I Thought There Was A "War On Christmas"??

[RobsPics]

So what happened to the so-called "war on Christmas" that I usually hear around this time of year from the usual Neo-Conservative political commentators? From my viewpoint, I am seeing all kinds of Christmas celebrations/events being held on public property and even City Hall / Government property. Here's just a short list:

San Jose's "Christmas in the Park"
http://www.christmasinthepark.com/

Christmas event in Tennessee:
http://www.cityofclarksville.com/christ ... /index.php

Another one of the many City Hall Christmas Tree lighting events:
http://newstimes.augusta.com/stories/20 ... 7420.shtml

Nativity Scene in Downtown Chicago
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?sectio ... id=7143237

Oh and one can't forget the Christmas tree lighting at our Nation's capital.

So does the "War on Christmas" exist? Did it ever exist? In my opinion, no...it was simply a device Neo-Conservative commentators (many of then on Fox News) used to draw a wedge among the public.

Oh by the way...Merry Christmas

[travelinman67]

Rob...

...once again ignoring facts and common sense.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_controversy

BTW...

...at which university did you receive your brainwashing?

PSU?

The bastion of objectivity; neutrality?










We get it.

You hate conservatism...

...but what do YOU believe in, and WHY do you think your political beliefs will better America (for everyone)?

[RobsPics]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_controversy

You call that a "war"? LOL

Ok so I guess when The Gap, Best Buy, Home Depot, and any other retailer voluntarily decides on its own to use the word "Holiday" instead of "Christmas", they are practicing a war on themselves? Hahaha ok. I tend to think that it's every retailer's inherent right to run it business the way it sees fit as long as it comports with the law...and you have a right not to do business with those you disagree with. But that's just me.

Merry Christmas

[andy7171]

You should stick to porn.

[dbackjon]

I love the new Rob!!

Yes, once again Christians self-percecute over percieved injustices that don't exist in reality.

[catamount man]

there is no war on Christmas and this is coming from a Christian, not the best one I assure you, but I just told a lady over the phone this morning "Merry Christmas" and she didn't go all PC on me, so I don't see what so many people get ill about.

[Col Hogan]

A guy in our office put up a tiny Christmas tree early this morning...

At our weekly staff meeting that just ended, it was the boss' first topic... "If anyone is offended by the tree, please let me know"...

WTF??? First, why even bring it up if no one has said anything...Second, if someone is offended...TS!!!

[dbackjon]

A guy in our office put up a tiny Christmas tree early this morning...

At our weekly staff meeting that just ended, it was the boss' first topic... "If anyone is offended by the tree, please let me know"...

WTF??? First, why even bring it up if no one has said anything...Second, if someone is offended...TS!!!

As long as it was a Holiday Bush

[Cap'n Cat]

You should stick to porn.

OK!

[Col Hogan]

A guy in our office put up a tiny Christmas tree early this morning...

At our weekly staff meeting that just ended, it was the boss' first topic... "If anyone is offended by the tree, please let me know"...

WTF??? First, why even bring it up if no one has said anything...Second, if someone is offended...TS!!!

As long as it was a Holiday Bush

Nope...Christmas Tree...the music box plays "We wish you a Merry Christmas"...

Now, if he plays that too much, my ears might be offended...

[clenz]

The fact that non-Christians celebrate Christmas does bother me a bit...

[dbackjon]

The fact that non-Christians celebrate Christmas does bother me a bit...

Our corporate masters demand that everyone celebrate it - or at least buy gifts...



Really, how many CHRISTIANS actually celebrate the true meaning of Christmas??

[clenz]

The fact that non-Christians celebrate Christmas does bother me a bit...

Really, how many CHRISTIANS actually celebrate the true meaning of Christmas??

That actually bothers me as well.


I am not the best Christian around, but when it comes to things like Christmas and Easter I make sure to celebrate the true reason for those holidays.

I cringe every time someone says Mary X-mas or something like that. There is a reason it is call CHRISTmas, and thus it should be celebrated as such.


I understand that much like Valentines Day, and even now Easter, we are told that everyone needs to celebrate, buy gifts, and all of that shit. However, I don't agree. I don't celebrate Chanukah, Ramadan, Rash sha'shana, etc... nor does anyone else outside of the religions.


Just my opinion.

[AZGrizFan]

You should stick to porn.

My sentiments exactly.

[kalm]

I think Christians have a beef when they actually celebrate j.c.'s birth on the real date and quit co-opting pagan traditions like the Christmas tree and celebration of the winter solstice.

The only war here is oreilly's attack on intelligence.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

The fact that non-Christians celebrate Christmas does bother me a bit...

Our corporate masters demand that everyone celebrate it - or at least buy gifts...



Really, how many CHRISTIANS actually celebrate the true meaning of Christmas??

Just me.







I am not into buying gifts for others simply because Christmas has become to commercial. I prefer to tell people I am just a cheap bastard, but the real reason I dont do it, is because greed is not the right way to celebrate Jesus and his birth.

[AZGrizFan]

I think Christians have a beef when they actually celebrate j.c.'s birth on the real date and quit co-opting pagan traditions like the Christmas tree and celebration of the winter solstice.

The only war here is oreilly's attack on intelligence.

You know someone who celebrates December 21st?

[travelinman67]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_controversy

You call that a "war"? LOL

Ok so I guess when The Gap, Best Buy, Home Depot, and any other retailer voluntarily decides on its own to use the word "Holiday" instead of "Christmas", they are practicing a war on themselves? Hahaha ok. I tend to think that it's every retailer's inherent right to run it business the way it sees fit as long as it comports with the law...and you have a right not to do business with those you disagree with. But that's just me.

Merry Christmas

Non-responsive, but that's to be expected from an ideologue.

[mainejeff]

I love the new Rob!!

Yes, once again Christians self-percecute over percieved injustices that don't exist in reality.

Spot on.

[Appaholic]

Really, how many CHRISTIANS actually celebrate the true meaning of Christmas??

That actually bothers me as well.


I am not the best Christian around, but when it comes to things like Christmas and Easter I make sure to celebrate the true reason for those holidays.

I cringe every time someone says Mary X-mas or something like that. There is a reason it is call CHRISTmas, and thus it should be celebrated as such.


I understand that much like Valentines Day, and even now Easter, we are told that everyone needs to celebrate, buy gifts, and all of that shit. However, I don't agree. I don't celebrate Chanukah, Ramadan, Rash sha'shana, etc... nor does anyone else outside of the religions.


Just my opinion.

Do a little history on Christmas....the "true" meaning of Christmas was hijacked by Christians in an effort to piggyback onto the success of a pagan holiday....most "true" organized Christian religions attempted to outlaw Christmas as we know it and when they weren't successful, joined in by incorporating the birth of Christ into celebration....True Christmas celebrations have nothing to do with Christ...

Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion. Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984): “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on Dec. 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice—the return of the sun—and honored Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun with worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak—some would say its worst moments—in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry.”

Consider these quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under “Christmas”: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” Further, “Pagan customs centring round the January calends gravitated to Christmas.” Under “Natal Day,” Origen, an early Catholic writer, admitted, “…In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world” (emphasis mine).

The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

There is no mistaking the origin of the modern Christmas celebration. Many additional sources could be cited and we will return to this later. Let’s begin to tie some other facts together.

It was 300 years after Christ before the Roman church kept Christmas, and not until the fifth century that it was mandated to be kept throughout the empire as an official festival honoring “Christ.”
http://www.thercg.org/books/ttooc.html

[andy7171]

You should stick to porn.

OK!

MEH! I'm younger than you Cap'n, I'm more of a Nikki Dial kinda guy.

[native]

That actually bothers me as well.


I am not the best Christian around, but when it comes to things like Christmas and Easter I make sure to celebrate the true reason for those holidays.

I cringe every time someone says Mary X-mas or something like that. There is a reason it is call CHRISTmas, and thus it should be celebrated as such.


I understand that much like Valentines Day, and even now Easter, we are told that everyone needs to celebrate, buy gifts, and all of that ****. However, I don't agree. I don't celebrate Chanukah, Ramadan, Rash sha'shana, etc... nor does anyone else outside of the religions.


Just my opinion.

Do a little history on Christmas....the "true" meaning of Christmas was hijacked by Christians in an effort to piggyback onto the success of a pagan holiday....most "true" organized Christian religions attempted to outlaw Christmas as we know it and when they weren't successful, joined in by incorporating the birth of Christ into celebration....True Christmas celebrations have nothing to do with Christ...

Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion. Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984): “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on Dec. 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice—the return of the sun—and honored Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun with worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak—some would say its worst moments—in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry.”

Consider these quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under “Christmas”: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” Further, “Pagan customs centring round the January calends gravitated to Christmas.” Under “Natal Day,” Origen, an early Catholic writer, admitted, “…In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world” (emphasis mine).

The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

There is no mistaking the origin of the modern Christmas celebration. Many additional sources could be cited and we will return to this later. Let’s begin to tie some other facts together.

It was 300 years after Christ before the Roman church kept Christmas, and not until the fifth century that it was mandated to be kept throughout the empire as an official festival honoring “Christ.”
http://www.thercg.org/books/ttooc.html

Point taken, but I don't think the pagans called their winter holiday "Christ's Mass."

Even if what you say is completely true, the Christian traditions are still 100% superior to the left's alternatives.

[Skjellyfetti]

I cringe every time someone says Mary X-mas or something like that. There is a reason it is call CHRISTmas, and thus it should be celebrated as such.

Xmas comes from Xristo in Greek. And X was the symbol for Christ in Greek.

"Xmas" isn't part of a liberal conspiracy to undermine Christmas. I promise.

[kalm]

Do a little history on Christmas....the "true" meaning of Christmas was hijacked by Christians in an effort to piggyback onto the success of a pagan holiday....most "true" organized Christian religions attempted to outlaw Christmas as we know it and when they weren't successful, joined in by incorporating the birth of Christ into celebration....True Christmas celebrations have nothing to do with Christ...

Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion. Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984): “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on Dec. 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice—the return of the sun—and honored Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun with worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak—some would say its worst moments—in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry.”

Consider these quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under “Christmas”: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” Further, “Pagan customs centring round the January calends gravitated to Christmas.” Under “Natal Day,” Origen, an early Catholic writer, admitted, “…In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world” (emphasis mine).

The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

There is no mistaking the origin of the modern Christmas celebration. Many additional sources could be cited and we will return to this later. Let’s begin to tie some other facts together.

It was 300 years after Christ before the Roman church kept Christmas, and not until the fifth century that it was mandated to be kept throughout the empire as an official festival honoring “Christ.”
http://www.thercg.org/books/ttooc.html

Point taken, but I don't think the pagans called their winter holiday "Christ's Mass."

Even if what you say is completely true, the Christian traditions are still 100% superior to the left's alternatives.

You can make a case that certain christian traditions are left leaning and that JC was the original hippie liberal.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Ghandi

[Appaholic]

Do a little history on Christmas....the "true" meaning of Christmas was hijacked by Christians in an effort to piggyback onto the success of a pagan holiday....most "true" organized Christian religions attempted to outlaw Christmas as we know it and when they weren't successful, joined in by incorporating the birth of Christ into celebration....True Christmas celebrations have nothing to do with Christ...

Nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion. Consider the following admission from a large American newspaper (The Buffalo News, Nov. 22, 1984): “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on Dec. 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice—the return of the sun—and honored Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun with worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak—some would say its worst moments—in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry.”

Consider these quotes from the Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under “Christmas”: “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church…The first evidence of the feast is from Egypt.” Further, “Pagan customs centring round the January calends gravitated to Christmas.” Under “Natal Day,” Origen, an early Catholic writer, admitted, “…In the Scriptures, no one is recorded to have kept a feast or held a great banquet on his birthday. It is only sinners (like Pharaoh and Herod) who make great rejoicings over the day on which they were born into this world” (emphasis mine).

The Encyclopedia Americana, 1956 edition, adds, “Christmas…was not observed in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth…a feast was established in memory of this event [Christ’s birth] in the 4th century. In the 5th century the Western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithraic rites of the birth of the sun and at the close of the Saturnalia, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

There is no mistaking the origin of the modern Christmas celebration. Many additional sources could be cited and we will return to this later. Let’s begin to tie some other facts together.

It was 300 years after Christ before the Roman church kept Christmas, and not until the fifth century that it was mandated to be kept throughout the empire as an official festival honoring “Christ.”
http://www.thercg.org/books/ttooc.html

Point taken, but I don't think the pagans called their winter holiday "Christ's Mass."

Even if what you say is completely true, the Christian traditions are still 100% superior to the left's alternatives.

Really?....so you & your kids spent every Christmas morning in church instead of opening presents from Santa? Or was it that your co-workers spent their time feeding the poor & destitute at the shelter in lieu of Christmas Office Party (with the funds from their Christmas bonus no doubt)? Please....it's all well & good to state what you did, but actions speak louder than words & if your statement held a semblance of truth, then the Pagans would have coi-opted Christmas instead of the other way around.....