Will The Real Jerry Falwell Please Shut Up.

You all know how I feel about Pat Robertson thanks to a post I wrote a few days ago. Today, I will vent about his bed buddy Jerry Falwell.

Every December, it is the same thing. People like Falwell have to make a big stink because according to them there are not enough Christmas decorations - that meet with their personal approval - on display. They want tax money to buy nativity displays, and have these displays on every street corner and every public plot of land. They want al stores to be so full of christian symbols that there is no room for stuff to sell. They want all radio stations to play nothing buy church music. And in the case of Mr. Falwell, he wants every television station to just put his fat ass, and nothing else, on the tube.

The evangelical movement claim that the holiday is under attack. They claim that evil athiests and non-christians (meaning those jesus killing jews) want to flush the holiday down the toilet. They want to FORCE the holiday upon everyone, because after all according to them the only way into heaven is to believe exactly what they tell you to believe.

Free thought is from the devil. And so is EVERY OTHER RELIGION.

But lets look at this holiday season through my eyes. I do not subscribe to ANY religion, so I think this gives me a more objective soapbox from which to rant from.

1. Not everyone is a christian, but everyone IS a taxpayer. The whole hoopla over religous displays on public property revolves around this fact, it is NOT an attack on a religion. It has to do with the responsible spending of our collective money. Should the local government spend money on some plastic displays, or spend that money feeding poor people? And if you are going to spend tax money on religous displays, where does it end? Should tax money be spent on jewish symbols? Or how about the month of ramadan? What about hindu holidays? Where does it end? Hindus pay taxes too you know. Is it right to simply ignore their important holidays?

2. This is NOT a christian nation! It is not a jewish nation, it is not an athiest nation - it is simply a nation with unlimited religous freedom. People are free to believe whatever they want, and worship any way they want, so long as you are not doing human sacrifice or anything. The church is seperated from the state, to protect THE CHURCH from the sleeze that is politics. Why these clowns want to mix the church up with the smut and slime that is government is beyond me. Religion will not purify politics, politics will stain religion with blood and greed. This is why the people who started the nation wisely seperated religion from politics. It was not because Thomas Jefferson was a godless athiest who hated christmas.

3. Malls and stores are private business. If the malls thought that people would buy more crap if they replaced the christmas tree (a very secular symbol) with a plastic baby jesus you can bet your ass they would. The fact that stores do not have more non-secular symbols reflects the fact that market research found that this is what shoppers want! Shoppers WANT the giant dead tree. Shoppers WANT their kids photo taken with some creepy guy in a santa costume. Shoppers do not go to a mall to see a nativity display - they go to CHURCH for that. Stores are for BUYING STUFF, churches are for WORSHIP. Get it? Good.

4. Secular symbols of the holiday, such as snowmen, dead trees, reindeer, and so forth are more commonly displayed because that is just the way it is. Like it or not, capitalism has turned christmas into a shopping holiday. Hell, I celebrate christmas - but I do not go to church. I just buy stuff and give it to my friends and family. To me, this time of year is a time to celebrate all that is good in my life. I will spend more time with friends, I will go to holiday parties, I will drink more alcohol, I will buy gifts, and so on.

5. There is no law saying that you can and can not put in your own home, or on your own lawn, during the season. If your neighbors snowman and red nosed reindeer offends you, put up your own display! If you want a public display, then use church property! Nobody will say anything about a church display - because of that seperation thing. The state shall make NO LAWS telling a church what they can and can not believe, or what decorations they can display.

6. Most everything to do with christmas is made up anyway. I am not talking about the birth of Jesus part - that is a matter of faith, and something very personal to people who believe. What IS made up is the timing. Where in the Bible does it say Jesus was born on December 25? The bible mentions no date - that that is a fact.

The early church made up the date, because pagen religions would celebrate winter solstice. December 25 ALWAYS falls very close to solstice. Solstice celebrations would last several days, and so does Christmas. Replacing pagen holidays with new christian holidays was something the early church was very good at.

7. Many symbols that churches use are PAGEN in nature - yet they use them anyway. Pagens used to think that evergreen trees had magical powers, because they would stay green all winter while other trees would look dead. Obviously, there was some magic going on there! So they would decorate trees, to please the spirits in the tree and make winter end sooner. Today we have "christmas trees".

Missletoe was hung in homes to keep evil spirts away. Today, the same plant is hung over doorways as an excuse to cop a feel.

Yet, most churches put these pagen symbols up. Why is this? Did Jesus ever have a christmas tree? But yet, there is a tree on the set of the 700 Club. All decorated with pretty glass balls and lights and stuff. Christmas trees became popular in Victorian times, before that you would NEVER see such a symbol of pagenism in a holy church! People like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell are therfore contributing to the secularism of their own holiday!

My grandparents were super religous baptists. They were Southern Baptists. You know what they thought of nativity displays when they first became popular? They thought they were gaudy, and in poor taste. It says in the bible that one should not make graven images right? Religous statues were something only Catholics made. But now, every church puts them up. So much for "traditional values" huh?

I will wrap this post up by repeating my main points.

1. Nobody is attacking christmas.
2. Not everyone celebrates christmas as a religous holiday.
3. Everyone DOES use the malls and other stores.
4. If you are religous, and are offended over what the holiday has become - remember that it is the retail business that did it, not some athiest plot. In December, athiests are all too drunk to plot ANYTHING.
5. Not a single non-christian is trying to tell churches how to celebrate, yet this time of year it seems that every church tries to tell the population how to celebrate.

Freedom of religion is a two way street. You have the freedom to believe whatever you want, and so do I.

Yet, every year it is the same thing. I find it amusing to just sit on the sideline, with no opinion one way or the other. Nativity displays do not offend me, even if they are on public property. I just think it is silly for people to make such a big deal over it - one way or the other.

If you made it this far, do not forget to check out the post below this one!