Xref: utzoo alt.flame:1118 talk.religion.newage:1329 talk.origins:922
Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!ames!ll-xn!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!daemon
From: daemon@uwmcsd1.UUCP (The devil himself)
Newsgroups: alt.flame,talk.religion.newage,talk.origins
Subject: Re: Theological Debates
Message-ID: <4032@uwmcsd1.UUCP>
Date: 31 Dec 87 21:43:35 GMT
Organization: U of Wi-Milwaukee, Computing Services Div
Lines: 48

Sender
Followup-To: The Useless Prattering Concerning Christmas Celebrations
Organization: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Keywords: Ignorance of History, Pagan Festivals, Freedom of Religion
From: markh@csd4.milw.wisc.edu (Mark William Hopkins)
Path: csd4.milw.wisc.edu!markh

This silly debate about Christmas is not only stupid, but unnecessary.  Simply
put, both sides are wrong as they argue from the same false premise (irony of
all ! that they should both agree on what makes them wrong).
     Christmas may SEEM like a Christian holiday, but it is not.  Nor was it 
originally.  The church stole (or borrowed) it around 8 or 9 hundred years 
after Christ.
     Every European culture has had a celebration at this time of year.  When 
you live at 50 degrees latitude, you have reason to celebrate the turning of the
the 21st.
     In order to convert the pagans of Europe, the Church found it necessary to
schedule the commemoration of Christ's birth and death so as to coincide with 
Winter and Spring Fests, else the pagans would've never converted as they would
have never sat still for the removal of their cherished holidays.  The fact is
that Christ was born sometime around July.
     In fact, because of its pagan origins, Christmas was BANNED in England 
during the time of Puritan rule.  For similar reasons, Christmas wasn't even
recognized as a holiday in this country until the late 1830's.  To put it
simply, fundamentalists true to their ideology would ban Christmas!
     You need not be Christan to celebrate this holiday.  Christmas imposes
no religion on anyone, EXCEPT when people rant and rave about the so-called
true meaning of Christmas.  The True "True Meaning" of Christmas is to 
celebrate the turning of the seasons.  As for what the Church does with its
holidays, render onto Christ those things that are Christ's, no one else is
compelled to pay tribute.  In any case, you needn't be Christian to respect
what Christ represents.  Even the Jews recognize Christ, though only as the
prophet named Yshua.  

     In America, we observe freedom of religious practice (insofar as such 
practice is consistent with what we believe to be Universal Human Rights).
There are two ways to consider that freedom: restrictively or liberally.
Restrictivelly means we restrict all religious practice from the public 
domain.  This will, however, lead to the loss of spirituality amongst the
people as a whole.  Liberally means that we allow all religious practices
in the public domain.  If this means that every day is to become a holiday 
for some religion, then so be it... all the better for those who enjoy living.
The wisdom inherent in this freedom was to encourage the expression of religion
without imposing the beliefs of anyone onto anyone else.  What it allows for is
an intermixing from which the best of all possible worlds can be taken.  This
process has always been what gave America its strength throughout its heritage
of several thousand years of intermixing of peoples from all parts of the old
world (and no, nobody ever "discovered" America, but that's another story...)