To the Hinderers, too

Merry Christmas All, Considering Its Pagan Origins!

Hinderer: I like the sound of that, which is a synonym for killjoy, spoilsport. You can be sure it’s the liberal-minded, the ones who claim being free of bigotry, that are the hinderers when it comes to celebrating Christmas.

The Hinderers point to the pagan origins of Christmas rituals, now established as parts of Christian tradition, and they are correct. But when they point angrily and call us crazy, those of us who believe in Christmas and accept in belief all those rituals, they are wrong.

First, they are wrong because they are angry with sin in their hearts:

If you are angry, let it be without sin. The sun must not go down on your wrath; do not give the devil a chance to work on you.’ Ephesians 4: 26-27

When they are angry with sin, they are (or they become) self-righteous, which is never right. They don’t want to listen to others; they don’t want to think they’re wrong, honest but wrong.

Second, they are wrong because those Christmas rituals do not in any way negate the one and only importance of Christmas – which is that it is a celebration of a life that would save the world from sin.

Of course, if you put the commercial Christmas over and above the Christian Christmas, if you downgrade the real meaning of Christmas, whether you celebrate Christmas with a non-pagan ritual or with a pagan ritual, you are not celebrating Christmas at all. You are a Hinderer.

Third, because it all becomes ridiculous. I will show you what I mean. So: The Hinderers will tell you that Christmas has these pagan origins:

Ø Pagan: The pagan Romans celebrated Saturnalia, in honor of the Roman god Saturn, during the winter solstice. Christmas is celebrated during the winter solstice. It’s pagan.

Ø Pagan: In celebrating Saturnalia, the Romans engaged in feasting, gift-giving, dancing, playing and relaxing (paganwiccam.about.com/). So you see that thoroughly Christmas has pagan origins. The Hinderers would not want us feasting, dancing, playing, relaxing because those are all pagan practices.

Christmas is pagan is correct, 100% correct, except that part that it is celebrated in honor of the birth of Jesus. Now, don’t be a pagan and fail to consider the perspective of time: think of those times, think of these times.

Two examples: Fire is pagan, and lighting a fire is pagan. Apt image from CAndrews who captions it ‘Natural Fire Light 1’ and explains below the image how the image came to be: ‘When I really was just playing with the fire’ (flickr.com/). Fire is lovely, bright and deep. Now, even playing with fire is with us, and that of course is pagan.

Now then, if we listen to those know-it-alls, the Hinderers, we must now condemn Prometheus, who stole from the gods fire – fire has pagan origins. We will now remove from civilization lighting a fire, then we have to go on and just eat raw vegetables and raw meat. A tough world that would be, methinks. I don’t bite that. And we will have to be content with magic acts that do not involve playing with fire. A dull word that would be, especially for children. Give back the magic!

So, if you ask me, all those pagan practices are welcome to my crazy world. I live with some other pagan rituals everyday, like shouting to be heard, which is okay;  like competing against somebody, which is not okay; like hurting people, which is bad,  unChristian, unChristmassy. So, thinking of all those pagan practices embedded in Christmas, I wish you all Merry Christmas!

Love Is/Not Simply This

Love Is/Not The Christmas Message

What is my Christmas message this year, 2006? I have already given it, and their number is legion. Read any of my messages in my blogsites, or articles published by the American Chronicle, Each one is a Christmas message.

So we turn to the apt image by Lemoox who captions it ‘Love Messages 2’ (flickr.com/), meaning that it is part of a series. (You can visit http://flickr.com/photos/lemoox/ to view the series of photographs.) You will see why I call it ‘apt image’ if you notice that the obvious suggestion is that of a human holding a camera to the face. The human is decorated with many messages of many colors. One implication is that without man (embracing woman), there cannot be any messages. Another implication is that there cannot be any love without involving a human. Still another implication is that there are millions of love messages bombarbing each one of us everyday.

I said love is the Christmas message, didn’t I? The question is: What is love? The corollary question is: What is not love? Look for the love messages in my blogs using this list describing love:

Love is/not simply giving.
Love is/not simply forgiving.
Love is/not simply receiving.
Love is/not simply yielding.
Love is/not simply thinking creatively.
Love is/not simply thinking kindly.
Love is/not simply keeping your promise.
Love is/not simply respecting.
Love is/not simply speaking your mind and not hurting.
Love is/not simply setting free, and trusting.
Love is/not simply living.
Love is/not simply believing.
Love is/not simply depending.
Love is/not simply fighting.
Love is/not simply praising.
Love is/not simply not criticizing.
Love is/not simply being willing.
Love is/not simply doing.
Love is/not simply undoing.
Love is/not simply drinking.
Love is/not simply not gambling.
Love is/not simply turning traitor.
Love is/not simply betraying.
Love is/not simply studying.
Love is/not simply viewing.
Love is/not simply reviewing.
Love is/not simply working.
Love is/not simply staying at home.
Love is/not simply quality time. Love is/not simply all the time.
Love is/not simply appreciating.
Love is/not simply meriting.
Love is/not simply denying.
Love is/not simply remembering.
Love is/not simply forgetting.
Love is/not simply singing.
Love is/not simply writing.
Love is/not simply reading.
Love is/not simply marrying.
Love is/not simply virginity.
Love is/not simply helping.
Love is/not simply teaching.
Love is/not simply proposing.
Love is/not simply meaning well. Love is/not simply meaning better.
Love is/not simply anticipating.
Love is/not simply the full moon.
Love is/not simply a sunny day.
Love is/not simply a rain check.
Love is/not simply a raincoat.
Love is/not simply a ride.
Love is/not simply a balloon.
Love is/not simply a gift.
Love is/not simply a parachute.
Love is/not simply a wink.
Love is/not simply a safety pin.
Love is/not simply a beard shaved.
Love is/not simply long hair.
Love is/not simply a new dress.
Love is/not simply a perfume.
Love is/not simply sailing.
Love is/not simply loading.
Love is/not simply surfing.
Love is/not simply mitigating.
Love is/not simply measuring.
Love is/not simply a cucumber.
Love is/not simply beginning.
Love is/not simply ending.
Love is/not simply a new beginning.
Love is/not simply everything.
Love is/not simply always smiling.

To be lengthened/enlightened every now and then. First revised 14 December 2006.