What is 'Humbug'? It's a word we hear thrown around at Christmas, in art because of Dicken's 'A Christmas Carol', where it is used by the character Ebeneezer Scrooge.
from 'wikipedia':
Humbug is a person or thing that tricks or deceives or talks or behaves in a way that is deceptive, dishonest, false, or insincere, often a hoax or in jest.[1][2] While the term was first described in 1751 as student slang, its etymology is unknown. It is now also often used as an exclamation to mean 'nonsense' or 'gibberish'. When referring to a person, a humbug means a fraud or impostor, implying an element of unjustified publicity and spectacle. In Britain, the term is also used for certain types of candy.
However when we hear more nonsense from Fox Fake News Nuts, what we have is one more example of failed efforts to cast them and their followers as pitiful victims, the whiny right; what we have is one more example of the long line of examples of their efforts to promote the us versus them world view. The right likes to portray others as dependent, easily manipulated stooges, while portraying themselves as heroic ruggedly self-sufficient independent individualists. This shows their true colors, that they are NOT self-sufficient rugged individualists; they are cowardly, whiny, little wimps who see themselves as victims of anything that does not conform to their version - an inaccurate version - of reality.
Christianity is a religion, a very fractured rather than unified religion, among a whole world of other religions, and those who are agnostic, questioning religion, and atheists who don't choose to embrace any of the many religions. Most objectionable, it has become a gaudy excuse to exalt consumerism, and has become utterly detached from the original celebration of the holiday. Which, if we were to genuinely celebrate the historic event, would be a spring event, not December 25th.
The annual celebration of the winter solstice period has been a feature in human society for millenia.
ReplyDeleteWhen man lacked a scientific understanding of the physical world he was unable to explain the HOW of nature to the degree that he understood that the seasons WOULD follow one another whether he wanted them to or not; that drought, flood, hurricanes, tornadoes and other weather/climate phenomena were NOT the work of the gods but simply the result of physics.
Through the millenia, the solstice feast was embraced by many disparate groups--most of them with some religious component. Early christian/catholic groups co-opted various pagan/infidel hold days and rituals in order to offer converts from those religions a "homier" feel.
In the modern U.S. and many other countries, the primary deity worshipped is Mammon (his first name is "Benjamin").
My next door neighbors are born again evangelicals. They're nice folks, I love their kids, especially Eliot, their daughter. I'm not into buying gifts for people these days but I would probably not buy them any if I were. I never know how deep they're faith is. A few years ago they weren't doing Halloween, now the kids trick'r'treat.
My thought on December 25th is that I hope for renewal and a mild winter so I have enough pellet fuel to make it through till March!
I was doubly amused by the second video, where Bill O'Reilly calls Christianity a philosophy but NOT a religion.
ReplyDeletePhilosophy does not involve sacraments, it does not involve rituals that invoke or evoke (there's a difference) any deity or other supernatural force, and a philosophy does not involve sacraments, nor is any philosophy involved in official recognition of a change in status such as marriage.
Most of all, unlike the two largest religions which bring trouble on the world and have done so since their inception, philosophy does not require anyone to proselytize others to convert to their beliefs the way Christianity and Islam do.
Philosophy is a mental discipline which stresses understanding and proof or demonstration of fact accessible to intellectual challenge; religion - any religion - is a belief system of a very different kind involving faith, which requires belief without that demonstration of proof.
I thought the war on Christmas was started by Christians:
ReplyDeleteThe first documented Christmas controversy was Christian-led, and began during the English Interregnum, when England was ruled by a Puritan Parliament.[51] Puritans sought to remove elements they viewed as "pagan" (because they were not biblical in origin) from Christianity (see Pre-Christianity below). In 1647, the Puritan-led English Parliament banned the celebration of Christmas, replacing it with a day of fasting and considering it "a popish festival with no biblical justification", and a time of wasteful and immoral behavior.[52] Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks Canterbury was controlled by the rioters, who decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans.[53] The book, The Vindication of Christmas (London, 1652), argued against the Puritans, and makes note of Old English Christmas traditions, dinner, roast apples on the fire, card playing, dances with "plow-boys" and "maidservants", and carol singing.[54] The Restoration of King Charles II in 1660 ended the ban, but many clergymen still disapproved of Christmas celebration. In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland also discouraged observance of Christmas. James VI commanded its celebration in 1618, however attendance at church was scant.[55]
In Colonial America, the Puritans of New England disapproved of Christmas, and celebration was outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681.[56] The ban by the Pilgrims was revoked by English governor Edmund Andros, however it was not until the mid-19th century that celebrating Christmas became fashionable in the Boston region.[57] By the Declaration of Independence in 1776, it was not widely celebrated in the US.[56]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_controversy#Historical_controversy
I think there are some Jesus was a great guy Christian denominations out there--not sure which ones.
ReplyDeleteBut it does kinda screw up the last two thousand years of Christian doctrine.
Every discussion of the War on Christmas, should include this news report :
ReplyDeleteEnslaved Children Freed After Being Forced to Make Christmas decorations
Police and child advocates broke padlocks and busted down doors in a surprise raid of a sweatshop in India, only to find a group of children imprisoned who had been forced to make Christmas decorations.
The children, as young as 8 years old, were kept in rooms approximately six feet by six feet and had been forced to work up to 19-hour days making the decorations, which advocates believe may have been intended to be sold on the cheap in the United States.
There are some tell-tale warning signs American consumers can be on the lookout for if they wish to avoid purchasing products made with child labor. First, if the holiday decorations you are purchasing are not labeled with the country they are made in you might want to be concerned. Next, if they have an unusually low price and are marked as “hand made” it is another red flag.