Christmas in America Circa 2009
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Ominous signs tha
t our culture is in rapid decline are everywhere. One solid barometer of this can be accurately measured beginning about a month before Christmas. It seems that in the last twenty years or so the blatant attacks against Christians and Christmas have intensified in America. Why is this? Who or what can be behind this? These are formidable questions for our time, for we can readily rule out coincidence when it comes to bashing and discrediting Christianity.
It is during this time of the year, what some today are calling the Christmas season and others “the holidays,” that some of the most vile and base human emotions and motivations come out to roost. Christmas in western culture, circa 2009, serves as a fascinating and inauspicious indicator of the climate of meaningless and spiritual vacuum that we crave today.
It is during Christmas that PBS launches a barrage of documentaries that attempt to “explore” the facts behind that mysterious and vague figure who Christians embrace as their savior. The denizens of militant secularity who run PBS do not waste an opportunity to shamelessly ask, over and over, “Who was Jesus?” and “Do we know anything definitive about Jesus?” The deeply-felt scorn and real-world hate toward Christianity that is thinly veiled in such documentaries is actually a form of maniacal self-loathing that says more about the producers of these shows than about the billions of followers of that shady religious leader who they call Jesus.
It is also during Christmas that a malignant atheist here, a well-placed, self-described agnostic there, begins their well-conceived assault on public displays of mangers, Christian symbols and any mention of Christmas, because this offends their pagan sensibility. These militant atheists are actually quite instructive case-studies, for anyone who has spent great amounts of time in their company understands just how troubled and tortured the lives of these lost souls truly are.
It is not difficult to conceive of non-Christians or even people who are not religious, but who are not fazed, either way, by Christians and their celebration of Christmas. These people look at Christmas much like the casual sport fan who watches two teams that he does not care for. This fan is simply not interested, yet allows the spectacle unfolding before him to entice him. However, this is not the case for the militant, socially/politically charged atheists in our midst. These people cannot bear to watch the game. They merely wish that the spectacle did not exist at all. Again, this reveals a lot about the emotional and psychological make-up of these frustrated, contrarian souls. Yet there is more to these people than just being referred to as quacks. Take note: they are not quacks! They, like other well organized and well founded, destructive and nihilistic destroyers of western values, and way of life have an agenda to vaporize Christmas altogether.
Because this is an essay about the meaning of Christmas, allow me to share a few thoughts about what celebrating Christmas can achieve in our world today. Ours is undoubtedly a demoralized world, as Ortega y Gasset pointed out in 1930, in The Revolt of the Masses. We have gotten used to living with vulgarity. The ease with which today we have incorporated and even welcomed into our lives every last bit of base and vulgar behavior is truly astounding. Our political and civic leaders, sociologists, psychologists, and other societal gurus are so mired in moral laxness and decay that few of us today can even make out the scope and range of our cultural and moral decline. Gabriel Marcel, the Catholic French philosopher, was also prophetic when he described ours as a “broken world” in his play The Broken World.
Consider that Christmas has to do with transcendence. Human beings may be good at killing time, at rationalizing our strife and perils in the material world, but because we are metaphysical beings, we can never turn our backs on our existential longings wholeheartedly. Christmas allows us to refocus our attention and vital energy on the essences that inform our incarnate existence.
We do not have to be philosophers to reflect on the meaning and purpose of our lives, the passage of time and our eventual death. The idea that there is a god, or what is equivalent to a first principle that creates the spirit and material realm, is hardly an unfathomable thought to ponder. On the contrary, it seems rather sophomoric and arrogant not to try to do so. One thing about human beings remains true regardless of our technology and changing fads: we are beings who do not create ourselves. Christmas is a celebration of all those mysteries of the human condition that find an explanation grounded in the Godhead. A little humility in allowing our understanding to become informed by both, reason and faith goes a long way in making us contented, even happy individuals.
Quite frankly, when we look around us today, we quickly discover that while our intellectual elites and radical ideologues are frantically dismantling our values, no one seems to be interested or capable of building new ones. Of course, this is a recipe for sheer disaster and the possibility of profound violence in times to come. Our moral/spiritual vacuum is crying aloud for the reconstruction of our world. Unfortunately, our childish zest for technology and the politicization of every aspect of society and culture cannot fill this spiritual/existential emptiness. Transcendence speaks of a greater reality to which we belong, but which we are not responsible for fabricating. The great lesson for us today is to view Christmas as a time of rebirth, renewal and hope.
Merry Christmas!
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It has become a annual tradition amongst some Christians and specially Fox viewers to commemorate the Christmas season with their self victimization campaign popularly know as the “War on Christmas.” You can tell when Christmas and the Holidays season is approaching by the number of articles that begin to appear ‘reportin’ about ‘battles’ against the ’secular-progressives,’ sometime coming just after Halloween and lasting through January. Somehow, schools, Wal-Mart, Malls, City hall lawns become ‘battle grounds’ where the word ‘HOLIDAYS’ is the enemy, and using it instead of Christmas is grounds for protests and other events that say CHRISTMAS IS HERE for many religious radicals . For example; today on Christmas eve, Blas here, decided to post this article instead of something more positive, thus promoting me to write a rather strong reply to his point of view, is that the spirit of the season I ask? His first sentence was “Ominous signs that our culture is in rapid decline are everywhere.”
For Christ sake get a grip, all of you who believe in this so-called War-on-Christmas!!
Shouldn’t you be feeding the less fortunate, caroling, partaking in a posada, or having something better and more positive to do than to post this divisive diatribe on Christmas eve?
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
1) Mr. Pastor, if you read carefully, you will notice that my last name is Gonzalez.
2) Again, if you read my essay without anger, bitterness and the profound, blind, ideological resentment that your tone demonstrates, you will notice that nowhere in the essay do I mention Fox News. Apparently this news network is your nemesis. But that is your problem not mine.
3) If you read with an open mind, one that tries to learn something constructive of the human condition, about living and dying, from others unlike yourself, you will realize that the essay does indeed offer a very accurate and photographic depiction of people like youself, when I discribe the self-consuming anger and hatred of people akin to you, people who express themselves as you do: “These militant atheists are actually quite instructive case-studies, for anyone who has spent great amounts of time in their company knows just how troubled the lives of these lost souls truly are.” And: “Again, this reveals a lot about the emotional and psychological make-up of these frustrated, contrarian souls.”
4) With all due respect to you personally, who I do not know, Mr. Pastor, I have indeed spent a great deal of time dealing with your type, and I can demonstrate with certainty just how much your kind operates out of self-loathing. Life can be agreeable, even good. However, we must learn to look in the mirror and give up such pronounced and destructive hatred for those who lead constructive lives. Christianity is a fine example of how to go about attaining such a life.
Thank you for your comments.
Merry Christmas!
Dr. Pedro Blas Gonzalez
Dr. Gonzalez, you are right on in your response. You article is excellent and I frankly would not spend one more line addressing this individual who complains about conservatives but keeps coming to The Americano and enjoying the freedom one finds here. Merry Christmas.
Peter Gailford
1. Dr Blas, you may have all this reverence for your self and wish to be address as Doctor, something that in fact was not mentioned in this the one and only article I’ve read from you.But the net and comment streams are usually not good places for that kind of request (some people don’t like to type so much). I personally would have a problem addressing the Queen of England as “Her Royal Hines, ” but NOT an academic graduated from his doctorate on something as “Doctor” (doubt that you are an MD), but given how well known the anti-intellectual faction amongst conservs IS (and shown here)… Wouldn’t that single you out as a college “elitist.” Dr. Pompous ??
2. I know you did’t mentioned Fox, I did, because it completely relates to the Subject at hand and you know this. You watch, because your article almost word for word can be akin to much of the programing there. You would rather have me not mention this, because it makes my argument stronger and it gives a reference point, but oh well.
3. Nor am I a “militant ethiest” or afflicted with “self-consuming anger and hatred. ” I am so open minded that I would even take the time to read your article twice and reply to you twice, while no one else has so far. However, given that for many years I was a medic in an ambulance in Los Angeles and in the Military, believe when I tell you Sir.. I KNOW something about the human condition and about living and dying.
4. With all due respect to you Sir… I spend as much time dealing with your “type” only as I find it enjoyable, sometimes that is hard given how daming some of you are, and because there are many people I would rather address . But an article that contains such phrase as- “our childish zest for technology,” ” well organized and well founded, destructive and nihilistic destroyers of western values, and way of life have an agenda to vaporize Christmas altogethe,” “we quickly discover that while our intellectual elites and radical ideologues are frantically dismantling our values” –
How can anyone not want to leave a reply.?
Let me tell you what you are: an ideologue who cannot have a reasonable conversation and who hides in a false name to attack others. Merry Christmas.
Pete I don’t know how smart is to give your name in the web. But I have several conservative friends representing you don’t worry about me.
Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad and Happy Holidays!!
Mr. Gailford is probably an honest person who writes comments here without the need of hiding his name. Yes, Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad. For holidays, you can wait for the summer.
Merry Christmas, pastor. Glad to see you reading The Americano at Christmas. How did you celebrate Christmas? Did you eat well? Hope you had a great time with your beloved ones. Merry Christmas again!
io been looking for you…MC FN HH I found a valid comment from you that I haven’t reply to, I’ll do so later…