In two days, Christians around the world will celebrate Christmas, the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth, called the Christ..or as I, a non-Christian sometimes respectfully refer to him, Rav Yussel ben-Yosef. For among other attributes, Jesus was also a learned rabbi.
While historical evidence points towards the actual birthday of Jesus being in the spring, the December 25th date - January 6th for Orthodox Christians - are the traditional days Christians celebrate.
It is a time of year when people in predominantly Christian countries are more expansive, more gentle and more at peace with each other. They smile more, and they let the little things go because it's Christmas, a time of cheer and good will, a time for friends and family.
It is also a time when the secular Left unleashes savage attacks on the very nature of Christ and the holiday itself. Satanists demand the right to set up displays next to manger scenes, smarmy writers mock the traditions of Christmas and Christianity and atheists and Leftists go on the warpath with lawsuits designed to try and stop public religious displays of faith, especially Christian ones.
One writer whom I won't link to even made the point in a very well-known far Left outlet that religion in general is 'rapey' (her word) and Christianity in particular because - wait for it- it teaches that G-d raped the Virgin Mary without her consent, since consent isn't explicitly mentioned in Scripture. So of course, this is just another instance of the 'Patriarchy' in action.
Before I go on, let me point out that all of these attacks are permissible free speech, although there's no doubt in my mind that if we were talking about Islam, they'd be a lot more circumspect.Or perhaps outright cowardly and hypocritical is a more accurate way to put it.
But if we get beyond the secular trapping and look at the real meaning of Christmas, it becomes obvious that all these attacks on Christianity have a distinct motivation.It becomes glaringly apparent why the Left does what it does.
Christmas is above all a time for Christians to celebrate a miracle of their faith, the birth of their Messiah,born in the humblest of surroundings but recognized by the Magi and generations of future Christians as Lord and Savior. To Christians, Jesus is whom they owe ultimate allegiance to, not to government or to secular power, but to heavenly power. If Jesus is their Lord, than no secular lord can be, and if Jesus is the way, the truth and the light, salvation comes from the Lord, not from Moscow, or Peking, or Washington DC, or any other seat of government.
The Founders themselves understood this quite well, that the unalienable rights they sought came from their Creator, not government, or an earthly king.
To the Left, this belief goes against everything they stand for. That's why the Left needs so badly to mock, attack and destroy it. And why all of us, even those of us whom are not Christians need to defend it.
Christmas, like our Constitution is a way of reminding us that government has limits to its power. Hanukkah sends the same message, with its recounting of the Jewish victory of faith and arms over the pagan, Hellenizing Greeks. Is it any wonder that President Barack Obama, in each of his Hanukkah messages has consistently failed to mention that detail?
Just as the Seleucid Empire tried with all its might to destroy Jews and Judaism, the Roman Empire tried to destroy Christianity, and for the same reason...to destroy those inalienable rights our Founders spoke of, and to bring all of their population under government's yoke. Both failed.
And that is a lesson for our times.The light will eventually defeat the darkness, and that is the essence of what we need to believe in, to protect and defend, no matter how dark things may seem.
With that in mind, I wish all of you a Merry and Blessed Christmas. Celebrate it with peace and joy, faith and family, prayer and reverence...because among other things, it is a celebration not only of our freedom, but an acknowledgement of where it derives from.
Selah.
2 comments:
While I agree fully with ff assessment of attacks on christianity by the left, I have a somewhat skewed viewpoint.
As a side, and speaking as a practicing catholic, I find it amusing that after my parochial education at the high school level, and at this late term of my life, I am educated about details of my faith by reading a blog administered by a joo.
Oy!
my conflict of my faith comes not from doctrine or dogma, but from the clergy itself. I can remember sitting in a pew back in 1976, listening to fr. King speak from the pulpit, of the blessings of communism.
?????????
I know full well, and have heard members of the clergy say, the issue they have with our form of gov't is not the form, but the greed that is allowed to breed in our society. Then why not criticize the oppression of civil liberties in communist societies? Because that would mean death.
oh.
So if it is the greed of society they are criticizing, why criticize the gov't?
Because they want gov't to control the society. Therein the catholic clergy are no different from the political left.
Oh dear.
I am also amused when I see catholic activists/clergy march along side those who would turn this country into europe. (I have first hand knowledge of this, as I heard the pastor of st. benedict's in broken arrow state that the parish was going to sponsor several illegals that had just come across the border, and we were not to say anything about it to the media.)
these same activists/clergy are then on the opposite side of the street, when discussion of abortion comes into the schedule.
what strange bedfellos.
What this leadership does is set the course of my religion, and at times it seems in conflict with my faith. I have no choice in the matter. As the community in which I now reside has a separate cemetery for catholics, all I can do, is be just catholic enough to be allowed to be buried next to my mother.
Merry Rav Yussel ben-Yosef to all.
Merry Christmas Louie..from the heart, as always.
-Rob-
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