war on Christmas

[evmori]

Faith & deeds work together. One with out the other is like missing one leg. You need both. I suggest you re-read those bible passages. You might be surprised at what you learn.

 

Ever wonder why bad things happen to good people?

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

A blessed Christmas to all

[SR540Beaver]

Ed,

 

With all due respect, I've been a Christian for 41 years, I have a bachelors degree in Religion and made it about halfway thru a masters in Religious Education, spent time in the ministry, taught many years of Sunday School, preached on foreign mission trips and am an ordained Deacon. I'm fairly well versed in what the Bible says. While works are the evidence of our Salvation, they in no way play a part in becoming or being saved. You might want to re-read some passages. It is hard for us as humans to understand the simplicity of God's grace, but it is there in plain black and white.

[evmori]

SR540,

I know it's hard for humans to grasp this concept. I struggle with certain things myself. But if one proclaims Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior and is a hit man for the mob, will he spend eternity in heaven? Is Tookie there? While I know we don't know for sure I would say no.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

A blessed Christmas to all

[OldGreyEagle]

Luke 6:37

[SR540Beaver]

Ed,

 

Which goes right back to what Rooster said about how we can not know what is in another's heart. Only God can do that. Also, as we said, works are the fruit of salvation. If a guy is a hit man for the mob, his works say something totally different than professing Christ. I honestly didn't follow the Tookie story much. I do know that his crimes were about 25 years ago. A lot could have happened in those 25 years. While I understand that he always claimed to be innocent, he also did a lot of work discouraging the gang lifestyle that he had lived earlier. That would be a good work. Bottom line is God is God and men are men and his mind and ours are quite different. A sin is a sin is a sin in God's eyes while man puts degree on sin or crime. Obviously a murder is worse than stealing a CD in man's eyes. To God it is stealing. Nothing we can do can gain our salvation except accepting Jesus as Lod and Savior.....regardless of who we are or what we've done. God set up the rules and that is them.

[SemperParatus]

"Ever wonder why bad things happen to good people?"

 

...and why good things happen to bad (sinful) people like us.

 

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Hi all,

 

Id like to return to the topic, the War on Christmas, if I may.

 

Got a few questions for you all:

 

Which of these religious holidays is a federal holiday:

A) Christmas

B) Hanukkah

C) Eid-al-Adha

 

Which of these religious holidays is a state holiday:

A) Christmas

B) Buddhas birthday

C) Diwali

 

Most manufacturers shut down their plants for which of these religious holiday

seasons:

A) Christmas

B) Ramadan

C) Rosh Hashonah through Yom Kippur

D) Kwanzaa

 

War on Christmas oh, please. Im sad to say, some of the complaints sound like

whining from a spoiled majority who want to have their cake and eat it too.

 

Perhaps the fact that I have to take vacation time to observe my religious holidays is

actually a good thing. The fact that my holidays havent been turned into secular

parties and spending extravaganzas is definitely a good thing.

 

The fact that city hall cant put up a nativity scene, or salesclerks have to say Happy Holidays

takes nothing away from what Christmas is all about. To those of you who think the true

War on Christmas is the way society has diminished Christmas as a religious holiday I say,

fight the good fight.

 

Whatever holiday you celebrate, celebrate it from your heart.

NC

 

[BrentAllen]

War on Christmas isn't real? Then tell me what this is:

Our public elementary school has instructed parents not to bring green and red paper plates or napkins to the "end of term party." (Can't say Christmas)

Teachers must take home immediatly any poinettias they receive as gifts, and they can't bring any to school, because they are "too Christmassy."

A parent complained there were Christmas ornaments being offered for sale in the school's "Holiday Store" so they were removed. (the store offers gifts for kids to purchase for their parents)

Is that a war on Christmas, or just my imagination?

 

DK - if MLK,Jr. went around telling everyone he was the one true Son of God, would people think he was a total nut job, or a great leader and teacher?

Merry Christmas from Dunwoody!

[Kahuna]

If you read the news, it's hard not to come to the conclusion that:

 

1)Christmas is under attack from the liberal media, the ACLU and other groups who merely wish to destroy our society for reasons I don't fully understand.

 

2)That Christians and other reasonable people are getting fed up with it, are coming out in force to say "enough is enough."

 

I'm a Buddhist and therefore have no dog in this fight, but I can see the forces at work.

 

BTW, I would like to point out that Buddha's birthday and the person of Buddha per se are not a big deal in Buddhism. Nor are there any significant universal Buddhist celebrations that would be the equivalent of Christmas.

 

Merry Christmas to all.

[Kudu]

Is that a war on Christmas, or just my imagination?

 

Just your imagination. Red (and gold) were the pagan colors for the active or male aspects of the gods, and green (and silver) were the pagan colors of the female aspects.

 

As for poinsettias, aren't they associated with the solstice because the green leaves naturally turn bright red this time of year? Proof of Intelligent Design, I'm sure, and the war on sun gods.

 

I've been trying to find something in the New Testament about this, but so far no luck. Of course it is possible that Jesus said "Giveth thou the poinsettia to thy teacher in remembrance of me" and nobody remembered to write it down.

 

Kudu

[BrentAllen]

Kudu,

If that is an attempt at humor, stick to your day job.

 

The Legend of the Poinsettia (which isn't found in the New Testament. Thought I'd save you a couple of days of searching)

A charming story is told of Pepita, a poor Mexican girl who had no gift to present the Christ Child at Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked slowly to the chapel with her cousin Pedro, her heart was filled with sadness rather than joy.

"I am sure, Pepita, that even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes," said Pedro consolingly.

 

Not knowing what else to do, Pepita knelt by the roadside and gathered a handful of common weeds, fashioning them into a small bouquet. Looking at the scraggly bunch of weeds, she felt more saddened and embarrassed than ever by the humbleness of her offering. She fought back a tear as she entered the small village chapel.

 

As she approached the alter, she remembered Pedro's kind words: "Even the most humble gift, if given in love, will be acceptable in His eyes." She felt her spirit lift as she knelt to lay the bouquet at the foot of the nativity scene.

 

Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into blooms of brilliant red, and all who saw them were certain that they had witnessed a Christmas miracle right before their eyes.

 

From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season.

 

Today, the common name for this plant is the poinsettia.

 

[Kudu]

From that day on, the bright red flowers were known as the Flores de Noche Buena, or Flowers of the Holy Night, for they bloomed each year during the Christmas season.

 

Silly me, I thought that because the pre-Christian Aztecs in Mexico prized the plant as a symbol of purity, your elementary school was anti-Aztec.

 

But if the creationist botany textbooks in Georgia state that prior to the eighteenth century the poinsettia did not change color, then you are correct.

 

Kudu

[BrentAllen]

Kudu,

I'm so proud of you, being able to perform simple internet research, sitting in front of your little computer. Or do you maintain all this knowledge in your head, same as Cliff Claven?

Out here in the real world, poinsettias are a beautiful gift we give in the celebration of Christmas. The administration at our school told teachers to get them out of their classrooms precisely because they are a symbol of Christmas ("too Christmassy") - not because some Aztec king liked them. If you can't understand this, please return to your one-way conversations with internet research.

Or maybe you can re-educate the world on the history of the swastika, especially its relationship to Scouting.

[BrentAllen]

Kudu,

I'm so proud of you, being able to perform simple internet research, sitting in front of your little computer. Or do you maintain all this knowledge in your head, same as Cliff Claven?

Out here in the real world, poinsettias are a beautiful gift we give in the celebration of Christmas. The administration at our school told teachers to get them out of their classrooms precisely because they are a symbol of Christmas ("too Christmassy") - not because some Aztec king liked them. If you can't understand this, please return to your one-way conversations with internet research.

Or maybe you can re-educate the world on the history of the swastika, especially its relationship to Scouting.

[Kudu]

I'm so proud of you, being able to perform simple Internet research, sitting in front of your little computer. Or do you maintain all this knowledge in your head, same as Cliff Claven?

 

Yeah, like it is just a coincidence that 564 Websites all tell the story in exactly the same words as yours :-/

 

Call me old-fashioned, but I get nostalgic for the good old days when Christians denounced all symbols of Christmas that did not include a manger as pagan.

 

Nothing says "Christmas" like the old annual newspaper wirephotos of Christians circled around an effigy of Santa hanging from the poplar tree, with their Bibles raised in anger!

 

Kudu