If all you read were Dakota Voice, Sibby Online, and Dakota War College, you'd think this was Rome, Nero was boss, and Christians had to live in fear of being eaten by lions. (Empire, dictator,... have you own meme fun, radical lefty readers.) Even one of my commenters is in the "Christianity in peril" crowd, fretting that Christianity is on the ropes as unnamed forces ban Christmas everywhere.
This morning, I suggest that all the Christians with a persecution complex may actually have a point. The spirit of Christmas and the Christian faith really are under assault, not from presidential candidates who reduce the occasional prison sentence, folks who want to fight AIDS in Africa, or even the Hollywood purveyors of metaphors and heroic polar bears. The real threat to Christmas and Christianity comes from the cold, calculating corporations who want you to put aside your Christian charity and sensibility and buy, buy, buy!
In South Dakota, this consumerist rot runs right to the top. Our own governor, faithful Catholic M. Michael Rounds, rounded out his budget address with an exhortation to South Dakotans to fill the state sales tax coffers: "We recommend you go home and tell people to buy" [Bill Harlan, "Lawmakers Offer Praise and Critique for Conservative Budget," Rapid City Journal, 2007.12.05].
So that's what Christmas is about: buying lots of stuff, not because we need the stuff, not because the stuff is useful or beautiful, but because buying the stuff will prop up a regressive tax system and give the governor more money to spend on government programs.
The conservatives who gripe about government and the perceived assault on Christianity ought to be all over that one. I'll simply suggest that, beyond protecting Christmas from crass consumerism, maybe we need a tax system that motivates the government to encourage people to produce more, build more, serve more, rather than simply consume more. Consumption... gluttony... there might be a connection there.
Also keeping the faith at KELOLand.com!
It's a sad sign of where our society has gone. When students feel there's something more tangible to veteran's day than Easter or Christmas, which have been boiled down to legends of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus.
ReplyDeleteI guess that's what happens when you separate church and state. If we remove God from everything our kids are learning, some of the basic principles disappear.
Remove God? Bah! As any God fearing Puritan raised christian knows, Christmas is evil ;)
ReplyDeleteIn fact, consummerism helped Christmas to be more widely celebrated by Christians, America over. Up until the mid 1800's, mainline protstants didn't really celebrate. Heck, Congress still met on Christmas day for the first 70 odd years of the Union. Easter by far was the Christian's holiday.
Alas, perhaps we need a tax system that discourages consumerism... fairtax.org?
joe "Consumption guarentees Citizenship" nelson