by Rocket Kirchner
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Dandelion Salad
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Dec. 8, 2011
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The words Merry Xmas put together is an insulting oxymoron, a Christophobic expression of a depersonalized disdain for the birth of a noble human being, and the mockery of a joyful holiday celebrated by millions around the world. Is this just the wacky ramblings of a pissed off follower of Jesus, or is there any substance to it? If there is any substance to words themselves, then it would stand to reason that there is substance to the meanings behind words. You be the judge.
Confession: I have a terrible time remembering peoples names. Faces yes, names no. I wish that everyone wore name tags. Just the other day I ran into an old friend of mine and asked,”How is your daughter doing these days?” of course I forgot her name. He said, “Fine. She is already in high school, I am feeling old just thinking about it”. Since I forgot his daughter’s name I did not want to be rude, so I just asked how she was doing. I did not say, “How is your daughter X doing these days?” That would have been horrible to say a thing like that. And yet people do that all the time with the birth of Christ, and they know his name. Why is that? And further more why debate the point? Don’t we all have bigger fish to fry? I think it is important to seriously look at because it is emblematic of the non personal nature of our times.
No one knows when Jesus was born. And no one is forcing anyone in the 21st century to celebrate it. But you would think that even the most humanistic unbeliever would have a modicum of respect for what at least would be the birth of what they consider Jesus to be: a fellow humanitarian, and not reduce his name to an X. That kind of talk is reserved for the double parked limo men of power in their high rise office buildings that use such lingo as “Gentleman, let us not forget about the X factor in this market share this quarter”. Whatever the hell that is.
Take a moment to think about hyper-capitalists, and high brow Sociologists doublespeak; numbers and X,Y,Zs. They apply this to us as if we are cattle. But we are not numbers, and letters, and cattle. WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS. To speak otherwise is sick and twisted. And yet so called humanists and humanitarians just follow mindlessly like so many sheep in lockstep with this kind of talk in so many areas, Christmas included. But the fact remains is that we are individuals who have been thrown under the bus of this dehumanizing verbiage into the howling wilderness of the impersonal collective that is not merry at all. In fact it is oppressive and bigoted speech and needs to be exposed for what it is.
There is no need to bring this debate into a legislative forum or argue about what should be placed in public schools, public places… blah blah blah. That is a waste of time. But there is a need to see that words can be either lethal or lovely, and can poison an atmosphere anywhere they are sent out. So I will X out the X and celebrate a Merry Christmas with a hope for true peace on Earth and good will to all.
see
A Christmas Journey to Freedom
Exclusive: Christmas and the Gospel according to Jimmy Carter by Rocket Kirchner
Christmas, the world’s best kept secret by Rocket Kirchner
Christianity on Dandelion Salad
Filed under: Christianity, Dandelion Salad Featured Writers, Dandelion Salad Posts News Politics and-or Videos 2, Religion Tagged: | Christianity on Dandelion Salad, Christmas, Christmas on Dandelion Salad, Jesus, Kirchner-Rocket, Rocket Kirchner
The ‘X’ in X-mas is not meant to be the 24th letter of the English alphabet. It’s meant to be the Greek letter chi, which looks like ‘X’. It is the acronym for the Greek word ‘Χριστός’ which means Christ, the annointed one.
I believe most people who use the term “X-mas” today are not Christians substituting the Greek letter chi for the English word, Christ.
I believe most people who are arguing against the use of Xmas are attempting to stifle any public acknowledgement that there is argument to be made that Christianity is a false belief.
William , maybe . but i am not most people . as i have said 100 times ..i am calling out a prejudice that many progressives practice but will not admit . i do the same thing with conservatives that are Islamophobic that will not admit that it is a prejudice.
i said nothing in this article about beliefs or non beliefs …but rather prejudging and insulting others. that is unacceptable if one wishes to live in a civilized society .
i speak of theology and my faith reasoned out in many articles on this blog that i have written …but not this one . this just happens not to be one of them . but it seems that you keep trying to say that i am instead of dealing with the prevailing prejudice . that is an easy way to dismiss something . but the issue is not dismissed so lightly . what other people say is what they say . i am not other people i am me . i speak for myself .
In attribution theory, the fundamental attribution error (sometimes referred to as the actor-observer bias) is the tendency for people to over-emphasize dispositional, or personality-based, explanations for behaviors observed in others while under-emphasizing the role and power of situational influences on the same behavior. In other words, people tend to have a default assumption that what a person does is based more on what “kind” of person he is, rather than the social and environmental forces at work on that person. This default assumption leads to people sometimes making erroneous explanations for behavior. This general bias to over-emphasizing dispositional explanations for behavior at the expense of situational explanations is far less likely to occur when people evaluate their own behavior.
In other words……. get a mirror.
William, it sounds like you are accusing Rocket of being prejudiced. Why? Because you didn’t like his article? Back on topic, please. Don’t shoot the messenger.
It is not that I dislike the article, it is that I disagree with the article.
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rocket kirchner, on December 28, 2011 at 1:23 PM said:
William , maybe . but i am not most people . as i have said 100 times ..i am calling out a prejudice that many progressives practice but will not admit
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Now why is it that when Kirchner ascribes motivations to a group of people it is not fair game to question the validity of his assertion?
Look instead at the fundamental flaw in the human mind which addicts the brain to irrational ideology & compels proselytism of the absurd while taking offense at imaginary perceived transgressions, the seed of much of social strife.
Perhaps, but then etymology is often lost in our figures of speach.
Do you actually personally believe people use the term xmas to be disrespectful, or is it not simply shorthand, like rx or xtc?
Perhaps the Devil’s Advocate can furnish us with a more fertile topic please, as it appears the Greek origins of the term have been multiply Googled & the insult defused. A case for some Shia/Sunni rift this word does not appear to make.
Speaking of Devil’s Advocates, perhaps our dear OP would care to explain why a Catholic would bother defending Islamists of either stripe against far greater insults against their faith he’s enummerated above, when he knows that:
ONLY whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16–18)
And:
“If anyone does not abide in (Jesus), he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” (John 15:6).
Why defend the Satanic Verses from insult? Certainly their fate is far worse: Thessalonians 1:8 makes it clear that Jesus will take vengeance “on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
AH — i dont judge anyone . my Muslim friends were treated bad after 9/11. i stood up for them . the christian is to love not judge. pick some verses about that next time .
you mention the word irrational . did you forget that Neitzche’s strength of his writings were because he took that word out of the pejorative ?
you also mentioned the word absurd.,,and proselytize . well , if reductio ad absurdum has the same epistemological problems that credo ad absurdum has , then there lies a mexican standoff . you would think with Godel’s incompleteness theorm , Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle , and Schrodinger’s cat , and that every nagging philosophical quandary of infinite regress and the ever changing mercural science is , that the reductionist would realize how absurd their position really is .
not to mention the fact that they proselytize just as much as those of us faith leapers . in fact sometimes with more intensity . for as atheist e.m.cioran said ” man is the dogmatic being par excellence , and his dogmas are even more pronounced the less he is aware of them . he guards them more then any theology ”.
Which is why Atheism is a logical fallicy, argumentum ad ignorantiam.
M — do actually think that in our dumbed down society that most people understand Greek enough to spell it that way ? of course not .
that is why i wrote this article . it is a prejudice like any other. the X factor terminology is highly impersonal . this merry X mas symbol seeks to counter the personal nature of the holiday .
[...] Exclusive: The insulting oxymoron of the words “Merry Xmas” by Rocket Kirchner [...]
You know why I love Rocket post? Because he sure does press people’s buttons, the comment section is always full! Lo, you should have a special link for him, maybe a weekly op-ed: “The Weekly Rocket…prepare for liftoff!”
Rocket, I get your point on the X in Christmas, but “Christ” is not a name either, its a title. It would be like asking about your friend’s daughter by calling her “Point Guard” because thats the position she plays on the basketball team.
Generally, isn’t your point about respect for the holiday Christmas? Most people realize that Christmas is specifically not when Jesus was born by looking at the Biblical account. Further investigation reveals that whats known as the Christmas “tradition” was made up by Washington Irving. The jolly Santa was a Coca Cola advertisement by a Finnish artist, which makes sense, because thats where snow, reindeer and pine trees are from. Not so much in Bethlehem if you know what I mean. Further back again we realize that Christmas was adopted specifically to hi-jack the pagan winter solstice tradition. Not too many talking about the War on the Winter Solstice anymore. In fact when the Pilgrims arrived on North America they outlawed Christmas because they knew its origin was a pagan tradition.
Now we have a, lets say, disputed views on the existance of God. We have even even more dispute if that God is Yahweh. Then even more dispute on if Yahweh had a son. But we all know that Christmas is fabricated, it always was, so I have a hard time holding it as a scared institution that should be regarded in the highest respect. Christmas, Festivus, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Xmas, That Day Off Work, the name doesn’t matter just have a happy holiday however you want to celebrate it because if you really want to get technical about it….you could make the argument that people should take the Christ out of the Winter Solstice. And they’d be at least accurate.
Erk – LOL –yeah my articles are lively seeking to provoke thought. this as i have said has nothing to do with theology whatsoever. the history of Christmas has to do with pope julius picking the darkest day of the year –December 25th and using it for an analogy for light coming into the world . he , and those around him were scholars that knew that Christmas was not Christ birthday , but he used the day to encourage people to look at the faith as a light that can be celebrated in the longest darkest hour . but i digress.
back to analogys –my daughters friend . if she was say a painter say …but i could not remember her name i would say ”how is the ( with a french accent ) THE artist coming along ? the thing is is that i am grieved much more than anyone the way Christmas has been treated , whether it comes to the merchandizing or the so called anti-mercantile progressives that deliberately X out Christ name . they must understand that it is expression of depersonalized mentality that dehumanizes the human person . I did not write this as a christian . that is another misnomer . i would do the same for any slur in regards to race , creed , sex , or color. and i have ! i find it interesting that progressives on the left will celebrate anything or anybody in the name of being tolerant or open minded ..EXCEPT JESUS . anything to do with him they get defensive and blame the messenger. in fact they are downright hostile.
some years back bill mayer had on his show politically incorrect during the holiday season he had among some of his guests authentic christian thinkers . Mayer said ” have you ever been in a room during the holidays and there is a real christian there with a real Christmas card that seeks to express what this celebration is supposed to be about , and people in the room just look with contempt by sighing at him or her ”? that about hits the nail on the head . that is Christophobia . it is repugnant ..just as homophobia or islamophobia is , and yet it is everywhere.
Mayer got more shit for those shows from letters and e-mails and calls that came in than any of his other thematic shows. this should tells us something .
AHA! Found at least one Christian who argues in the affirmative for keeping the Chi in Xmas:
http://homebrewedtheology.com/war-on-christmas-update-xmas-vs-christmas.php
Beautifully expressed! And I drive a Christ terra!
there is a fine line between bigotry and comedy. if that was a joke , then consider it bigoted and antisemitic against a jew named jesus .
HappyHumanist, I would encourage you to read the christian humanists like Erasmus , and thomas more before you start throwing the word humanist around so lightly . there is a whole tradition going back to the church fathers all the way to the writings of thomas merton on christian ( theocentric ) humanism as opposed to anthropocentric humanism .
Erasmus influence on Shakespeare and Montaine is enormous . not to mention that he was the connector between the Renaissance and the Reformation.
Spoken by a true biblical Catholic purist…
Malcolm might take issue with your disdain for the name X.
Why nitpick at the terminology of what is already a farce? You have no evidence of the date or day of the birth of Jesus, virgin births, etc.
Were there Balsam Firs in Jesus’ world? Sleighs? Jingle bells? Snow & Mistletoe? The myth of Christmas was adoptod by the Romans to subjugate the Nordic tribes who celebrated not Jesus but the solstice on that day. Hardly a holiday imposed with peace or good will.
Now for those Christians who believe in evolution, you are already heretics since you’d question Genesis, so why not open the mind yet further since so much has been learned about the way ‘god’ works in the universe, and it’s far, far more complex than any obsolete biblicalism could possibly describe.
Consider the current quest for the ‘God Particle’:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/science/physicists-anxiously-await-news-of-the-god-particle.html?hp
Science and religion are not mutually exclusive.
See:
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/is-god-great-christopher-hitchens-vs-john-lennox-debate-2009/
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/daniel-buxhoeveden-science-and-religion/
Ah — Malcolm X chose his name , just like the organization Queer nation chose theirs. I know all about the history of the pagan adoption of Christmas on the feast of Saturnalia . i have no problem with that as a christian . that is a not the harmful side of paganism .
what i object to is the ”slur” of bigotry used against anyone’s belief , creed , color , sex orientation , etc. Merry Xmas is just another disrespectful oxymoron in a world that revels in insults.
i said that i never knew when Christ was born in the article , and i don’t know what evolution has to do with a ”slur” . let us stay on topic please. thanks .
Are you certain it’s a slur?
According to well-referenced Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas), the “X” comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, translated as “Christ”.
“Christ” was often written as “XP” or “Xt”; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as AD 1021. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and ρ used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for “Christ”).
While bad ettiquette, seems the concern that ‘X’ takes the Christ out of Christmas is a bit specious.
Perhaps there are greater & more rant-worthy insults against Jesus, peace, & the poor whom he championed than this particular abbreviation, especially by Christians at the height of the retail orgy the holiday has become.
AH – what words meant years ago they don’t mean today . what is fair for the goose is fair for the gander . if you point out christian hypocrisy (and I as a christian do agree with you), then we must both be prepared to point out the hypocrisy that exists in the secular left progressives. as a progressive and a christian I am obligated to this. what makes something like this a “slur” is seeing it in a larger Christophobic panoramic view. There are so many ways that Christ and Christians are being denigrated . I feel sorry, as I have said for my Muslims friends that i have known for years, and what they have to face after 9/11. we compare notes on how we are treated by certain people. especially since we are pacifists.
all I am asking is for those who wish to have a more civil progressive peaceful society is to be aware that the X factor in merry Xmas hurts Christians feelings. though I spend most of time in bars as a secular performer, playing bluesy secular music for a living, I do live and know a lot of other christians who work hard for social justice and help the poor and are deeply offended by this Xmas thing. its just that they wont speak out ..but I will.
You omit the confirming definition of other half of the word which you are claiming is so insulting: “…mas“, inferring ‘Christ’s Mass (wiki: “Mass” is one of the names by which the sacrament of the Eucharist is called in the Roman Catholic Church).
Clearly then the term is not meant to insult, it is indeed a clear reference to ‘Christs Mass’ & the offending ‘X’ is merely an abbreviation based on the Greek word for Christ, as per above. You are clearly mistaken & might consider research before publishing.
Consider that in your attack on this manufactured ‘hurt’ you’ve expressed against a fictitious bigotry (in your premise), you’ve unleashed your own insensitivity & bigotry against others:
In your rebuttal regarding your imagined insults you seem to commit one yourself in referring to the ” …the harmful side of paganism”.
So, you would imply that ‘Paganism’ has a ‘harmful side’ but surely reject the notion that Christianity also has a ‘harmful side’? Note that you indicted ‘Paganism’ not ‘Bad Pagans’. You therefore rail against all the ‘hypocrisy’ that you see as ‘Christophobic’, but fail to see your own ‘Pagophobia’?
You would undoubtedly assert that the many bad deeds by christians, which historically far outweigh good deeds by Christians in both frequency & severity (such as burning aforementioned pagans, e.g. Witches, a fate perhaps far worse than crucifixion) is committed only by a few ‘Bad Christians’, and not the harmful “side” of Christianity, or that Christianity can only be corrupted by individuals, but the entire concept of Paganism contains some element that is fundamentally corrupt?
This is a double standard & belies your notion of justice & sensitivity.
And what of secularists, does your hypersensitivity to perceived bigotry, this manufacturing of innuendo as a vehicle to proselytize about the sensitivity of biblical observers not extend to those who may find grave insult in the barrage of holiday rhetoric, even that which is accurate according to your stringent ideals?
Do you consider that secularists may also have sensitivities, and may perhaps have had enough of hearing about Christmas, Hanukah & the whole monotheistic deal? To them, perhaps any effort to secularize an overzealous manufactured holiday (which ‘Xmas’ clearly, & contrary to your premise is not), would be a relief. Do you consider that evangelizing & proselytizing by believers might be insulting to their own convictions?
Further, in agreement with a prior commentator, you certainly should be aware that FOX is & has been for many years, propagating a notion that there is a war on Christmas, & manufacturing perceived insults about this very issue of ‘taking Christ out of Christmas’. It’s a large part of our culture, whether you watch it or not.
The primary soapbox for Christians in our culture is the Right, their voicebox is FOX news, & they are saturating the scene with manufactured insults against Christmas. To be out of touch with that is to be out of step with current events & true cultural propaganda & religious abuse about which you claim to speak.
If you are going to be a public Christian advocate for what you see as true Christians & Christmas, and ranting against insults against Christians (ersatz or otherwise), then you should be aware of those with whom you share that pulpit lest you be confused with them, as you surely do not wish to be.
AH —
1. the main thrust of my article was not to counter a war on Christmas , but to show the hypocrisy of my fellow progressives in allowing the Xmas sign to stand unchallenged about the birth of a fellow humanitarian progressive named Jesus . I stayed away from theology on purpose on this article . i have written about theology on this blog many times. but not this time .
2. i am as a public well known musician who performs secular music in bars and an out spoken christian for 37 years acutely aware of Fox News and its haranguing Bullshit and misrepresentation of Christ . They are demagogues to say the least . it was much easier in the 1970′s to talk openly about Christ before the rise of the Moral Majority in America and how they jaded people against the good news of Christ. Nevertheless , that does not excuse the hypocrisy of my fellow thinkers and activists on the humanist left from yet another excuse to blame someone else for their insensitivity and Christophobia .
3. In regards to paganism . it does have a good side and a dark side . i have had good dialogue with pagans to whom i respect . the dark side of paganism is the wars in the name of the gods that prevailed in the ancient world . i see a dark side of Christianity also . and that is those who say they follow Christ and yet hurt others. hypocrisy is common to all . i just find it interesting that those who claim to be so humanistic always come up with the same old tired excuse about the christian hypocrites . ..which is tautological and just as obnoxious as the haranguing of the omnipresent pseudo Christmas crammed down our throats by market hunger profiteers. both are quite boorish.
4. Both Fox and Mox have missed the mark in regard to the things you mentioned . Fox is just too obvious in its misrepresentation of Christ . but the Mox crowd who reacts to Fox should be honest about their own prejudice and show a little respect for the birth of Christ .
5. The religious right misrepresents Christ, and the secular left dis respects him . of course there are always exceptions . but in general this seems to be the order of the day . Gandhi and MLK would not have tolerated either . so why should we ?
To treat someone with dignity is not to try to protect them from reality like some do with a child that believes in Santa Claus.
The Christ of the Christian religious left is a myth, and I I believe it would be an insult to collude with an adult that believes in a myth.
I see it as similar to confronting a working class Republican that believes in trickle down economics.
http://www.dailytidings.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101113/NEWS02/11130303
See also:
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2011/02/01/the-jewish-foundation-of-christianity/
Good that you mention Gandhi, he excellently summarized what could be our common opinion:
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
rocket kirchner, on December 11, 2011 at 5:21 PM said:
———————————-
Again Kirchner used the word Christophobic. In the common usage of Christ in the context of Jesus it is understood that his supposed divinity is part of the package.
As far as Kirchner claim to have not mentioned peoples motives
Kirchner said “Merry Xmas put together is an insulting oxymoron, a Christophobic expression of a depersonalized disdain”
You do not have to call the big gray thing in the room an Elephant.
All so from Kirchner’s response: “and i wrote this thing to make people THINK! those of us who are progressives and should think in terms of progress,”
So it was written to make us THINK!, and then we are told how we “should” think?
I never told anyone how to think . i just am challenging PREJUDICE . Tell me …do you ever call a black person a nigger? if not then you can understand my analogy and how offensive to Christians merry X mas is . and trying to justify it is just more prejudice in denial..
You never told anyone how to think?
This is a quote from your reply on 12/11 5:21 pm.
“and i wrote this thing to make people THINK! those of us who are progressives and should think in terms of progress,”
I would also like to mention that the winter solstice was celebrated long before there was a Christian cult. Many cultures celebrate the solstice under many different names. I do not understand why you would be so upset over people celebrating the solstice under another name unless you are that insecure with your beliefs.
if people choose to celebrate the solstice that’s cool with me , and i defend anyone’s right to do it , and if people mock them i will call those bigots out also for their bigotry and intolerance.
JUST KEEP CHRIST OUT OF THIS . don’t we have enough Christian fundamentalists muddying up the waters in the name of Christ without other people doing it too ?
Wikipedia:
Prejudice (or foredeeming) is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy.
As I have attended church and religious instruction classes for 12 years, and having read many books and articles on religion I feel comfortable with my knowledge about the Christian FAITH to know that my usage of the word Xmas does not come out of prejudice. In my case I started using the term during the time I was attending church and really did believe in the myth. I was young and thought it was cool.
Just my opinion…. Those Christians that are upset with Xmas has less to do with prejudice, then is an attempt to stifle any public acknowledgement that there is argument to be made that Christianity is a false belief.
A false belief you say ? now that is a prejudice is it not? because you are assuming that those Christians that object to Xmas have certain motives for their objections , are you not ? when you move into the realm of motives , and saying that one understands anothers motives …that is when the trouble and unneeded strife begins .
Christianity like everything else in the human experience is not monolithic . wherever you get 2 Christians together you get 3 arguments some times. and that kind of diversity is cool with me .
i can defend the faith quite fine . and i have done it for decades in public debate , with people , some off and on line , at my gigs etc…
but if you re-read the article yet again you will find that i never even brought up anything about Christology or Sotierology , the 2 main elements in Christian theology …namely the nature of Christ and the nature of salvation . i brought up, without judging motives ..the slur and offensive symbol Xmas that many so called humanitarians use. when you were young you did not know it offended people , and you thought it was ok , and thats cool . but you are older now , and you are more of a thinking man , and you should know by now that it does offend people . yet you keep coming back to try and refute me . thou doeth protest too much . i wonder why .
Stating Christianity is a false belief is not a prejudice. It is a fact.
William, I think you may have missed the point of this entire article.
William , again .. your off topic from this post. i never stated that it was a fact .nor did i state that it was not a fact. be it myth or fact , i simply stated that it means alot to alot of people , and respect for them is the name of the game .
Evidently , you do not respect these people’s feelings. In fact you are antagonistic to them. How will we ever have peace and dignity in this world if we humans treat each with disrespect.
analogy — i love a good steak ! but i would never eat one in the prescence of a vegetarian who has strong convictions for animal rights. it is insensitive. i have no strong feelings for animal rights . but our of sheer respect for those who do , i can eat my steak elsewhere . none of this is about provability , and what is a fact or not . it is about having a little senitivity toward others.
william . concerning your December 18 comment : you used words like ”reality ”and ”myth”. but what is REALITY ? can you define it ? it is a mighty big word in the world of philosophy where i come from . in order to define unreality , myth , or illusion , you must first define reality in its most absolute form . if not then you all you have is a swiss cheese argument .
in regards to the christian left. believe me its out there ..and it behooves you to not know its history . you can trace the suffragette movement and the anti-slavery movement to it , and many other things to it that have made this world a more just and fairer world to live in . those accomplishments cannot be X ed out .
BUT as Jim R said the X was his name. The Christians just conveniently are forgetting the history fo their religion, or as I see it most times, have not taken the time to know the history of their faith. Its far easier to follow the masses and just believe what the person on the pulpit says. The X is not an insult, its the Greek spelling. I am fascinated by Christians or Xtian who get their ire up, at using a perfectly acceptable way of expressing Christ’s name. They can ignore the fact that no one pronounces it X-MAS they say Christmas. IMHO people who are all up in arms about the X in Xmas are continuing to be sheeple, allowing FOX news to make their decisions for them, and are battling some ridiculous war on Christmas, rather than paying attention to the real issues of being a Christian…compassion, understanding for their fellow human. Instead they would rather scream from the pulpit about the “X”. In times past those who were leaders in the faith, were educated, knew the history of their religion, knew the history of their people. Now, they let FOX news tell them “HUMANISTS ARE STEALING CHRISTMAS” some days its good to be an atheist while the Christians make a Jerry Springer episode of their faith….throwing chairs….don’t call him X, I hate you cause my ind, loving God says its ok, I want to continue wars because my God says I should fight, I should ignore the poor, hate on people who want to make change, and disassemble the social welfare system so I can have everything…all in the name of X. A rose by any other name….a Prophet by any other name….
HappyHumanist,
Obviously, as this article was published on Dandelion Salad, not all people who do not like the “X” replacing Christ in Christmas are NOT Fox “news” viewers. Neither I nor Rocket watch Fox “news” or any corporate media. Your overgeneralization of followers of Christ is not appreciated.
How Did Jesus Become God — and Why
[edited]
Sorry, William, your comment is off-topic.
This article is not about the divinity of Christ.
See: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/10/17/the-evidence-for-the-existence-of-jesus/
The author used the divinity of Christ to label the motives, in a derogatory manor, those who use the word Xmas.
That being said his argument falls apart if the fact that Jesus was/is not divine is taken into account.
I ask why would Kirchner be “pissed off” at the exclusion of this term if the question divinity was not part of the issue?
“The words Merry Xmas put together is an insulting oxymoron, a Christophobic expression of a depersonalized disdain for the birth of a noble human being, and the mockery of a joyful holiday”
Christophobic one who abhors or does not understand jesus and his teachings. one who rationalizes that they have no belief in heaven or hell
William , first off , i never even mentioned the divinity of Christ . second of all i never mentioned peoples motives , or anything about death and the after life. if you want my personal view on the matter , i worship at the feet of Jesus as divine , but that is not what pisses me off about the merry Xmas . what pisses me off is the same as what pisses me off about people twisting the name of holidays that are anti semetic , or Islamophobic , Pagan holidays , or people mocking an atheist who chooses not to celebrate any holiday at all. it is disrespectful and insensitive. it is ”corporate speak ” ..it is dehumanizing . and i wrote this thing to make people THINK! those of us who are progressives and should think in terms of progress, not digression . Slurs of any kind ; race , creed , color , sex , etc are digressive and should not be ignored by intolerant people . this intolerance should be exposed if we wish for a more civilized and humane society.
George Bernard Shaw said that ”most people would rather die than think ”. This culture we live in is very Christophobic primarily coming from the left , and Islamophobic primarly coming from the right . Christophobia is not just not believing in Jesus , but it is pre- judging Christians before they even get to know them . it is like Homophobia . many people judge gays becuase of their sexual orientation , instead of treating them as people with dignity . so they call them ”queer” . well …”queer ‘is equal to ”Xmas”. It is offensive. and my heart goes out to all the Muslims living in Amercia post 9/11. ..being called ”towelheads”, and other inflammetory statements. This ALL must cease and desist.
I would be honored. My best friend is named, Kristina, and I lovingly spell it Xtina.
Thanks for commenting on the post, VeronicaV.
V — your friend does not mind . that’s cool . that is a personal matter between you and her . but i doubt if you would make fun of Muslims by calling Ramadan –Ramadannoodle like some Islamophobes do . or the Jewish holidays that were made fun of by changing some letters around under the Nazis . my point is that using X instead of Christ for Christmas is just as defamatory as my former examples.
it is important to be sensitive to the feelings of those who deem certain things and people to be sacred, that’s all.
Decades ago “X” was not an issue because almost everyone knew that X is the first letter of Christ’s name, XPICTOC, in the original Greek bible, and would never say “exmas.” We have lost so much of the common knowledge of our Western heritage, and ”exmas” is just a small symptom of our decline. Our historical and philosophical impoverishment is being imposed on us by the new “technocracy” and the business elite, while the Jacobins of multiculturalism destroy what’s left of the old knowledge.
Well said ! and that is why revisionism is important . i mean there are still people walking around thinking that Columbus was a good guy . Howard Zinn’;s work really cleared up a lot on getting to what the peoples history of the U.S. really was by using Lacasa and Duboius as historians .
Well Rocket, maybe this Xmas stuff just means most people see Xmas as a holiday to express affection for friends and relatives and don’t really care whose birthday it’s supposed to be .
I see lots of things to get riled up about more important than how people spell Xmas. For instance the support of war that most self professed followers of Christ engage in, the amount of donated tax exempt funds used to build edifices to the glory of themselves, while claiming it’s for Jesus. If there was a heaven, churchgoers that go to church so they can feel pious and superior to non believers will see a sign on heavens door saying Keep Out.
Jim, thanks for your reply . I am with you 100 per cent on the hypocrisy of christians , believe you me ..in myself and others. but that does not take away from the Christophobia and hypocrisy of those who celebrate a holiday they dont even believe in . better to just be an honest atheist who refuses to be involved in what they consider a charade . those are the people i respect .
as far as ”bigger issues”… as i said , this is emblematic of our age , is it not ? to not celebrate is fine . but to fake a celbration by perverting the name of christ is to de-personalize not only the loving human being that jesus was , but his impact of kindness and sacrifice that he brought to the world that still reverberates till today .
one has to ask themselves this question : would one on purpose spell Ramadan wrong , or a jewish holiday ? it is highly insensitive to do so . it would also be anti-semetic and Islamophobic . And yet people dont think twice about X ing out christ name in christmas . that form of Christophobia is insensitive and causes uneeded strife in this world . words mean something , let us have no illusions . that is why i wrote this article . respect ALL –regardless of race , creed , sex , color ..etc … promote peace within and peace will come from without . its all connected pal .
From Facebook comment #2:
Define “silly”, please. Did you even read the article?
From Facebook comment #1:
Jesus can handle anything, that is not the point. How would you feel if someone called you X on your birthday?
When I am dead I doubt that I will feel much about anything people do or about anything else for that matter.