Why Saying "Merry Christmas!" Is Appropriate Everyday Through January 5th

On Christmas Eve the young bagger at the grocery store said to me "Happy Holidays", and on the second day of Christmas a college boy in my family corrected me for saying "Merry Christmas!" to him in greeting even though Christmas was "over". The one got only the number right, the other only the name.

How quickly they forget, if they ever learned.

Christmas Day initiates Christmastide, which lasts nearly a fortnight, The Twelve Days of Christmas ending on January 5th, the day after which is The Epiphany of our Lord:

"In England in the Middle Ages, this period was one of continuous feasting and merrymaking, which climaxed on Twelfth Night, the traditional end of the Christmas season. In Tudor England, Twelfth Night itself was forever solidified in popular culture when William Shakespeare used it as the setting for one of his most famous stage plays, titled Twelfth Night. ... The early North American colonists brought their version of the Twelve Days over from England, and adapted them to their new country, adding their own variations over the years. For example, the modern-day Christmas wreath may have originated with these colonials. A homemade wreath would be fashioned from local greenery and fruits, if available, were added. Making the wreaths was one of the traditions of Christmas Eve; they would remain hung on each home's front door beginning on Christmas Night (1st night of Christmas) through Twelfth Night or Epiphany morning. As was already the tradition in their native England, all decorations would be taken down by Epiphany morning and the remainder of the edibles would be consumed. A special cake, the king cake, was also baked then for Epiphany."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

That's why every gift, every card and every greeting from a well-wisher during this time is on-time ... until January 6th.

On the third day of Christmas, I wish you a merry one!

Luke does not keep the story straight: And on earth peace . . . or division?

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"

-- Luke 2:14

"Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division."

-- Luke 12:51

'Tis Easier To Keep Holidays Than Commandments

"How many observe Christ's Birth-day! How few, his Precepts! O! 'tis easier to keep Holidays than Commandments."

-- Poor Richard's Almanack, 1743

One-Two Punch Of Acts Of God In Michigan: Nov.17th Wind Storm Knocks Out Power For Over 500,000, Over 400,000 In Dec.21st Ice Storm

Temperatures will fall into the single digits tonight and tomorrow night. Blotches on the map represent some of the over 400,000 who lost electric power in the ice storm which struck Michigan overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. Many will remain without power all week.

Laura Ingraham, Anti-Protestant Bigot

She just called the gay mafia's attack on Phil Robertson "Calvinist".

Oh yeah? You . . . you . . . mackerel snapper.

"Only nutcases claim to be God."

Seen here.

Progress.

Put By More Than Money

So advises the ghost of Christmas present to Scrooge, as played by George C. Scott in one of the many productions I have seen of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. The line is not in the original, but captures the spirit of it pretty well. The idea seems oddly out of place these days, seeing that many people haven't put by nearly enough money to survive what has turned out to be a protracted period of unemployment, crushing debt, dispossession and economic stagnation.

We watch a number of these productions in our home in the days leading up to Christmas every year, and in 2009 Disney produced another which was notably the occasion for some materialist nonsense by one Peter Foster (which can still be accessed in full here):

Would the world have been better without Scrooge? Did he force people to do business with him? Was Bob Cratchit not free to find better employment elsewhere? And if no such employment was available, was that Scrooge’s fault? Scrooge’s “conversion” is also problematic. Once Marley’s spectre has shown Scrooge what the afterlife looks like for the uncharitable, is there any need for the three Christmas ghosts? Scrooge has been “scared good” the old Christian way. With fear of eternal damnation.

The author is at pains in the essay to help the reader achieve, dare we say it, a more charitable view of capitalism than these productions usually afford, the 2009 Disney production starring Jim Carrey in sympathy with and perfectly timed for, it would seem, that odd thing, the wealth re-distributionist 44th president. Foster points out, quite rightly, how there has been a strong tendency in all quarters and evident for a long time, to encourage us to bite the invisible hand that feeds our society. And in this Mr. Foster surely is correct.

But if this tendency often expresses itself in caricatures of the reality in films, it is to miss the point entirely to conclude that Scrooge was simply "scared good." If Mr. Foster had taken the time to re-familiarize himself with Dickens' story, it is not evident from that remark. The ghosts were not superfluous because Dickens was anything but a proponent of some stern form of Christian fundamentalism any more than he was of the revolution of the proletariat. 

On the contrary, we should consider that the ghosts sent to Scrooge revealed to him many important truths which speak to the mysteries and wonders of life beyond the superficialities of mere production and consumption with which both Marxism and now capitalism concern themselves in a world flattened by the dismal science of economics. And it is this flat view of life which animates Mr. Foster no less than it does his anti-business bogeymen.

At least the economists of the past paid back-handed compliments to the more real, multi-dimensional world we all used to inhabit, where "markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" and "in the long run, we're all dead." As Dickens reminds us in the beginning of his story, at Christmas we open our shut-up hearts freely and think of people as "fellow-passengers to the grave," into which no new 3D film technology from Disney will scarcely be able to take us.

No, Dickens is more a proponent of the methods of Socrates than of some wild-eyed hellfire and damnation preacher. Scrooge lives the unexamined life, which to Socrates is a life not worth living. Wedded to a Christian conception of reality in which the grace of God trumps all, it is Divine Providence which sends the spirits who help awaken Scrooge to life's examination and explanation, showing him the meaning behind the "shadows of the things that have been, that are, and are yet to come."

A thoughtful, educated person would instantly be reminded of the shadows constantly beheld by the cave-dwellers in Plato's allegory in Book X of The Republic, whom the philosopher comes down from the mountain to release, fixed in their seats facing the darkness, unable to see behind themselves. He comes to loosen their chains, which stand for Ignorance, that they may turn and see the objects on which the Light shines, creating the shadows their eyes mistook for the true things.

These Socratic ghosts show Scrooge that he once thought his own life had been truly worth living; 
that he was actually happy once, open to the world and other-directed;
that love was real and precious;
that people could mean it when they repented of their mistakes;
that they could change for the better;
that each life has the potential to mean something positive to every one around it;
that people exist who are quite happy without money;
that if individuals mattered to God they should matter to him;
that we must pay homage to ordered liberty, be thankful and toast the founder of our feast, whatever else others may think of him;
that choosing justice for its own sake is as indispensable for the conduct of his own business as for the conduct of the business of life.

"Mankind was my business!" shrieked the ghost of Marley.

And it is ours.

Forget The "White" Jesus: Christo . . . greco italiano!

Just sayin'.

Over a foot of snow in Jerusalem

Photos here. Story here:

Snow continues to fall across Israel Friday morning, reaching new regions of the country and causing major power outages and road closures. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat released a statement saying "we are battling a storm of rare ferocity." The capital has over 37 centimeters (15 inches) of snow, with deeper snowfall in other areas. ... The Israeli police have released a particularly strong warning to drivers in affected areas against going out in blizzard conditions. Police have warned residents across the country to avoid leaving their homes for any reason during the snowfall.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

[T]hen let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains ... Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath.

-- Matthew 24:16, 20

Rush Limbaugh Opens A Can Of Worms, Accidentally Discovers American Catholics Are Cheapskates

Looks like Pope Francis' American Catholics are a bigger bunch of cheapskates than even Rush Limbaugh imagines, which would better explain the Pope's recent anti-capitalist remarks than some new turn in the direction of Marxism:

Here Rush Limbaugh paints the figure broadly and still comes up with a pretty small sum:

Let me give you some numbers here.  The citizens of the United States of America in 2012 donated a total of $316 billion to charity.  Catholic Charities USA distributed $4.7 billion.  $316 billion donated to charity by the American people.  Catholic Charities USA distributed $4.7 billion.  The point is -- that's not to denigrate the church -- that is to illustrate as the Reason.com writer said, the pope's big cause is charity.  Without capitalism, there wouldn't be any.  Without capitalism, the Catholic Church wouldn't have any money to donate to anybody.  Without capitalism, there wouldn't be enough people with enough money to give it to the Catholic Church in the form of donations itself. 

But The New York Times, here, claims $2.9 billion of $4.67 billion came from US taxpayers in 2010, and only 3% from churches (just $140 million!):

Catholic Charities is one of the nation’s most extensive social service networks, serving more than 10 million poor adults and children of many faiths across the country. It is made up of local affiliates that answer to local bishops and dioceses, but much of its revenue comes from the government. Catholic Charities affiliates received a total of nearly $2.9 billion a year from the government in 2010, about 62 percent of its annual revenue of $4.67 billion. Only 3 percent came from churches in the diocese (the rest came from in-kind contributions, investments, program fees and community donations).

There is none righteous, no, not one?

The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me. For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his ordinances were before me, and from his statutes I did not turn aside. I was blameless before him, and I kept myself from guilt. Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.

-- 2 Samuel 22:22ff.

As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.

-- Romans 3:10

And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?

-- Job 1:8

Reza Aslan's Revolutionary Jesus Saves The Proletariat

In The Washington Post here:

Jesus did not preach income equality between the rich and the poor. He preached the complete reversal of the social order, wherein the rich and the poor would switch places. ... Jesus is not simply describing some utopian fantasy in which the meek inherit the earth, the sick are healed, the weak become strong, the hungry are fed, and the poor are made rich. He is advocating a chilling new reality in which the rich will be made poor, the strong will become weak, and the powerful will be displaced by the powerless.

This is where political presuppositions intrude on a scholar's imagination.

 

Aslan must relegate Jesus' belief in the imminent in-breaking of the kingdom of God through divine action to the realm of utopian fantasy because he wants Jesus to be a political radical instead of a mistaken eschatological prophet.

No one would be more appalled than Jesus by a liberal's kingdom of God exhausted by equality between rich and poor. But Jesus did not simply preach a revolution which would benefit the poor at the expense of the rich. Jesus expected few to be saved, not merely a reversal of fortunes for the many over the few. It is not just a simple matter of reversal but of final judgment under God's perfect justice which animates all the difficult sayings of Jesus, beginning with the call to repentance, which meant first of all renunciation of the world, not just for the rich but also for the poor: "No one can be my disciple who does not say goodbye to everything that he owns."

The real Jesus is more chilling than Reza Aslan wants to admit, indeed, more chilling than Christians want to admit. Jesus imagined an end to the world as we know it, transformed and swept clean as in the days of Noah, not by water, but by the fires of hell, into which the tares, the sons of the devil, are cast at the final harvest. That is the meaning of "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."

Not-So-Forward-Thinking Kmart Shopper Spends Half Her Holiday Budget On Ornaments, Hats And Decor

Reported here in all seriousness:

A Kmart store in New York City that opened at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving and stayed open for 41 hour straight was packed on the holiday. Clothing was marked down 30 percent to 50 percent. Adriana Tavaraz, 51, headed there at about 4 p.m. and spent $105 on ornaments, Santa hats and other holiday decor. She saved about 50 percent. But it's not likely Tavaraz will be back in stores too many more times this season. Money is tight this year because of rising costs for food and rent, and Tavaraz already spent much of her $200 holiday budget. "Nowadays, you have to think about what you spend," she said. "You have to think about tomorrow."

--------------------------

The woman named Folly is brash.

She is ignorant and doesn’t know it.

-- Proverbs 9:13