Tuesday, December 22, 2009

This Christmas...

... in Britain has an underlying seriousness not sensed in recent years. There's a sadness about. It's not just that cold weather has disrupted many poeople's travel plans, so that families are divided and people have been stranded at airports and in the Channel Tunnel. It's not just that there's a cyncism about, with one of the year's main news stories being about Members of Parliament grabbing so much money dishonestly through an inflated expenses scheme. It's not just the continuing rise in crime, and family break-up. It's more than all that. It's somehow connected with a nostalgia for the beautiful and the true. It's connected with all the current propaganda denying Christianity its rightful place in our history and traditions and culture and common life, and with a feeling that even joking about this makes one somehow vulnerable. There's a disconcerting am-I-allowed-to-say-this feel in the air when people mention the profound religious truth that is at the heart of Christmas...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I say let's blow political correctness. As Christians, Christmas is one of our two main festivals. Let us be proud of it. Let us rejoice in it. Let us celebrate it as Christians should. Who knows, if we stand up for the true meaning of Christmas it might make non-Christians think there is something more about it than tinsle and getting drunk.

Anonymous said...

I read that Obama has placed a likeness of Mao on the White House "Christmas" tree!

The Christ is disappearing from Christmas and from Western civilization. I gathered as many of the wholesome Christmas movies as I could and will read from my collection of classic Christmas stories. Most of all, I will have my Nativity scene nearby and Jesus in my heart, so that He will know that He is not forgotten and that I am grateful for all of the indignities and hardships that He suffered for me.

Anonymous said...

Let us understand that this is our time to not faint but to be strong and keep proclaiming the Good News of Christ Our Savior. Many chrisitians have suffered hardships and are being persecuted today for their faith. We have to remain united and stronger than ever. Let us commit to that.

Anonymous said...

I don't know abuot Mao on the White House tree, but I do know they are calling it a Holiday Tree instead of a Christmas Tree, and the Christmas Cards they sent are terrible ,sterile and secular

Of course they didn't send me one....snicker

Sharon said...

Here in Australia I am reading more and more often of children or early adolescents hurting or killing other children or adolescents. That would have been unthinkable not so long ago.

My son has self censored himself at work - not wishing anyone Merry Christmas unless someone else says it first. He's not the only one. No instructions have come from the company - it is just in the air.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, we in the States have exported our brand of politically correct silliness around the world.

When I worked in a department store, we sold black nativities which were carefully labeled as "African-American Nativity Sets." Everyone would laugh at the notion of an "American Nativity Set," but wouldn't dare laugh at a sign that says "African-American" because that would be racist. Every year, the ornaments and decorations we sold had less to do with Christmas.

I now work at a company that carefully promotes Kwanzaa on an equal level with Christmas (oops, I meant "the holiday") because failure to do so would be construed as racist. The break room bulletin board display gives meticulously equal space to Hanukkah (a minor holiday), Christmas (a major holiday) and Kwanzaa (a bogus holiday invented by a Marxist professor at Cal State in the '60s.) The entire month of January is devoted to Martin Luther King, who is treated with far more reverence than Jesus, and February is Black History Month which stays up until April. (Easter doesn't get a mention.)

Merry Christmas from the States!

Big Sis said...

Here in NZ it's been a perfect day in paradise all over the country. No doubt some one somewhere has not had the best day, but for most of us with our friends and families we've enjoyed the sunshine, the warmth and and the celebration of Christmas in our own way on a gorgeous summer day. It makes up for a lot! We still wish every one a Merry Christmas and certainly don't think twice about it!

johnf said...

I suspect that the real deep down reason that Christmas is being whitewashed out is that it celebrates the mystery and the miracle of birth.

This of course is anathema to modern secular society which is more attuned to abortion.

Emily said...

Let us join together and stay strong. We can send religious Christmas cards and we can display a star in our windows. We can attend Christmas Mass. We can encourage our Christian neighbors to keep Christ in Christmas. We can teach the real meaning of Christmas to our families.

Be not afraid was the advice of JP II.

Auntie, thank you for bringing us together and giving us a place to see that we, Christians, are all in this together. Let us live so that one day our ancestors will say we stood firm in our convictions.

robert summervile said...

God is love and God is true.
He will always see us throught.
With our faith strong a deep within our hearts. The non believer will not tear us apart.
Happy New Year To All