More from the War on Christmas files:

[intheflow]

:eyes:

No Pagan Trees For Christmas Warriors
by By Bill Berkowitz
Religion Dispatches
December 9, 2009

http://www.religiondispatches.org.nyud.net:8090/images/managed/Blog+Image_christmastree.jpg

snip

Here’s how Martha Boggs, the founder of Boss Creations, describes the sorry situation Christians have been facing during the first decade of the twenty-first century, and how she decided to combat it:

“We have figured a way to enhance the tradition of decorating a tree for Jesus at Christmas by adding a cross that acts as a reminder of Him. By changing our tree to include a cross, we are making a statement that we want to keep our Christmas holiday! Our new tree and decorations ideas will not only help to enhance our celebration of the Christmas holiday but will help to enlighten those who may decorate for Christmas but may not be ‘Christians.’"

And there you have it. The CHRIST-mas Tree. At the family-friendly price of $599.00.

Two longtime conservative Christian evangelical legal outfits engaged in the War on Christmas — Liberty Counsel and ACLJ (American Center for Law and Justice) — are two of the four other sites Boss Creations recommends. A portion of the proceeds of all "CHRIST-mas" Tree sales will go to support the American Center of Law & Justice, an organization recently hailed byBusinessWeek as "the leading advocacy group for religious freedom," as well as to the Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit litigation, education and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family.

Boss Creations would probably prefer you not think about how many toys you could contribute to Toys for Tots, how many meals you could provide at a church-sponsored soup kitchen, or how many bags of groceries you could donate to a Food Bank, for $599.00.

snip

These people need to grow hearts and brains.

[cynatnite]

1. Nothing like celebrating the birth of baby jesus by raising up the cross he was nailed on. n/t

[NanceGreggs]

3. Hey ...

... it's the thought that counts.

[cynatnite]

4. ..

:rofl:

[Ken Burch]

19. OK...so I can send out caskets as birthday presents?

n/t.

[KittyWampus]

54. Do you worship a vampire as your savior?

[intheflow]

62. You're right!

True Christians would celebrate their savior's birthday with tomb cakes! :)

[Ken Burch]

74. The youngest child in the family would get to roll away the Twinkie "Stone"

And find the nothing inside.

[tavalon]

43. They "thought" this one just a little too hard

I'm more than willing to let them share the symbol they stole from us (and I'm quite sure you know it isn't the only one. Just off the top of my head, there's the Yule Log and don't even get me started on Ostara, I mean Easter). Why can't they just get over their bad selves and learn to play well with others?

[mitchum]

70. I am truly surprised that the christers haven't coopted Halloween...

as they did everything else.
I guess they just got lazy, and it is easier for them to just brand it "the devil's holiday"

[MerryBlooms]

49. *snorq, good one. n/t

.

[mrcheerful]

6. Well for years the church my family went to would put up a xmas tree in dec and then in jan they

would cut the branches off it and make a cross out of the trunk that would be displayed on Easter sunday. To symbolize god knows what because I still can't grasp the meaning behind it.

[cynatnite]

10. One Christmas my kids were given nails with ribbon on them to hang on the tree...

I thought it was batshit crazy. That was several years ago.

[Ken Burch]

20. Potentially dangerous as well

"Mom, Janey gave me stigmata again!"

[tavalon]

44. DUzy!

[Historic NY]

50. play time..........

:rofl:

[Bigmack]

55. My fundie inlaws have a plaque with "the nail"...

They get it out every Xmas. Makes a lot of sense, really. They loved "Passion of the Christ".

[Ken Burch]

75. Do they get out the dvd and fast forward to "the GOOD parts"?

n/t.

[defendandprotect]

27. For a year or two in my town the Protestants went nuts with carrying and displaying huge KKK type ..

crosses and walked around the block with them a few times in Spring/Easter --

Then they planted in at the edge of their property - basically at sidewalk --

Fortunately, after about two years it stopped!!!

[nadinbrzezinski]

You mean they were having an...

old fashioned Catholic celebration? Somebody must have pointed this out to them...

[defendandprotect]

31. You know, I'm not aware of what the Catholics were doing at that time????

I pass their property regularly -- still expanding a great bit -- they're at the edge of

town --

I'm a recovering Catholic --

Dimly remember from youth maybe a holiday in May honoring the Blessed Mother with

a walk around outside?

But, not as I recall all the way around the block? You're jogging my memory tho!


The Protestants however are in the middle of town -- so if they're out everyone gets to

see them. And the huge cross was planted there all year -- partially draped with some

fabric -- like a scarf, not totally covering it.

It was a HUGE Cross -- HUGE -- KKK type --


Come to think of it, I think the Catholics did also put one out at that time very close

to the roadway, as well.

Don't know what it was all about during that period but glad they are gone!



:evilgrin:

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. I grew up in a Catholic Country

so for example Easter is an impressive sight... with supplicants and flagelants....

But what you mentioned is part of a tradition, and I am sure somebody pointed it out.

:-)

Oh and taking the Mother on Easetern is also a tradition...

Funny, you think KKK becuase of the history of the US... and I am reminded of the very medieval practice of marching of the Saints... and I am Jewish for god sakes.

[defendandprotect]

37. Where?

I'm from NYC -- West side Village --

Mostly Catholic -- tons of kids -- there were 53 in my building alone!!

Mostly Irish/Catholics -- some Polish -- and then Little Italy!

You know I think that I just wasn't part of the walk around's --

I do remember now occasionally seeing altar boys near the church carrying a gold

crucifix outdoors with a little parade behind them. NOT like what was going on

in those two years I'm mentioning in my town.

What they had in the parade was like the whole church congregation!!!

"Oh, Mary, we crown thee with blossoms today.... Queen of the Angels, Queen of the May"

When they get you when you're young, you never entirely get rid of it.

I loved the holiday for her because it had some compassion to it --

and the flowers were beautiful.

But, let me tell you these crosses in our town were different -- totally wood, totally bare

and huge .... KKK like.

Ah, memories!

:)

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. Mexico City

and the Passions were well... part of it. THe cross, wooden... large, and heavy. part of the Passion at Iztapalapa.. which as a Medic I attended.

At one point the guy playing Jesus was actually nailed to the cross by the way... OUCH.

[defendandprotect]

39. Come on . . . you're pulling my leg ---

A volunteer to be "nailed" to the cross -- !!!

:evilgrin:

I'll let you get to bed -- I'm up trying to fix my computer -- so I'll be up a while yet --

But would mention that Catholics -- and especially Latina/Latino are very liberal/progressive on

health care reform -- they want government run or private to cover contraception and

abortion!!!

Bet no one is hearing that on Fox news!!??

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. No I am not, that has not happened in Mexico

in a while, like more than just a couple decades... like the 1920s, but it still happens in places like the Phillipines.

And in the US depends what section of the Hispanic population. I know I do not make the mistake of placing them all under one heading...

[intheflow]

51. Sadly, this is true:

http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=404376&site_id=1#import

[defendandprotect]

56. There's no fanatic like a religious fanatic . . .

[jobycom]

9. Kind of like celebrating Lincoln's birthday with a cake shaped like a revolver? nt

[Mad_Dem_X]

59. !

:rofl:

[mitchum]

71. I guess they should hang whips and spittle on the tree also

According to their Jesus myth, he also "suffered those indignities"

[intheflow]

77. How happy a scene you paint!

The kids just love taking turns being "It" tied to the cross while family and friends gather 'round to whip and spit on each other. Warms my little heart to think of it!

BONUS: trains little boys to grow up to be S&M "family values" Republicans, while teaching little girls that they must submit to whatever punishment their husbands deem appropriate. All in the name of Christ!

:bounce:

[Ken Burch]

79. And serve vinegar instead of punch at the Christmas parties.

n/t.

[fishnfla]

2. let the children cast die down there

gamble for the robes

[Chipper Chat]

5. But Martha dear, you're HURTING WALMART

by having a naked tree. You're not buying their crappy shiny bulbs, tinsel, and lights made in China!
That's not very christian and GOP-friendly of you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Next I know the cross will be burned

to replace the Yule Log...

Sorry, this is way too funny.

Free clue you Morans, December 25th is NOT a Christian Holiday originally, and the evergreen is part of a celebration that precedes the man that walked down in the Galilean plain...

Ah the Church, yep them CATHOLICS, ahem adopted it, and changed the date from the 21st to the 25th, something 'bout the winter solistice...

[niyad]

12. not to mention saturnalia

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Very correct, but then again there is this guy

called Mithra... all similarities to a certain Galilean man are just your imagination...

:-)

One of those things one learns when studying a little comparative religion...

[Ken Burch]

21. MIthra-wasn't he the one who fought it out with Godzilla?

n/t.

[Guilded Lilly]

28. OK...

but neither one could have beaten Rodan!!!

(LOLOL best belly laugh I have had all day, thanks!)

[TlalocW]

30. I thought Mithra....

Was what Bilbo's (and later Frodo's) small armored vest was made out of.

Oh, that was Mithril.

TlalocW

[surrealAmerican]

58. If only Mothra had been wearing Mithril ...

... he'd have defeated Godzilla and Frodo, and the world would no longer be safe for wool sweaters.

[Ken Burch]

76. Frodo would've taken Godzilla in the consolation bracket, though

n/t.

[niyad]

22. I love pointing out mithras to them--it is so amusing to watch them trying to twist it around.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Well I try to avoid the damn thing

altogether. but when they ask... why not a tree?

Well we are nominally Jewish and though the Parrots would love a three... I mean all the rage as a play area... we are not into the latest rage... and that is Mamon himself. That actually makes the more ahem, religious... twist. Then I do point out that until fifty years ago Christmas in the US did NOT look one bit like this monster Macy's and Madisson Avenue have produced...

I mean if people brought the evergreen home to remember what that tree (and the birth of Christ, Mithra and a slew of other winter gods) represent, I'd have no issue with it.

That said I am considering getting them a play tree one of these days...

[intheflow]

32. Not really true.

It was certainly trending this way in a big way over 60 years ago, when they made "The Miracle on 34th Street" in 1947. There were scenes in that movie where shoppers were complaining about the commercialization of Christmas. Of course the irony is that the movie itself was an advertisement for Gimbal's an Macy's Department Stores. I'm just sayin'... it was actually starting to look quite a bit like our current shopping binge fetish hoopla 50 years ago.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. And you just made my point exactly

the cutting point where Christmas became this commercial nightmare is exactly a Miracle on 34th Street...

Then came the wonderful fifties... with Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Reindeer...

[intheflow]

35. Yes, but it came earlier than 50 years ago.

That was my only point. Post-war boom economy enabled all this.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. It started as a side effect of the depression

before the war... but took full form AFTER the war was over... and that is when popular culture started to go after it in a major way.

The idea of creating a commercial culture to avoid deep holes and huge bubbles (as well as quite a bit of regulation, taxes et al) is the dark side of Keynes and economic policy in the late 1930s... Why Thanks Giving was fixed at the date it was fixed.

But the actual point when you can go... IT STARTED THERE is exactly that movie. It is kind of a marker... a convenient one. That said, the trend, as you said, was already there, and started as policy. It was with the best of intentions... alas roads and paved and well hell come to mind.

[roger_pearse]

83. I love the way that atheists love to talk about Mithras=Jesus...

Because none of them know anything about Mithras and credulously believe any old rubbish.

Atheism=convenience, it seems.

[tavalon]

46. Joseph Campbell is one of my patron Saints

[nadinbrzezinski]

64. Oh the great FSM is mine

:-)

But Joseph Campbell is my patron saint as a writer... and it was to Lucas as well... Ah Star Wars and modern myth making...

[tavalon]

69. Yeah

FSM is in my pantheon. I like erysian forms of religion though I go by Pagan myself.

[tavalon]

45. I have fun explaining that

and if I still have an audience, I usually cap it with a question: And just watch do brightly colored eggs and Easter Bunnys have to do with Jesus rising from the dead? It's fun to hear their brains explode.

[nadinbrzezinski]

66. Well been reading a bunch into ancient myths

and it would explode their minds to understand the connection to oh Asher and sacred sex.

:-)

You are

:evilgrin: sir.

Now for passover I have another little monster to slay and the relation between the son of solomon and Egyptian myth as well as Moses and well Egyptian myth and the rise of monotheism.

When the brother starts with that... I start with a little history and history of myth

[jobycom]

8. Do you think they realize they've...

[Guilded Lilly]

18. ...

"...eeehhhhhhhhh"
LOL

:thumbsup:

[tavalon]

47. I've never seen a pictoral representation of the jumping of the shark

Nice! Thanks!

[intheflow]

52. "Do you think they realize they've..."

What? Turned into Fonzi waterskiing? This seems very random, but it's still pretty funny! :rofl:

[jobycom]

61. It's,,,

The "Jumping the shark" episode.

[intheflow]

63. Ah.

I was obviously too high throughout the 70's to pay that much attention to Happy Days episodes.

So: you crazy kids with your hip lingo! Is this where they got the term "jumping the shark"? And what f'ing idjit waterskis with a leather jacket on? Fonzi, you are SO not cool! (He must be sweating like hell in that thing!) :P

[jobycom]

82. I watched Happy Days religiously in the early days, but I didn't know about the shark thingie

until a couple years ago when I saw references to it on DU and looked it up.

[Ken Burch]

80. That was the moment Fonzie jumped over a shark on waterskies

It was considered, by "Happy Days" fans, the point where the show entered a permanent and irretrievable decline. As a result, the phrase "jumping the shark" entered the lexicon to indicate the moment when whatever was being described lost any chance of improvement.

[intheflow]

81. Thanks.

I must have stopped watching Happy Days before that episode, blissfully missing it! But now I get it. I'd always taken the term meant "point of no return" but this is a fabulous contextual anecdote to illustrate the concept. :thumbsup:

[niyad]

11. dear martha, hate to break it to you, cupcake, but you guys STOLE every so-called "holy day"

from the pagans, along with the traditions used to celebrate them. so, they are not YOUR holidays, but OURS.

geez, even the story of jesus isn't original--try looking up the story of mithras.

and a blessed solstice to all.

[intheflow]

15. God just put Mithras there to test their faith in Christ.

Just like dinosaur bones! :crazy:

[Mad_Dem_X]

60. +1

[niyad]

13. rec'd--because we all need a laugh

[and-justice-for-all]

14. Sorry for them and their neglection to FACTS and HISTORY...

Just because they steal holidays from other, often older, religions does not make it theirs.

The Christmas tree originally had nothing to with xtianity, if jesus was alive (which I doubt he even existed for tha matter) christmas would make him vomit in his sandals.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. K and R

these guys and gals make this oh so much fun

By the way how goes the hunting of Rudolph? I mean he was not even in the original story... so lets start wiht him and Frosty okay? (Frosty should be easy... some cozy fire will do it)

[Guilded Lilly]

23. Their intensity comes from

an insecurity of their beliefs.

If they were trusting, confident and sure of their belief, none of the *symbolism*~ borrowed or reinvented~ would matter. It is what lies in the heart and soul that matters, and always has.

Harm to None,
Peace,
Lilly

[defendandprotect]

29. Agree . . . PLUS some one revved up this effort to convert a while back . . .

No gods above
No gods below

peace --

[tavalon]

48. Yep, and all the religions of the world borrowed and stole

It's not a big deal and you are so right, it is the spirit behind it that matters. Poor insecure Christians.

[mitchum]

72. +1,000, 000 (THAT is the reason for all of their zealotry)

[NMMNG]

25. Yeah we stole the tree, as well as the entire holiday, from the Pagans

But we'll really make it ours by shoving a giant execution fetish in the center of it. And by golly you'd better fucking call it a Christmas Tree or we'll take you out for persecuting us!

[defendandprotect]

26. Martha Boggs is making a statement with the cross: And I say "RUN!!" . . .

They've been using the cross to create fear for thousands of years --

move on folks!!

[snot]

41. So I'm hoping this attn, time & energy might ultimately be directed toward

media reform . . .

[tavalon]

42. When Jesus comes back,

do we really think he's going to want to be reminded of the most excruciatingly painful day of his life, one that culminated in his gruesome death?

Geez, guys, you stole the tree from the Pagans. So what? Every religion borrows and steals. You just look stupid trying to Christianize the evergreen tree. What are you going to do next, nail the poor Easter Bunny to that precious cross of yours? Please, get over your bad selves.

[KittyWampus]

53. some christians obviously need to hoist themselves up on a cross of their own making

so they can attempt to feel superior

[Solly Mack]

57. lololol

That's funny. Sad...but funny.

[ismnotwasm]

65. I always figures trees were the substitute sacrifice

For a religion based on blood sacrifice. Trees may be a holdover from pagan times but adding that cross is spectacularly freaky. Toss some red paint on it why don't they. A few judicially placed nails. Hang a sponge with vinegar on it for decoration along with a bloody crown of thorns.

Gross.

[tanyev]

68. Heck, just get a great big crucifix and wrap it in festive lights.

Won't drop needles on the carpet.

[intheflow]

78. Don't think they haven't thought of that already!

From the American Family Association's online store: https://store.afa.net/pc-10000310-11-christmas-cross.aspx

Let Your "Light" Shine For Christ This Christmas Season!

Looking for an effective way to express your Christian faith this Christmas season to honor our Lord Jesus? Now you can.... with the "Original Christmas Cross" yard decoration.

Light up your front yard, porch, patio, driveway, business, organization or church this holiday season with a stunning Christmas cross.
This beautiful Christmas Cross is 5.5 feet tall, with 210 individual ultra bright lights. SHIPPING IS INCLUDED!

Assembles in just minutes! Includes simple instructions and requires only a screwdriver. The cross is compact when not in use. And of course, it's weather-proof.

Decorate this holiday season with the Original Christmas Cross to remind your friends, family, neighbors, and all who drive by your home, office, or church of the real meaning of Christmas. You won't find the Original Christmas Cross in stores, so order online today!

Really I think these two cross items should be combined into one burning cross. Think how festive that would be!

:puke:

[Initech]

67. This takes the war on Christmas to unmeaurable levels of insanity.

[Toasterlad]

73. "the tradition of decorating a tree for Jesus at Christmas"

There is no tradition whatsoever of decorating a tree for Jesus. There's a tradition of decorating a tree at winter solstice, which predates Jesus by roughly a zillion years.

Next they'll be giving Santa Claus a crown of thorns. Christians are so stupid.