Shooting Down Christmas

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen

 One thing that really burns my prairie schooner is when people attack Christmas. Atheists will pass along false information about Christmas having pagan origins, and legalistic Christians who are in touch with their inner Pharisee join in the condemnation of those of us who choose to celebrate. Their claims are easily refuted, see the links at "What About Christians and Christmas?"
Many of the "reasons" given by people who attack Christmas are based on falsehoods, inaccurate history, traditions, and more. Here is some material to correct some of those misconceptions.
Assembled with elements from Clker clipart
Now, I want to emphasize that some professing Christians choose to celebrate Christmas, and a few do not. They are acting according to their consciences, and I don't want to talk them into celebrating. Those folks  respect our choice to celebrate God the Son taking on human form to redeem fallen humanity, and we let them go on about their business; that's what knowledgeable, Bible-believing Christians are supposed to do, you savvy?

 Then we have the other group, which seems to be more strident every year. What shall I call those who hate Christmas and want to bully people into accepting their uninformed opinions? Christmasophobes? Their logic and arguments do not withstand scrutiny. Many of our "facts" are based on erroneous assumptions and traditions, not from history or the proper exegesis of Scripture.

 Here's something that I regret was not done a month or two ago. Dr. Albert Mohler has an occasional interview podcast on an intellectual level. It has a title that I think is excellent, "Thinking in Public". I'd like to send you to this extremely informative interview with a historian, author of Christmas in the Crosshairs: Two Thousand Years of Denouncing and Defending the World's Most Celebrated Holiday. This book is now on my want list. I hope you'll want to listen to it. To download it, click on "The Persistence of Christmas: A Conversation with Historian Gerry Bowler". 

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