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“Excommunication, I’m still glowing”

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Marc Barnes says of this women’s ordination video “Ordain a lady: that “This might be the greatest video ever to happen to the Catholic Church.” and goes on in post Why The Catholic Priesthood Is Composed of Dudes

This is certainly the funniest thing I have seen in a while and one of the best defenses for the Church’s teaching.  I would have been hard-pressed to make a better parody and the words are genius. Well at least it would be a genius video if it wasn’t real.

Though one thing that really gets my ire up.  I am so tired of women’s ordination proponents using Saint Thérèse of Lisieux as if she was also a proponent of women’s ordination.  This is pure calumny.

“If only I were a priest! How lovingly I would bear You in my hands, my Jesus, when my voice had brought You down from Heaven. How lovingly I would give. You to souls!” “Yet while wanting to be a priest, I admire St. Francis of Assisi and envy his humility, longing to imitate him in refusing this sublime dignity.”

By the logic they use I guess Therese also wanted to get a sex change operation to be a man since she admired St. Francis’ humility.  Funny also how women’s ordination proponents also usually leave out the part about envying humility.  But humility does not go hand and hand when you say you are right and the Church guided by the Holy Spirit is wrong.

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LinkPunditry

“The disgrace of papal blessing for Ugandan homophobia”

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I had originally seen the story of Pope Benedict XVI blessing Jill Filipovic, a politician in favor of the “Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill” on boing boing. I didn’t pay much attention to it since the likelihood of them doing an intelligent story on the pope and getting facts correct approaches zero.

Then I saw that the National “Catholic” Reporter did a similar story “The disgrace of papal blessing for Ugandan homophobia”. I also didn’t pay much attention to it since the likelihood of them doing an intelligent story on the pope and getting facts correct also approaches zero. Really there is not much difference between the viewpoints in boing boing and the National Catholic Reporter.

Today I saw that Marc Barnes of Bad Catholic did a post in response to the NCR piece. Such a brilliant take down. His post is just a great read and includes such choice bits as:

Of course, Church teaching on homosexuality is in the bizarre habit of using verbs besides “Hate!” and thus remains widely incomprehensible to minds forced through our culture-war meat-grinder that renders all disagreement the total deprecation and rejection of the human person.

When I first saw the story I thought that this was the case of the Pope giving somebody a blessing, not endorsing any agenda of the person. The funny thing is that the blessing in this case actually never happened. Still as Marc show it is not surprising to find the Pope blessing people with Culture of Death agendas such as the Obama’s and other examples he gives. I love how he turns around the “Jesus ate with sinners” that progressives so love to use.

Bad Catholic has become one of my favorite blogs and such great writing as is evident here proves once again why. There is much engagement even with such a badly-wrong NCR article that goes beyond just sarcastic sneering with analysis as to where it goes wrong.

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LiturgyPunditry

Two Mass-going experiences

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I am of the personality that once I find a parish I like I would prefer to make that the only parish I go to. My wife though is of the personality where she likes variety and to alternate among a range of parishes. The positive side of this is that I do see a vast range of how the liturgy is practiced within my diocese. This also means there are about four parishes where I can go to and have zero complaints and several others where my complaints are mainly directed towards the hymns and the folk guitar accompaniment. As a Catholic blogger it also provides me fodder and the ability to commiserate with others regarding the liturgy.

Thus I had two very different experiences on the last Sunday of Advent and Midnight Mass.

To start with the good I was very pleasantly surprised by Midnight Mass at a parish I had not gone to Mass before. I knew they had Life Teen Masses so I was certainly on the skeptical side. This was also the parish that the current Bishop of Birmingham was the pastor of. One of the things I love about Midnight Mass is to arrive early to be able to sing along to and to listen to Christmas Carols. Christmas is one of those few days when you can be pretty much assured of not getting the common Haugen/Daas/Schutte dreck. I was very glad to find a well-trained choir with accompaniment by violin, some brass, and organ. The pre-Mass carols were also an interesting selection including the standards along with some interesting choices such as the Coventry Carol about the slaughter of the innocents – very fitting this year. I was a bit tentative when I saw a bunch of hand bells positioned for use. Again I was surprised when they were put to use by a dozen women quite capably with both a carol done with just the hand bells and other types of bells and with some of the subsequent carols. Really quite beautiful and fitting for a Christmas Mass.

I was also quite delighted with the liturgy itself as much of it was chanted and there was a quite thoughtful homily delivered by the pastor a Vietnamese priest. I was also in for a nice surprise during the “Prayers of the Faithful” where there was intercession for the souls in Purgatory. Now maybe I had heard this done before occasionally and forgot, but really when I heard this I found this so fitting and really something that should predominate.

For a more modern church there were lots of blank walls, but they had a large crucifix in the center and I can forgive much when this is so. That and some good sized statues kept it from being as barren as many modern churches. Plus the Stations of the Cross were quite nice and ones I would not mind meditating before. Usually I find abstract Stations of the Cross where I have to squint to figure out what I am looking at.

The parish I went to on the last Sunday of Advent was another story. It is bad enough to get the folk guitar treatment, but when it is not even good folk guitar it is even worse. Typical Gather hymnal selection with the exception of “O Come Emmanuel.” Now I wouldn’t even mention this since this type of mediocrity is rather common. What punctuated it for me was “Liturgical Gestures” at least that is what they called it. What it really is is a copying of hand motions as practiced by some Protestant churches. They directed the laity to do certain motions with their arms during the “hymn”. Funny how actual liturgical gestures such as bowing during the Creed are never emphasized, but hymn dance moves make the cut.

I try to assign positive motives to people, but the road to liturgical hell is paved with good intentions and hand motions. “Well we have the awesome mystery of the Eucharist, but what can we do to spice it up? Of course hand motions.” The type of thought process that leads to these liturgical experiments betray a certain Protestant mindset totally set apart from the example the Holy Father is giving and and the “reform of the reform” is nowhere to be seen. What concerns me is that this kind of crap is probably not going to be something exceptional in one parish, but is the type of thing to spread to other like-minded parishes. I’ve made peace sort of with folk Masses, but please don’t torment me with “liturgical gestures”, as the Curt Jester I might have a curt gesture for this in response.

Otherwise this will be the next step:
hand

The above is from a helpful Protestant dance ministry that seems awfully close to a parody to me, but if you want to learn messianic dance steps here you go.

Now whenever someone objects to any forms of liturgical dance or other movements some will refer to King David dancing before the Arc of the Convenant. Well when they decide to dance naked like King David I might give more credence to the argument. Though they also forget the part where he had scandalized others and the fact that this was a non-liturgical act outside of the Temple.

Now this is a parish church that has speakers blazoned everywhere in all directions. So that means of course you could not hear the homily or the readings. In contrast the other parish with no speakers in sight, I heard every word annunciated quite well. Now if you are going to use microphones then it just might be a good idea to do some sound testing and to make allowances for the speaking style of different priests. The use of microphones can make people assume that others can hear them. As a child and through my teen years I was trained in the theater to be able to project my voice in an outside amphitheater or a typical auditorium. Yes that does make me a loud mouth, but you knew that already. Maybe the priest’s homily was a good one, but I have really no idea since in 15 minutes I heard words bubble up from time to time. I could have sworn a couple of times I heard “sodomite marriage”, but surely that must have been my imagination. Although I am fairly certain I also heard references to contraception and abortion. If so I would have loved to hear the whole homily from a foreign priest that had not yet had his Political Correctness injection.

On the plus side of things as I had mentioned before from my own Mass-going experience that actual liturgical abuses are becoming much less common and that mostly the problem area now is with the hymns. As most people have assigned this as mostly a subjective area, this area will likely be the last corrected.

Bob Rice and Chris Padgett have a nice parody with “Handmotions in Heaven”

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Punditry

Media Vatican reporting is a lot like those “Bad Lip Reading” videos

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Gay marriage threatens family ‘to its foundations’, says Pope

Pope says future of mankind at stake over gay marriage

Pope Benedict XVI denounces gay marriage in his Christmas message saying ‘manipulation of nature’ will put future of mankind at stake

And many other headlines playing fast in loose with a cut and paste

He made the comments in his annual Christmas address to the Vatican bureaucracy, one of his most important speeches of the year.

You know an article is going to be really fair when the Roman Curia is called the Vatican Bureaucracy. Though that is fair enough. Really all political reporting should refer to politicians addressing the bureaucracy whether of state, federal, parliamentary, etc stripe.

Still the annual address to Roman Curia being described as one of the Pope’s most important speeches of the year is quite odd and really pure hyperbole. Why is it considered one of the most important speeches of the year? Because the reporter says it is.

The great joy with which families from all over the world congregated in Milan indicates that, despite all impressions to the contrary, the family is still strong and vibrant today. But there is no denying the crisis that threatens it to its foundations – especially in the western world. It was noticeable that the Synod repeatedly emphasized the significance, for the transmission of the faith, of the family as the authentic setting in which to hand on the blueprint of human existence. This is something we learn by living it with others and suffering it with others. So it became clear that the question of the family is not just about a particular social construct, but about man himself – about what he is and what it takes to be authentically human. The challenges involved are manifold. First of all there is the question of the human capacity to make a commitment or to avoid commitment. Can one bind oneself for a lifetime? Does this correspond to man’s nature? Does it not contradict his freedom and the scope of his self-realization? Does man become himself by living for himself alone and only entering into relationships with others when he can break them off again at any time? Is lifelong commitment antithetical to freedom? Is commitment also worth suffering for? Man’s refusal to make any commitment – which is becoming increasingly widespread as a result of a false understanding of freedom and self-realization as well as the desire to escape suffering – means that man remains closed in on himself and keeps his “I” ultimately for himself, without really rising above it. Yet only in self-giving does man find himself, and only by opening himself to the other, to others, to children, to the family, only by letting himself be changed through suffering, does he discover the breadth of his humanity. When such commitment is repudiated, the key figures of human existence likewise vanish: father, mother, child – essential elements of the experience of being human are lost.

While certainly the Holy Father is referencing the crisis that affects marriage, it goes a little far to see this totally in the light of just same-sex “marriage.” It goes deeper than that with divorce, single parenthood, and other deconstructions of the family. You can see this by the simple fact that the Pope is talking about attitudes in actual marriage of lifelong commitment and the false idea of freedom. The idea of self-giving and sacrifice in the face of an individualistic view of marriage where love is a feeling that can pass and not the willing of the good for the other. There is a crisis that goes way beyond same-sex “marriage” that has crippled family life and in fact made the way for the view of marriage that made same-sex “marriage” seem to be the same thing. The Pope does go on to talk about the new philosophy of sexuality that is a profound falsehood and what I would call the “dictatorship of sexual relativity” to mangle a phrase from the Holy Father.

In the Pope’s Message for the World Day of Peace he did specifically talk about same-sex “marriage’.

There is also a need to acknowledge and promote the natural structure of marriage as the union of a man and a woman in the face of attempts to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union; such attempts actually harm and help to destabilize marriage, obscuring its specific nature and its indispensable role in society.

This led to a small protest in St. Peter square by activists. It always seems to surprise them that the Church has not yet become a proponent of homosexual acts and a sterile view of marriage. The Church has become like the prophets of old. Proclaiming the truth to a generation that does not want to hear it. Although the call to repentance is a call we can all be rather deaf to.

This was a part of his World Day of Peace message that I had highlighted when I previously read it.

“The precondition for peace is the dismantling of the dictatorship of relativism and of the supposition of a completely autonomous morality which precludes acknowledgment of the ineluctable natural moral law inscribed by God upon the conscience of every man and woman.”

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HumorPunditry

Forcing my will on you to stop “bullying”

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Wow! How far has the world fallen? A group of parents in Missoula, Mont. are upset over the religious nature of Christmas songs performed at a local elementary school – alleging the songs about the Baby Jesus is unconstitutional and a “form of bullying.”

The parents, who declined to be identified, are threatening to sue the Missoula County Public School District unless songs like “Joy to the World” and “Good Christian Men Rejoice” are replaced with secular tunes. [Via Creative Minority Report]

I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. That there is a public school that was still singing actual Christmas carols is quite shocking. Especially how did “Good Christian Men” get past the inclusive language politically correct carols?

Although Christmas carols are quite dangerous and can have a delayed impact on the young mind. As a young atheist and throughout my life I have loved Christmas carols and specifically the traditional sacred carols. I had zero theological connection with them, but I knew their beauty musically and I reacted to that beauty. While I can enjoy the more seasonal Christmas songs that are more about climate and good feelings during this season (Christmasy songs), the traditional carols were always what I wanted to hear.

At one time you could turn on the radio and be certain to hear a good proportion of the sacred Christmas carols. As years have passed the stations that would play “Holiday” music were concentrating almost fully on the Christmasy songs. I remember once noting on a 24 hour Christmas music channel on a cable network that after a couples of days they played no traditional songs at all.

Wanting my traditional Christmas carol fix I had started to channel hop on the radio trying to find a station that played them. This led me to listening to Protestant radio and putting up with their between song messages. This in turn led me to the seeking phase of my conversion and devouring books at the library on the subject. The hit-and-run accident that had led me to question my atheist faith a couple of years priors had opened me up and of course God was providing me grace to see the world anew.

So atheist parents if you want your kids to grow up to be devout atheists please don’t let them become ritually unclean by listening to actual Christmas carols. Beauty is a devious trick of believers, sow watch out.

The above story though does remind me of a parody I did before:

hummers

PORTLAND, OR (Roto Reuters) A new children’s choir groups is getting lots of attention and bookings during the winter season. The Silent Night Seasonal Semi-Singers sidestep the problems inherent in a multi-cultural society and what has been called the “Christmas wars.” Secularists are upset with the lyrics of explicitly Christian carols and Christians become upset when these carols are left out. To solve this problem Ms. Giesel of the the Glencoe school elemenatary choir decided instead of hymns to do hums. Students are gagged while performing to ensure no actual Christian carols are ever sung. The instrumental portions of traditional Christmas carols are slightly altered to ensure no one in the audience might attempt to sing along. Silent Night is sung just as intended – totally silent. To ensure fairness winter holiday songs are also hummed.

Parents at first were hesitant to endorse the idea until they found out how enthusiastic their kids were. Now even students with no musical talent can join the choir and hum along. The provided humnal makes it very easy for kids to learn songs since they do not have to memorize any lyrics. When the audience is invited to join in and hum along nobody ever feels bad or put down since they don’t know the words or only know the first refrain.

The idea is catching on in neighborhoods where kids bundle up and go around the neighborhood from door to door humming or what some have called humoling. People are thrilled to find hummers at their door humming along to slightly familiar tunes invoking the winter season. So if you see a group of humolers approaching your door this season then open your door to the joys of holiday humoling.

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Punditry

Comparing Catholic and Geek Communities

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

As someone who is both in the Catholic world and the geek world I make comparisons and contrasts between these two communities.

When it comes to the use of technology I find that the geek community is much more invested and active.  This fact at first blush would seem rather obvious that geeks take to new technologies and platforms quicker. Yet with the sheer number of Catholics in the world the fact that technology-focused communities have a larger and stronger presence is not a good sign.

One thing I had been thinking about is that there are many daily technology news podcasts.  These types of shows usually involve a group of people and bring on guests for specific technical knowledge. Yet there is really not one daily Catholic news show in this format.  Vatican Radio comes the closest and has a nice international perspective, but I grew tired of all the climate change coverage.  Al Kresta’s radio show which is also podcasted takes a couple of subjects each day to cover and I think does a good job with bringing in knowledgable guests.  Although this show also reruns previous shows rather often and so you don’t really get daily coverage.  Catholic Answers usually has a monthly show on Catholic news.  Rome Reports does a decent job of  daily video coverage of the Vatican. EWTN’s weekly “The World Over” also covers the news along with Raymond Arroyo’s interests.  The Good Catholic life podcast does cover daily news, but it more focused (as it should be) on diocesan happenings. The Catholic Underground weekly podcast has a nice “intersection of faith and culture” with both Catholic and tech news. Catholic Weekend also covers news of the day to some extent.  There are various more long form radio shows such as the Son Rise Morning Show and others that intersect into this area.  But really there are no daily wrap-up shows in the roughly 30 minute format with multiple commentators and guests able to weigh in on specific areas.

I would love there to be a daily show of Catholic news from a panel of people along with guests.  Something in the 30 to 40 minute range.  Providing a Catholic view of what’s going on helps to give listeners a solid perspective.  In fact there should be multiple shows of this type that could focus on stories of international and national interest for Catholics.  Of course the time and money involved requires a lot of effort and Catholics as a whole really don’t support these efforts. On the other side, tech podcasts networks such as TWIT and 5by5 are making money and paying the people involved in the shows.  Leo Laporte’s TWIT network was able to even build a studio providing high quality video and audio productions.  Catholic media is always seemingly in a constant state of survival.  Pledge drives are very common or requests from EWTN to send donations.

As I noted the other day while there are some very good Catholic shows, there really should be so many more of them.  There are many more Apple related podcasts for example than Catholic podcasts.

I think it is rather embarrassing that geeks seem to support such endeavors much more than Catholics as a whole do. I like playing around with gadgets and staying abreast with the world of technology, but my faith is so much more awesome.  The treasury of the Catholic faith is so immense that in our lives we can but put a dent into it. What is more wonderful than Jesus or savior and the Church he gave us? I guess the answer is gadgets and other shiny things.

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Punditry

Theist bait

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I started seeing noise on Twitter about an atheist billboard in Times Square.

David Silverman, President of American Atheists stated, “We know that a large population of ‘Christians’ are actually atheists who feel trapped in their family’s religion. If you know god is a myth, you do not have to lie and call yourself ‘Christian’ in order to have a festive holiday season. You can be merry without the myth, and indeed, you should.”

Mr. Silverman continued, “We encourage people to be honest with themselves and their families this year. If you don’t believe in god, tell your family—honesty is the greatest gift, and they deserve it.”

Teresa MacBain, Communications Director and a former pastor stated, “The true beauty of the season—family, friends, and love—have nothing to do with the gods of yesteryear. Indeed, the season is far more enjoyable without the religious baggage of guilt and judgmentalism. Dump the myth and have a happy holiday season.”

“Dump the myth and have a happy holiday season.” Been there done that. Would much rather enjoy the gift of faith and ponder upon the wonders of the Incarnation. I was certainly happy as an atheist, but prefer both happiness and joy.

Billboards like this are theist bait designed to get attention and so this is effective at some level. I do wonder if there really are the masses of people hiding their non-belief? Seems to me that there is now more stigma associated with faith than in agnosticism and atheism. The fundamentalist and the bible thumper has plenty of stereotype attention. While I am sure there are some people who do hide their unbelief. Are they really just waiting for a billboard in Time Square for encouragement to come out? Plus as others have noted there is the odd irony of promoting Santa while saying Jesus is a myth. Maybe campaigns like this are to create a sense of community for atheists. We all seek a sense of community and desire encouragement for the like-minded.

As The Crescat noted Atheists.org, be honest. It’s just Christians you have issue with, not religion in general…. This fact has certainly been noted before that it is almost always Christianity that is aimed at and ridiculed. It would seem that atheism should be an equal opportunity ridiculer of religion. Still it makes sense that this is so in a Christian/post-Christian society and that this would be the target.

The more interesting question is why such campaigns and efforts by atheists are more like political campaigns and attack ad based. Where are the signs/bumper stickers/reaching out efforts promoting the positive joy of atheism. For a group that constantly talks about reason the efforts are largely mockery-based. If you had a positive atheist message on a bumper sticker what would it be? Even in the realm of car magnets atheists mock the Ichtus instead of advancing their own symbol.

When I tweeted something along these lines earlier I got a bunch of joyful replies from atheists on the positive aspects of unbelief. I mean by joyful use of the F-word and assumptions made not based on what I wrote. Apparently the thing to be avoided at all costs is guilt. The sign of a working conscience is now a defect. I found a rather odd way to avoid guilt, I try to avoid sin – fancy that.

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Punditry

White smoke on Twitter

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

It is interesting how the culture seems to view Catholics.  People are amused by nuns roller skating, running in a marathon in a habit, or monks refilling laser cartridges.  The view that Catholics don’t use technology or that they can’t have other interests seems to be the normal assumption.

Maybe this view can be seen also among even Catholics. The coverage of the Pope’s personal Twitter account and his seven tweets today has gotten a lot of attention even among tech blogs. Somehow they expect Catholics to have an Amish aversion to technology and that the Pope would be more likely to place Twitter on the “Index of Forbidden Social Media Applications” than to use it.

https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278808536404852736
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278819486377840640
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278820239943274497
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278861784008499201
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278862015253061633
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278907093065535488
https://twitter.com/Pontifex/status/278907314810023938

I certainly liked that he did a series of tweets after today’s General Audience. But I think the papal iPad should have been the white one. I also really want that papal iPad which could be a 2nd class relic in the future if he is ever canonized. Plus if his cause is ever introduced it means the Congregation for the Causes of Saints will have to read through his tweets. I tweeted before that maybe one day there will be a Denzinger’s list of official tweets published.

Getting back to the attitude regarding Catholics and technology. Part of this is from the false narrative of the Church vs. science which is constantly drilled in.  The fact that it was usually Catholics who were on the bleeding edge of some science is almost totally unknown and like clockwork every year we get some story on the Vatican Observatory because the novelty never wears off.

When it comes to the internet and some other media Catholics have certainly lagged behind.  I really don’t expect for example the Vatican to jump on every new social media initiative and it makes some sense to observe the scene and then enter it when there is a certain critical mass.  For example a Vatican presence on Friendster would have been rather silly or even worse myspace. Although it would be nice if they had someone in the Vatican that monitored this and did things like reserve nicknames in new platforms for future use. It would have been nice if the Pope at least have had an option to use @pope.  There was not much planning ahead before when the Vatican did not get other top level domains other than .va andI believe at one time vatican.va went to a very undesirable site.

The other day I was looking through the top “Religion & Spirituality” podcasts on iTunes and Catholics are hardly represented at all.   In a list of top podcasts in this category you don’t come to a Catholic one until #47 Catholics Answers Live.  There are more Mormon podcasts in the top 100 than Catholic ones.  There are more atheist podcasts in the top 100 than Catholic ones.  Protestants though pretty much dominate.  I listen to a good amount of Catholic podcasts and there are some high quality ones and you can find a couple of them in the iTunes “What’s hot section”. Fr. Roderick’s SQPN (Star Quest Podcast Network) was an early innovator and has expanded and continues to deliver entertaining and informative content.  Still with over a billion Catholics there should be multiple such podcast networks. I like to listen to the EWTN homilies via podcast. Though it is quite annoying that many times they don’t post them in a timely manner and never on weekends.

Catholic radio is another area that severely lagged.  While the Vatican had a radio station early on, Protestants have also dominated the air waves.  The good news is that Catholic radio is rapidly growing.  When I first came to Jacksonville, Fl 15  years ago the Catholic station here was only one of three in the country. Now there are over 200 Catholic radio stations here in the United States.

If you want to go into a technology time warp than pretty much visit any parish website.  In my diocese I have not seen on parish site that does not make me cringe either with 1990 design or bulletins last updated in a previous year.  Internet.org has a wayback machine so that you can see what an archived website looked like in the past. Unfortunately parish websites look like they had been archived sometime in the past.  In fact if you look at the 1997 version of Vatican.va there is very little difference in design compared to now.  If you do web programming like I do I am sure you would cringe at the fact that documents on the Vatican site are formatted using tables – yikes. At least news.va is not an embarrassment to look at.

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HumorPunditry

It's the most wonderful time of the year

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Don’t you just love this time of year? When atheists sue cities over Nativity scenes and atheist parents complain to prevent mentions of the Gospel via Charlie Brown.  Just something about all this suing that warms the cockles of my heart.  You have to warm heart cockles because it is really hard to find them otherwise.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With atheist’s lawyers suing
And everyone telling you “Don’t spread that cheer”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the most litigious season of all
…

This is not going to be a “War on Christmas” post.

The Madeline Marray O’Hare style of making friends via court actions is a rising trend among the so-called new atheists. The micron-thin skin of the new atheist with a hair-trigger offended reaction to any sign of piety even of the commercial materialistic leftovers of Christmas.   Survival of the fittest becomes survival of the offended.  It is hard for me to understand this mindset.  As an atheist I was quite happy with the trappings of Christmas even if I had not understanding of the theological underpinnings.  Getting stuff was a fine enough reason for me for a holiday. Greed was good enough for me. If other people believed in some phony sky god, big deal as long as I got stuff.  Sure other trappings of Christmas were fun and led to the atmosphere of this special season, even if I could not point out to you why it was special.

So while I can’t quite understand the mindset, I can appreciate perhaps some of what drives it.  For the atheist that wants to live in a pure religion-free world Christmas is a horrible blot on an otherwise secularist society.  You just can’t escape Christmas.  Believers are upset by the commercialization of Christmas and atheists are upset that there was anything regarding it to be commercialized in the first place. Maybe one day we will reduce Christmas to the contents of a Hallmark or ABC Family Channel Holiday movie and so even militant atheists will find nothing  to get offended about. “Family is important and hey look – snow.”

The new atheists have become the new puritans and H.L. Menkens “A Puritan is a person who lives in the fear that someone, somewhere, may be having a good time.” can easily have the word puritan substituted.

It is interesting that Christians have tried to accommodate non-Christians which we see with the elevation of Hanukkah.  Heck we even accepted Kwanzaa, a holiday invented by a felon who tortured women.   I like a generous reaction to those who don’t share your faith when it does not end in political correctness. Trying to make others comfortable with all the attention on a Christian holiday can be a fine thing.  Yet what have we done to make the militant atheist comfortable?  Where is the fake holiday they can celebrate?  Sure there is the Jerry Seinfeld “Festivus”, but it is hard to celebrate satire.

When atheists successfully sue cities so that they can get their own display up on public land, the displays run towards mockery of Christianity and not any kind of representation of their own positive beliefs.  No nativity, just negativity so they must crush the creche and mangle the manger.

Really we need to create an atheist holiday that just so happens to occur during the Christmas season. Although “holiday” would have to be stripped because it really means “Holy Day.” What word do you use for “Excuse for a day off?” Certainly a winter solstice based commemoration with it’s appropriate calendar date  and astronomical ties is a nice fit.  A series of traditions that take off on Christmas traditions would help to unbaptize the commemoration.

What to call it though is difficult. I would be tempted to name it “Christless” since that is rather accurate even if not acceptable.  Celebrating Christless and gathering around the Christless Tree to open Christless presents is an all to accurate depiction of what many Christians do. So maybe just call it “Solstice” if only it didn’t sound too much like soul-stice. Maybe just call it “Materialistic” as in have a “Merry Materialistic”, but alas again too many are already having a materialistic celebration.  I would be really upset by atheists screwing up Christmas if we hadn’t screwed it up first.

Regardless whatever you call it some materialistic seasonal template around which to build atheist traditions can help them get through this painful period and reminder that theists still exist. Don’t say noel, just say no! Why is there no “Charlie’s Brown’s debunking of Christmas”? Or is that on the History channel? Why can ‘t the Grinch have a happy ending by actually stealing Christmas? Why shouldn’t the hero in “Miracle on 42nd Street” be the atheist mother? Instead of Andy Williams, Bill Maher singing “Oh come all ye faithless”.

Now while as usual I am jesting it is also a reminder concerning St. Augustine’s “Our hears are restless until they rest in thee” and to remember our atheist brothers and sisters as we celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation.  While are mangers remain empty until Christmas Eve, their mangers remain empty and the attempt is made to fill them with anything other than Christ.  I can only speak of my joy at the Incarnation and my being saved from my sins and that now I can actually celebrate Christmas and not my own vices.

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HumorPunditry

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

Don’t you just love this time of year? When atheists sue cities over Nativity scenes and atheist parents complain to prevent mentions of the Gospel via Charlie Brown.  Just something about all this suing that warms the cockles of my heart.  You have to warm heart cockles because it is really hard to find them otherwise.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year
With atheist’s lawyers suing
And everyone telling you “Don’t spread that cheer”
It’s the most wonderful time of the year
It’s the most litigious season of all
…

This is not going to be a “War on Christmas” post.

The Madeline Marray O’Hare style of making friends via court actions is a rising trend among the so-called new atheists. The micron-thin skin of the new atheist with a hair-trigger offended reaction to any sign of piety even of the commercial materialistic leftovers of Christmas.   Survival of the fittest becomes survival of the offended.  It is hard for me to understand this mindset.  As an atheist I was quite happy with the trappings of Christmas even if I had not understanding of the theological underpinnings.  Getting stuff was a fine enough reason for me for a holiday. Greed was good enough for me. If other people believed in some phony sky god, big deal as long as I got stuff.  Sure other trappings of Christmas were fun and led to the atmosphere of this special season, even if I could not point out to you why it was special.

So while I can’t quite understand the mindset, I can appreciate perhaps some of what drives it.  For the atheist that wants to live in a pure religion-free world Christmas is a horrible blot on an otherwise secularist society.  You just can’t escape Christmas.  Believers are upset by the commercialization of Christmas and atheists are upset that there was anything regarding it to be commercialized in the first place. Maybe one day we will reduce Christmas to the contents of a Hallmark or ABC Family Channel Holiday movie and so even militant atheists will find nothing  to get offended about. “Family is important and hey look – snow.”

The new atheists have become the new puritans and H.L. Menkens “A Puritan is a person who lives in the fear that someone, somewhere, may be having a good time.” can easily have the word puritan substituted.

It is interesting that Christians have tried to accommodate non-Christians which we see with the elevation of Hanukkah.  Heck we even accepted Kwanzaa, a holiday invented by a felon who tortured women.   I like a generous reaction to those who don’t share your faith when it does not end in political correctness. Trying to make others comfortable with all the attention on a Christian holiday can be a fine thing.  Yet what have we done to make the militant atheist comfortable?  Where is the fake holiday they can celebrate?  Sure there is the Jerry Seinfeld “Festivus”, but it is hard to celebrate satire.

When atheists successfully sue cities so that they can get their own display up on public land, the displays run towards mockery of Christianity and not any kind of representation of their own positive beliefs.  No nativity, just negativity so they must crush the creche and mangle the manger.

Really we need to create an atheist holiday that just so happens to occur during the Christmas season. Although “holiday” would have to be stripped because it really means “Holy Day.” What word do you use for “Excuse for a day off?” Certainly a winter solstice based commemoration with it’s appropriate calendar date  and astronomical ties is a nice fit.  A series of traditions that take off on Christmas traditions would help to unbaptize the commemoration.

What to call it though is difficult. I would be tempted to name it “Christless” since that is rather accurate even if not acceptable.  Celebrating Christless and gathering around the Christless Tree to open Christless presents is an all to accurate depiction of what many Christians do. So maybe just call it “Solstice” if only it didn’t sound too much like soul-stice. Maybe just call it “Materialistic” as in have a “Merry Materialistic”, but alas again too many are already having a materialistic celebration.  I would be really upset by atheists screwing up Christmas if we hadn’t screwed it up first.

Regardless whatever you call it some materialistic seasonal template around which to build atheist traditions can help them get through this painful period and reminder that theists still exist. Don’t say noel, just say no! Why is there no “Charlie’s Brown’s debunking of Christmas”? Or is that on the History channel? Why can ‘t the Grinch have a happy ending by actually stealing Christmas? Why shouldn’t the hero in “Miracle on 42nd Street” be the atheist mother? Instead of Andy Williams, Bill Maher singing “Oh come all ye faithless”.

Now while as usual I am jesting it is also a reminder concerning St. Augustine’s “Our hears are restless until they rest in thee” and to remember our atheist brothers and sisters as we celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation.  While are mangers remain empty until Christmas Eve, their mangers remain empty and the attempt is made to fill them with anything other than Christ.  I can only speak of my joy at the Incarnation and my being saved from my sins and that now I can actually celebrate Christmas and not my own vices.

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