Not sure I'm th enest person tp reply. Eugene, Oregon is on the Left outer reaches. Yes, christmas is celebrated locally, and some of the homes are loaded with spectacualr displays. lights, animated Santas, reindeer with gilded antlers, etc. but we also had a city manager who outlawed Christmas trees from fire stations and police stations a few years ago. Then there was Nina Totenburg, as reported on Fox, with her comment about how she "pardon the expression, attended an office Christmas party," as if Christmas was passe and "holiday party" would have been the preferred language. Maybe Colson exaggerates the problem, and in parts of the country it is not a problem, but he also sees somethnng that would have been unthinkable as recently as the 1980s. Billy ---------------------------------------------------- message dated 12/26/2010 6:31:41 PM Pacific Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
There was a discussion of this article on a christian list that I am on and many people thought of Colson here as either "Chicken Little" or "The Boy who Cried Wolf." What is your (or anyone else's) take? David _ "There is no virtue in compulsory government charity, and there is no virtue in advocating it. A politician who portrays himself as "caring" and "sensitive" because he wants to expand the government's charitable programs is merely saying that he's willing to try to do good with other people's money. Well, who isn't? And a voter who takes pride in supporting such programs is telling us that he'll do good with his own money -- if a gun is held to his head."--P. J. O'Rourke On 12/26/2010 12:26 PM, [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected]) wrote: _Commentaries_ (http://www.christianpost.com/commentaries/) |Fri, Dec. 24 2010 10:17 AM EDT Adios, Christmas By _Chuck Colson_ (http://www.christianpost.com/author/chuck-colson/) |Christian Post Guest Columnist I recently met a man who left his native Cuba when he was eleven years old. He came from an upper class family and remembered Cuba as a very beautiful country where the people got along well with one another. Fifty years later, he finally got a chance to go back. Sure, he knew that Communism had impoverished the country, but nothing prepared him for the shock of seeing first hand what had become of his native land. The country has been totally sapped of its energy and strength and resources. People get a ration of food for a month that only lasts them two weeks; so the rest of the time they lie, steal, borrow, beg, whatever they have to do to get food. It wasn’t only the diminished standard of living that shocked him: He told me about the extent to which the church has been suppressed by the Castro brothers. In fact, not only is freedom of religion severely curtailed in Cuba, there is an effort to expunge words and phrase that contain references to God! An obvious is the Spanish word for “goodbye,†adios. It literally means “to God.†So, this gentleman told me, it is now suspect. In fact, there is a whole host of other common Spanish idioms being expunged from the language-expressions people had used all their lives. And they're being expunged precisely because they refer to God. In Cuba, as in any totalitarian state, you can get into serious trouble for using the words and expressing ideas banned by the government. Listening to him, I realized that our _culture_ (http://www.christianpost.com/topics/culture/) is doing something similar right here at home: shape people’s beliefs and attitudes by controlling the language they use. The pressure may be more subtle, and the people doing the controlling may be private, not governmental actors, but the goals and effects are the same. The effort is on obvious display during Christmas. Case in point: for seventy years, Tulsa has held a _Christmas_ (http://www.christianpost.com/topics/christmas/) parade. Now, no one would ever mistake the parade for a church service: Santa Claus plays a far bigger role than the infant Jesus. Yet even this watered-down reference to Christ was too much: in the last year, “Christmas†was dropped from the title in favor of “holiday.†If “Christmas†is too much for what is arguably the buckle of the “ Bible Belt,†where can you use the phrase? If you think that this is much ado about nothing and that “happy Holidays†is a perfectly acceptable substitute, you’re missing the whole point. The issue here isn’t avoiding offense – it’s redefining the terms of our discussion, eradicating or at least marginalizing any references to God in the public square. It’s to make people think twice about invoking God, even in passing, in public. Once you control their language, you control the way they think and behave. The irony is that the approved word “holiday†is itself derived from â €œholy day†! All of this linguistic nonsense is another reminder of why Christians need to reclaim Christmas. The larger culture may be intent on taking Christ out of Christmas but, that’s all the more reason for us to place Him at the center of ours. May you and yours have a blessed Christmas, and a happy holy-day season. --------------------------------------------------------------- O.E. haligdæg, from halig "holy" + dæg "day;" in 14c. meaning both "religious festival" and "day of recreation," but pronunciation and sense diverged 16c Folk Etymology -- supposedly derived from the Hindu festival of Holi Holi, or Holli (_Sanskrit_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit_language) : होली), is a _spring_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_(season)) religious festival celebrated by _Hindus_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindus) . It is primarily observed in _India_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India) , _Nepal_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal) , _Sri Lanka_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka) ,_[1]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holi&printable=yes#cite_note-Pakistani_Girls_Celebrating_Holi_in_Laho re-0) and countries with large _Indic_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indic) diaspora populations, such as _Suriname_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suriname) , _Guyana_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana) , _South Africa_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa) , _Trinidad_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad) , _United Kingdom_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom) , _United States_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States) , _Mauritius_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius) , and _Fiji_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji) . In _West Bengal_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Bengal) and _Orissa_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orissa) of India it is known as Dolyatra (Doul Jatra) or Basanta-Utsav ("spring festival"). The most celebrated Holi is that of the _Braj_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braj) region, in locations connected to the god _Krishna_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishna) : _Mathura_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathura,_Uttar_Pradesh) , _Vrindavan_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vrindavan) , _Nandagaon_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nandagaon) , and _Barsana_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsana) . These places have become tourist destinations during the festive season of Holi, which lasts here to up to sixteen days._[2]_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holi&printable=yes#cite_note-ind-1) The main day, Holi, also known as Dhuli Vandana in Sanskrit,also Dhulheti, Dhulandi or Dhulendi, is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other. Bonfires are lit the day before, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of _Holika_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holika) ) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young _Prahlad_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad) accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of _Hiranyakashipu_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiranyakashipu) , carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god _Vishnu_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vishnu) , escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion. Holika Dahan is referred to as Kama Dahanam in _South India_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_India) . Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month _Phalguna_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalguna) (February/March), (Phalgun _Purnima_ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Moon) ), which usually falls in the later part of February or March. In 2009, Holi (Dhulandi) was on March 11 and Holika Dahan was on March 10. In 2010, Holi was on March 1 and Holika Dahan was on February 28. -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
