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Today, many right-wing Christians claim there is a "War on Christmas." Fox news is obsessed with this popular myth, like so many others they promote. They claim it is wrong to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. And that those who do so are wrong and Godless.
Is there any truth to what they say?
NONE!
Most of what everyone teaches today about doctrine and religion is so far removed from reality that it is shocking. Error is piled high on top of error. And few notice.
Here is the real story about the Puritan War on Christmas; it was waged because the holiday was nothing more than false Roman Catholioc doctrine:
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THE PURITAN WAR ON CHRISTMAS
Christmas was not a holiday in Puritan New England. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. A fine of five shillings (over one week’s wages) was levied on anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit. By contrast, in Jamestown, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.
The Puritan View of Christmas
Puritans heaped contempt on Christmas for several reasons. First, no holy days, except the Sabbath, were sanctioned in Scripture. Second, the most egregious behaviors were exercised in the Christmas celebration (Cotton Mather railed against these behaviors). Third, December 25th was ahistorical. The Puritans argued that this date was an early Christian hijacking of a Roman festival honoring the birthday of Mithra, the sun god. To celebrate a December Christmas was to defile oneself by paying homage to a pagan custom.
The main reason Puritans did not like Christmas was that it was a raucously popular holiday in late medieval England, filled with bawdy drunkenness. “Men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas,” wrote Hugh Latimer, a 16th century clergyman, “than in all the 12 months besides.”
Christmas Banned
The Puritans heaped contempt on Christmas, nicknaming it “foolstide” and banning anyone from celebrating it. On the first December 25th, the Pilgrims worked on building their first structure—thus demonstrating their contempt. The next year, Governor Bradford punished a group of non-Puritan workmen who were caught celebrating Christmas with a game of “stoole-ball”—a precursor of baseball. He scolded them, “my conscience cannot let you play while everybody else is out working,”
Puritan Views Tenacious
Although Christmas celebrations were legal after 1680, New England officials continued to frown upon gift giving and reveling. Evergreen decorations, associated with Pagan customs, were expressly forbidden in Puritan meeting houses and discouraged in the home. Merrymakers were prosecuted for disturbing the peace. As late as 1870, Boston public schools held classes on Christmas Day and punishments were given to children who chose to stay home beneath the Christmas tree. Some hinted that the Puritans viewed Santa Claus as the anti-Christ.
Anti-Christmas sentiment rose again around the time of the American Revolution. New Englanders began to associate Christmas with royal officialdom and refused to make it a holiday. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under the new constitution. Christmas was not declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
The North and South were divided on the issue of Christmas, as well as on the question of slavery. Many Northerners saw sin in the celebration of Christmas. To these people, the celebration of Thanksgiving was more appropriate. However, in the South, Christmas was an important part of the social season. The first three states to make Christmas a legal holiday were in the South: Alabama in 1836, and Louisiana and Arkansas in 1838.
Post Civil War
In the years after the Civil War, Christmas traditions grew across the country. Children’s books played an important role in spreading the customs of celebrating Christmas, especially the tradition of trimmed trees and gifts by Santa Claus. Sunday school classes encouraged the celebration of Christmas. Women’s magazines suggested ways to decorate for the holidays, as well as how to make decorations. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century, America eagerly decorated trees, caroled, baked, and shopped for the Christmas season. Since that time, tradition, materialism, and mass marketing have made Christmas the holiday it is today.
Tom Norris for Adventist Reform
Last edited by tom_norris (12-24-13 10:58 am)
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Typical Tom Norris, no sources given. Not too many people are interested in your and my opinion without sources.
Last edited by bob_2 (12-24-13 12:53 pm)
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Bob 2, a harsh critic of Adventist Reform said: Typical Tom Norris, no sources given. Not too many people are interested in your and my opinion without sources.
Tom replied: You silly fellow. Are you also a right wing supporter of Fox News? Are you also embracing their utter nonsense and historic fraud about Christmas and American history? The information in this article about Christmas in America is 100% history and zero opinion. It can be found in any history book, and thus it is not even up for debate. The fact that you, and so many others, don’t know this story is telling and sad.
Bob, if you doubt any part of the article, then stand up and point out error. If not, don’t complain about the lack of sources. However, if you can’t find error, and you can’t, then you need be quiet and stop being such a fool. Better yet, before you attack what you don’t know, why not look up the facts and educate yourself?
Here is start for you:
Christmas in Puritan New England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_ … ew_England
When America Banned Christmas
http://theweek.com/article/index/222676 … -christmas
History of Christmas
http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm
The Pilgrims War on Christmas
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-blo … 2597/posts
FYI, I wrote this article for the November 2013 Maryland Mayflower Log, of which my wife and I are editors. This group studies and re-lives the history and culture of the Pilgrims. They are experts that know the most detailed points about each and every person that sailed on the Mayflower, as well as many of their ancestors.
See:
http://www.marylandmayflower.org
The Md. Mayflower Society meets twice a year to hear various historians and experts lecture about this important part of American history. FYI, James White’s ancestors were on the Mayflower. For the record, there were no complaints about the article, because the readers all know that the Pilgrims hated Christmas. Apparently most Americans are not so informed, especially the right wing Christians that embrace one myth after another, including this absurdity about a supposed war on Christmas today. As if Christmas is a real, NC doctrine when it is not, not, not. Thus the Pilgrims were correct on this theological point, even though they also held many other errors.
Fox News should be embarrassed about how stupid and wrong they are about this, and many other points of history and religion. But I doubt they care. Truth is not something they understand or value. Few people do, including the NCT crowd, with their myths that you embrace.
In conclusion, the article is 100% correct. The fact you don’t know this only shows that you need to better educate yourself when it comes to religious history. It also shows that you should check the facts before you attack. It just makes you look foolish.
Happy Holidays!
Tom Norris for Adventist Reform
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Sharon Lindsey said: America was not born out of theology. It was established and developed by God who worked through imperfect men. But they were men who understood man's place as a created being in submission to God. Therefore, all important documents referenced this fact.
Remember there were about 150 years between the Pilgrims and the men who wrote the constitution. Religious freedom and freedom from a monarchy were both slowly growing ideas. The idea that God controlled the destiny of this nation and every person in it was never in doubt.
The men who founded this nation were men of prayer from the Pilgrims to the warriors of the Revolution, to the originators of the constitution. After George Washington took the oath of office he led his party to a chapel where he knelt and prayed a prayer much like Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the Temple. That chapel is the only building close to the twin towers that survived the attack.
The position of the right is that documents establish that the Judeo-Christian concept of God has always been a foundational part of America. History can not be rewritten to please those who feel offended by this.
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Sharon, that was a good reply, but it misses the point and excuses those who are wrong about Christmas.
It also overlooks the fact that the Pilgrims refused to grant anyone else the freedom to view the scriptures in a different way from them. Here are the seeds of religious intolerance and Phariseeism in the New World. This is not a point that should be defended, much less glossed over as if it did not take place.
While the Pilgrims were correct to declare Christmas as a fraud, they also embraced their own set of false doctrines, of which no one was allowed to challenge. The point here is to understand that it is wrong to force anyone to obey religion. But yet, this is what the Christian Right is all about. That is why they have entered into politics, so they can force others to follow their often-misguided views about religion.
Try breaking the Sunday Sabbath in the Colonies and one would pay the price, even during the 19th century. But of course Sunday is not even the correct day for the Sabbath. But don’t tell this to the Christian right, they would not even understand because they have no interest in doctrinal truth, but only in forcing others to do what they think is correct. This is the issue.
So again, the point still stands; those, like Fox, who claim today that we should honor Christmas, are not only wrong, but they are caught defending historical myths and attacking the very fundamentals that made America great, which is the separation of church and state.
Tom Norris for Adventist Reform
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Sharon wrote: "The debate is bigger than Christmas, Christmas is only the current season. The Pilgrims are not our model. They just took a few important steps toward the concept of religious freedom. They missed a lot of other steps.
Tom said: The size and scope of the debate does not excuse Fox or the right wing crowed for pretending that Christmas is a valid doctrine or that it was a normal part of American history when the opposite is true.
Moreover, while the Pilgrims should not be viewed as a correct model, neither is what the right wing promotes, which is the same basic principle of the Pilgrims to force people to follow their views of religion, allowing no dissent. This is the point. Fox acts like the Pilgrims, (except for their myth about Christmas). This is not good and cannot be defended on any basis.
Sharon said: For the most part, Fox takes a view that is based on the Constitution and the total history of the US. Actually that is a rather shallow and incomplete view because the Bible tells us that our real struggle is with the prinicipalities that rule in the kingdom of Satan.
Tom replied: The right wing crowd is all about forcing people to follow their rules, even as they try and outlaw whatever they don’t like. This is the same crowd that tried to pass a National Sunday law in 1888, and succeeded in passing Prohibition a few years later, which was a disaster. They are not following the Constitution, which features freedom from religion and the separation of Church and State.
Sharon said: Satan, his evil angels and demons hate anything that promotes Christ including Christmas. So they have tried to distort it with Santa and greed, etc. They have tried to change it to just a holiday in the name of political correctness (Political correctness and freedom of speech is where Fox takes up the battle.)
Tom said: Santa is not real, so why would anyone want to defend such a myth? Fox and the right wing crowd are just demonstrating that they think they are above the facts of both history and theology. Which is why they get both wrong on most every point. Let’s not blame such human errors on the devil.
Sharon said: In 1st John we are told to test the spirits. For me that means that I need to identify the spiritual power behind each idea.
Tom said: Fox and the right wing crowd have the wrong spirit. They are full of historic and doctrinal error, not to mention being judgmental and mean to any that refuse to buy into their dubious agenda. These hypocrites, who love war and guns, and care little for the poor, are clueless as to the genuine teachings of Christ. Their error about Christmas is only one example of a long list that could be cited.
Sharon said: The test is do they recognized that Jesus came from heaven, born a babe, lived, died and rose again.
Tom said: The devil also believes this same “test.” So what? If one does not understand and embrace the Gospel teachings of Christ, such belief means nothing. Few understand the Gospel; much less embrace it, especially the right wing crowd. They are far too busy trying to Judge, condemn, and control others to even begin to comprehend the Gospel.
It was the Pharisees, and other Jewish factions in the Gospel Story that used politics, slander, and political alliances with the civil authorities to oppose and silence Christ. They were the right wing crowd of their day, full of myth, error, and hypocrisy. Just like today.
The genius of America is that religion and civil laws are separate. England had a State religion, America, once free, did not, nor does it today, nor should it ever. Christians have no business injecting doctrine into any Party or civil laws; much less claiming their group has the blessing of heaven. This is what is so wrong and against the Gospel as well as against the Constitution.
Do not misunderstand; no political party has the right to claim they speak for God or Christ. None of them do, least of all the party that claims they are on God’s side. Today, Jesus' Kingdom is represented by the church, bad as that is, not by any Nation or their double-talking politicians.
Sharon said: The test is the Christmas and Easter stories (not the holidays).
Tom said: I see no such test in the NT. In fact, the apostolic church never celebrated the birth of Christ, which was of unknown origin to them as it is for us today. So Christmas did not exist in the 1st century, nor was it doctrine whatsoever.
Christmas is just a made-up doctrine, just like the Pilgrims correctly understood. So how can following a false doctrine be a “test” of ones understanding of the Gospel? This is impossible. Those who embrace and defend Christmas are only proving that they do not embrace Protestant theology or understand the history of America.
Those, like Fox and the right wing crowd, who think people should say “Merry Christmas” have little understanding of American history or what the Gospel means. The right wing crowd is making fools of themselves on this point and many others. They have failed the test, not passed it.
As for Easter, which was also the Passover for the Jews, it has a basis in the Gospels; however, it was practiced as the Eucharist, and was not date specific in the apostolic church.
Sharon said: But those who oppose the holidays absolutely hate the story and the demands that the story puts on their lives.
Tom said: This is an unfair and incorrect characterization, one that fits with the rash and absurd positions of the right wing. The Pilgrims opposed and outlawed Christmas. But they did not hate the Gospel Story or Christ. So you are obviously wrong with this assessment.
I am also a Protestant, descendent of the Pilgrims. I agree with them that Christmas is a farce that should not be indulged, much less promoted by the followers of Christ. But yet, I love the Gospel Story and think it is the only hope to survive the grave. So Christmas is not a test of fidelity to Christ, and in fact, could more easily represent the opposite.
Regardless, there is no defense for any religious doctrine being forced into the political arena, much less when it is so obviously false. Then to make matters worse, to condemn those who disagree. This is what the right wing is all about; - embracing myth and false doctrines, promoting division, and then slandering those who don’t agree with their arrogant errors. Your defense supports my complaint about the right wing.
Moreover, those who do hate Christians and mock Jesus, like Bill Maher, do so because of the awful way Christians think, act, and speak. He has a strong point. If I thought that the right wing accurately represented Christ and the Gospel, I would renounce Jesus in a second. But they are not even close to understanding, much less following his teachings.
Although the right wing crowd claims to follow Christ, not much, if anything, they say has any support from the genuine Christ of the NT. And this idea that Fox news represents the Gospel and the teachings of Jesus is absurd and ludicrous. If you really think this way, then we follow two very different Christ’s, and yours is a complete fraud, but no doubt a well-armed one, who keeps Sunday, is racist and sexist, hates the poor, but loves war, etc. etc. Such views have no support from the genuine Christ of the NT.
Sharon said: They, inspiried by the Kingdom of Satan, have gone on the offensive. So believers must either defend their right to celebrate all aspects of Christ or allow themselves to become extinct. Fox has been a helpful defensive weapon."
Tom said: First, the world is always on the offensive against the Gospel. Fox news is part of the world, not the church. Second, they are not “believers,” but actors, politicians, and paid talking heads, pandering to a frightened and superstitious demographic that is easily manipulated. Third. False doctrine is no any way to “celebrate” Christ, nor is bigotry, racism, and double-talk about religion.
Today, religion has sunk to an all time low. Rather than repent and clean up their many false doctrines, the church would rather deny they have error, blaming their problems of low attendance on the present evil culture, and those that don’t share their views. Then they enter the political realm, making alliances and trying to force their views on society, and in so doing they allow themselves to be used by those that want earthly power and control. How sad.
Jesus did not support any of the various factions and parties of his day, even as he took a very unpatriotic view by supporting Rome’s right to tax the Jews. Christ was at odds with all of those in power because his agenda and views were so very different.
So it is today. Nothing has changed. Those who think like Christ will not be manipulated and fooled by those in either the church or the political arena who claim to be following God. Jesus teachings are written and accessible to all. Woe to those who embrace a false view, thinking they have found truth.
Luke 11:34 “The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.
Bottom line: Gospel Truth is not to be found in any political party; much less one that claims it has the support of God. Those who are serious about following the teaching of Jesus will not endorse, or be manipulated by, any political party or their propaganda machine, much less think that any such group represents Gospel truth and honesty.
The church today is very confused and wrong about the Gospel. How much more so those that grasp for power in the political arena?
Mark 4:23 “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Tom Norris for Adventist Reform
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