A SEASON OF CONTRAST

A SEASON OF CONTRAST

Let's get this out of the way right from the top. Christmas has pagan roots!

All those Christmas trees we bring home have no connection to Mathew or Luke. Same with Yule logs and old Saint Nick, which trace to Old World pagan traditions. The Puritans were so appalled at the season's rites they did not even celebrate Christmas.

You may have heard this before, so excuse me for bringing it up. But the fact keeps eluding those in contemporary America who see secularism's attack on Christmas as something akin to a broadside on every doctrines of the faith.

I understand their point. We shouldn't ignore the spiritual reason for the season. But they seem to forget the season is not all about purity on earth. Instead, it offers a wonderful metaphor for Christian living. If you look closely, Christmas is about the sacred and the secular living alongside each other.

Go back to the original stories. We have the babe whom the world so rejects that his parents can't find a place to sleep.What more do we need? Can't we realize that Christmas has always been about the contrast between Christ child and the world around him?

Well, the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution protects religious free speech. Evidently what some people have forgotten is that free speech requires the tolerance of people hearing speech they don't like. The religious tradition of America is tolerance - and what Christians wants is for the same sense of tolerance that has always been extended to religionist of small or minor populations to be extended to religionist of the overwhelming majority of the U.S population--Christian.

"Merry Christmas" has been hurled as an insult. A Christmas tree is not put up as an affront. People who say they are offended by the greeting or the tree should should realize that when they take offense, they indicate hostility or animosity towards Christians.