insightful- I think most people agree that the 25th of December was not the actual birth date of Christ.
I have no problem with when it is celebrated... but I do think that this biirth of God's Son is worthy of celebration . Emmanuel "God with us".

None of this is not offensive IF you believe the scriptures are true. I do!

Merry Christmas
preacherman

Thanks Champas, and you enjoy celebrating your Godless Man how you see fit.

Thanks, Para. Come join me for a drink down at the pub after the service ay!

25th of December was not the actual birth date of Christ.

Well, you still got a 1 in 365.25 chance

Public schools still sing religious music year round. They just sing it in Latin. How do they get away with this? Because it is classic repetoir and is dismissed like reading Job for a literature class-- it's not religion anymore-- it's just historical, literary, and a classic to be studied.

Christmas is not Christ's birthday. Jesus was not born in december. Besides, the bible doesn't tell us anywhere to celebrate his birthday. But it does tell us to celebrate his death.

Where have you been hiding? Schools and other governmental institutions all over the country are being forced to eliminate any religious reference whatsoever, especially at Christmas time. Check out Tongue-Tied (Holiday Cheer archive) for a few recent occurrances.

I say let's just celebrate and stop the rhetoric that's going on. So, Jesus' birthday is not on December 25, at least we're still celebrating Him and we get the time to be with our families. All this is making Christmas not so nice.

Does anybody seem to think it is Christ and the Bible that is the real issue?

There are other observances (acknowlegements) that take place in the public school that have references to other religions. How about Thanksgiving or even Halloween? Could that be construed as having a relious flavor? What about the study or reading of Muslim material. We hear of that being done in schools, with little or no objection. What about the emphasis on Earth Day- Mother Earth? There are some people that worship the creation. Does that have a religious flavor? Should any or all of it be allowed?

Merry Christmas
preacherman

Jesus was a radical rabbi who had no idea that some A type personalities were going to use his bio to set up an organized religion. Except for the crusades and the spanish Inquisition, christianity was used as a civilizing force;(even that is arguable)

Jesus was a radical rabbi who had no idea that some A type personalities were going to use his bio to set up an organized religion.

I'll have to disagree with you on this one. Jesus called 12 leaders, taught them his "radical" gospel, then charged them to go teach the world (or am I misreading "If you love me, feed my sheep" ?).

Not really trying to get into a Bible Bash here, but I've heard that concept before and to me it just doesn't seem to fit with scripture. Just interested to read your thoughts behind it. Because this is straying from the intent of this article, feel free to Email me directly if you want: [email protected]

good king sauerkraut
looked out on his feets uneven.
saw his nose a-runnin round
snifflin and a-sneezin 
          one of several yuletime carols performed by pogo & his swampulist associates
           lyrics by walt kelley, pogo's creator.

Damn, I think christmas in today's age and time is nothing more than a commercial holiday and to check out how much 'others' love me or not; cynical damn straight, never here about Christ during the holiday at anytime even when I was at gatherings from friends who were a little bit more 'christian." Although, last year during a toy drive someone 'forced' me to look into giving (damn, looked at a christmas tree with all those little hands); so that felt good but you don't really hear about that on christmas.


.............................
typical comment I suppose: after christmas,
What I got a sweater?
You cheap bastard!

Ahhh... good old Nietsche quote:
"There was only one true christian and he died on the cross"

Believe that was it word for word; some common misconceptions was that Nietsche was an atheist but really he was agnostic; sort of Dyonesian in philosophy (although I guess he was anti-drinking) which sort of falls out since the god dyonisus was the god of wine or some such; mostly, I think religion was supposed to be a celebration of life; actions in orthopraxy not what it has been turned into by others within orthodoxy (rules; etc.). So giving is good; preaching about being good and doing nothing is bad. Dancing, celebrating life is also good. Can agree with that.
Oddly enough, ideotrope|One True Christian

/had a class 'the question of god" which is still stuck in my head on this topic.

I mention Jesus Christ everyday...

When I stub my toe on the door....
When I jam my fingers in the drawer....
When I trip over the cat....

Should I be censored....?

that isn't my point wise ass...i'm saying isn't christmas a religious holiday?

that isn't my point wise ass...i'm saying isn't christmas a religious holiday?

I thought it was the night a fat dude in a red suit tried to cram his ass down my chimney....

So who the !@#$ have I been leaving cookies for all these years? Better yet who is eating them? Think of it this way....what is "Christian" about a bunch of kids tearing apart diligently wrapped assortments with the tenacity of a Bulldozer and then squabble over "he got a bigger one than me" all night long.

the concept of santa should be found in your heart....apparently yours is stuck in between your ass cheeks...