Happy Santa day

[Gob]

An Irish Catholic priest has called for Christians to stop using the word Christmas because it has been hijacked by “Santa and reindeer”.

Father Desmond O’Donnell said Christians of any denomination need to accept Christmas now has no sacred meaning.

“We’ve lost Christmas, just like we lost Easter, and should abandon the word completely,” O’Donnell told the Belfast Telegraph.

“We need to let it go, it’s already been hijacked and we just need to recognise and accept that.”

O’Donnell said he is not seeking to disparage non-believers. “I am simply asking that space be preserved for believers for whom Christmas has nothing to do with Santa and reindeer.

“My religious experience of true Christmas, like so many others, is very deep and real – like the air I breathe. But non-believers deserve and need their celebration too, it’s an essential human dynamic and we all need that in the toughness of life.”

A registered psychologist and author as well as an Oblate priest, O’Donnell saidthe meaning of Christmas had eroded over time and become commercialised.

“I’m just trying to rescue the reality of Christmas for believers by giving up ‘Christmas’ and replacing it with another word.”

O’Donnell said unless Catholicism addressed the reality of what the word Christmas has come to mean, “secularisation and modern life will continue to launder the church”.

[RayThom]

[Big RR]

Sure, and then we could move the religious holiday to the spring (or maybe the fall, depending on which calendar you use), when the birth of Jesus was more likely by the biblical account of pregnant Mary and Elizabeth; not to mention that shepehers would not be tending their flocks in the pasture in winter.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Right on, Big RR. And here's proof (although they must have been hot in those clothes):

[Big RR]

I'd bet they were hot, expecially since everyone else was wearing togas. That had forward thinking fashion consultants.

[Lord Jim]

Seems to me that the secular and religious traditions of Christmas have managed to co-exist just fine for a long time now...

I think the good father needs to get over himself...

[Big RR]

I guess you're right Jim--even Santa Claus is a saint, and the magi were the first gift givers.

[MajGenl.Meade]

I didn't really get the padre's point.

Was he urging that Christians should find a new word to use, instead of "Christmas"?

He made no suggestion. "Ethel the Frog" comes to mind or "Manger Day"

Or does he think that non-Christians should come up with a new word for their own use and give "Christmas" back?

It is an urgent matter after all..............

[Big RR]

Urgent Meade? It's beyond urgent; how dare the heathens horn in on the holiday and share in the celebration of the faithful? And while we're at it, let's change New Years Day as well (which, as I recall, celebrates the bris of jesus). No need to let the hoi polloi share in that "joy" either.

[RayThom]

"Christian Exceptionalism Day" perhaps?

[Big RR]

Or Jesus H Christmas, to distinguish it from the one named after the jesus without a middle initial?

[Burning Petard]

I think his middle name was Ben. You know Josh ben Joe.

[Sue U]

“We’ve lost Christmas, just like we lost Easter, and should abandon the word completely,” O’Donnell told the Belfast Telegraph.

“We need to let it go, it’s already been hijacked and we just need to recognise and accept that.”

Oh, you mean like how Christians hijacked pagan holidays and made them their own? Where is your irony god now?

[Econoline]

[Bicycle Bill]

AND EVERYBODY WILL WONDER JUST WHAT IN THE HELL YOU ARE UP TO!   

-"BB"-

[ex-khobar Andy]

And of course Trump, with his "I'm bringing Christmas back!" would never understand the concept expressed in that statement.

[RayThom]

[Econoline]

[Big RR]

[Bicycle Bill]

First, read Luke 2:1-20.  Or even Matthew 1:18 through 2:23.
Now, please tell me what elves, flying reindeer, a fat man in a sleigh, drummer boys, dancing snowmen, and syncing several hundred kilowatts of lights to the music of Mannheim Steamroller and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra have to do with celebrating the birth of Christ.

If we're going to spend two-plus months working up to a celebration of "The Great American Winter Festival of Corporate Marketing and Conspicuous Consumption" or a modern-day version of Saturnalia, then maybe it *IS* time to stop hiding behind the manger and end the hypocrisy that it's still somehow about God, the Virgin, the stable, and the birth of the Messiah.

-"BB"-