I suppose all religious people develop ideas that others might deem peculiar and certainly I am one.
Hoping you’ll indulge me, I have a couple I want to air, the first less controversial than the second, centering on when Jesus Christ was born.
I have written stories before a couple of Christmases suggesting that Jesus was not born on Dec. 25 but rather in early to mid-September. Then I recently ran across a thesis suggesting Sept. 11, based on certain historic factors.
My first thought was no, we can’t be that precise. Then I thought, “9-11.”
No doubt, Satan knows when Jesus was born and what better way to try to profane it than to inspire the 9-11 terrorists to attack on that day? For that reason, I accept Sept. 11 as Jesus’ birthday.
My second idea is that Santa Claus is a Satanic joke on mankind. Move the “n” up three places and the “t” back one and what do you have?
Santa Claus competes with Jesus for affection each Christmas and does so very well, the Savior of Mankind juxtaposed against a chuckling white-bearded figure in a red and white costume dispensing gifts willy nilly.
This is not to denigrate the men who portray Santa Claus because they do so with the best intentions. They do it in all innocence.
But what is the Santa Claus story that parents have been telling their children for centuries? A lie.
They teach their children the difference between right and wrong, saying one of the most importance differences is the one between the truth and a lie. To emphasize that, many punish their kids for lying. But every Christmas they repeat the yarn of Santa Claus in the sleigh, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer and presents made by elves at the North Pole and they keep it up till finally the kids come home from school crying because older kids laughed at them for believing in Santa Claus.
And the parents ruefully admit that yes, we have been filling you full of baloney since you were 2 years old, but it doesn’t matter because it made you happy, didn’t it?
So where does the lesson go about the importance of being truthful? Into the joke bin. And the punishments for lying? Into the catalogue of parental injustices.
These are just my opinions.
