Monday, December 19, 2005

Cal Thomas has a moment of lucidity

I rarely, if ever, agree with right-wing columnist Cal Thomas -- or much of anything posted at TownHall.com -- but I'm entertained by his column using Scripture, Christmas songs, and, well, actualy Christianity to knock the wind out of the histrionic and bogus "War on Christmas" meme. Here's just a taste:


I have never understood why so many Christians feel the need to see and hear "Merry Christmas" proclaimed to them at stores by people who may not believe its central message. While TV personalities, junk mail letters and some of the ordained bemoan the increasing secularization of culture; perhaps some teaching might be helpful from the One in whose behalf they claim to speak.

[...]

Paul the Apostle said, "We live by faith, not by sight." (2 Cor. 5:7). Jesus spoke a parable about the Kingdom of Heaven resembling a treasure hidden in a field (Matthew 13:44). The Apostle John warned, "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." (1 John 2:15-17)

Let's see: Should the crass commercialization of "Christmas" and the focus on accumulating and giving stuff (each sold separately; batteries not included) be part of this indictment? Even a casual observer or biblical illiterate might reasonably draw such a conclusion.


What mystifies me -- among other things in this nonsensical pice of astroturf outrage -- is that the bleating drones who demand that everyone scream "Merry Christmas" as loudly and joylessly as they want them to don't seem to give a rat's ass about Easter, which is a far, far more significant Christian holiday. After all, everybody gets born. But there's only one guy who came back to life...

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