Thursday, November 24, 2005
Thanksgiving.
'Out of your bounty, O Lord, we receive Thy blessings', a favorite uncle of mine used to pray at our Thanksgiving dinner.
Then there is the news today that several retail chains, including Target and Wal-Mart, will not be allowing their employees to wish shoppers a 'Merry Christmas', but rather will have to issue a 'Have a Happy Holiday'.
It has taken me this long to realize that not only are we living in a postmodern society, but we are living in a post-Christian society.
True, the personage of the post-Christian society is mainly the American Jesus, but with the retail advice listed above, it is obvious society is attempting to move away from the Divine as a whole.
Used to be, J.C. Penny's was closed on Sunday, the Lord's day. A profit would not be turned in the materialistic sense, but rather a different profit was allowed to be turned, as workers were subtly expected to gain profit in a house of worship.
Sure, there is the threat that some of our Islamic friends could be offended by the 'Christ' in 'Christmas', but my God, at what expense will we become so sensitive?
I suppose the Jewish people have been offended for years by J.C. Penny's being closed on Sundays, in obvious beneficience to the Christian Sabbath.
But how sensitive are we to become? Remember, politeness is not considered to be a virtue, only the door to virtue, and we can only indulge our non-Christian brethren with the saccharine sweet of our manners for so long.
In the past, there have been certain syncretistic societies that have existed, Alexandria and Judea to name two, where there were a melting pot of cultures and certainly rival gods to be contended with.
But the Christians had Christ. The Zoroastrians had Zoroaster, and the Pagans had Zeus. From what I've read, these people did not tippy-toe around each other at the expense of their Divinities.
If America continues down this road, we soon will be worshiping the 'Bland', an intermingled Deity consisting of Islamic, Jewish, Pentecostal, and Evangelical Deities. The 'Bland' will have no salt to savor, and will be so mundane as to be negligent.
Can we each take the nicest part of our Saviours and combine them into one new Super-Saviour?
It seems the religions, as manifested in the American west, are attempting to create a new God whose feet have been chopped off so He cannot step on anyone's toes.
Gone is the dynamism, the wonderful, the fearfulness, replaced with the effete, the well mannered and the gosh-shucks disposition of the New Mundane.
But here I will, and must digress.
After reading much of our American history, I have become convinced that we were not founded to be a Christian nation, but rather a re-public. A re-public of european settlers who were seeking out a new world without the yoke of a euroopean despot-King.
If we had, I believe, been meant to be founded as a Christian nation, then surely Jesus Christ would have been mentioned at least once in the Constitution. But He is not.
Much of what I have read about George Washington, for example, is that he was a freemason and a Deist, not neccessarily a Christian. I have read Washington never intoned Jesus or Christ when he prayed, but rather referred to Providence.
I think that the early europeans who settled here were not content to set up a 'Christian' government, because the two, Christian, and government, are incompatible. Also, the europeans were living under so called Christian governments and were inflamed at the policies and hypocrisies of said governments before they arrived in the new world.
In 1492, the Ferdinands had issued a pogrom to expel the Jews from the spanish territories. The church of England was founded by Henry VIII because the Holy Mother Church would not grant him a divorce.
These supposed 'Christian' governments, thought the new european settlers, were not all they had cracked up to be, and I believe the settlers were more than willing to be represented by a secular government that recognized a Deity.
So perhaps, America is shifting away from the american Jesus, and simply is embracing it's original Saviour. That Deity, That Providence, That Great Architect and Father of all, Who was seen as playing a part in the establishment of a new society.
That being said, today I thanked the Lord for the blessings I had received through His bounty, and patted my son's head, as he sat beside me at the dinner table, head bowed, eyes closed, and hands clasped.
Happy Thanksgiving!
'Out of your bounty, O Lord, we receive Thy blessings', a favorite uncle of mine used to pray at our Thanksgiving dinner.
Then there is the news today that several retail chains, including Target and Wal-Mart, will not be allowing their employees to wish shoppers a 'Merry Christmas', but rather will have to issue a 'Have a Happy Holiday'.
It has taken me this long to realize that not only are we living in a postmodern society, but we are living in a post-Christian society.
True, the personage of the post-Christian society is mainly the American Jesus, but with the retail advice listed above, it is obvious society is attempting to move away from the Divine as a whole.
Used to be, J.C. Penny's was closed on Sunday, the Lord's day. A profit would not be turned in the materialistic sense, but rather a different profit was allowed to be turned, as workers were subtly expected to gain profit in a house of worship.
Sure, there is the threat that some of our Islamic friends could be offended by the 'Christ' in 'Christmas', but my God, at what expense will we become so sensitive?
I suppose the Jewish people have been offended for years by J.C. Penny's being closed on Sundays, in obvious beneficience to the Christian Sabbath.
But how sensitive are we to become? Remember, politeness is not considered to be a virtue, only the door to virtue, and we can only indulge our non-Christian brethren with the saccharine sweet of our manners for so long.
In the past, there have been certain syncretistic societies that have existed, Alexandria and Judea to name two, where there were a melting pot of cultures and certainly rival gods to be contended with.
But the Christians had Christ. The Zoroastrians had Zoroaster, and the Pagans had Zeus. From what I've read, these people did not tippy-toe around each other at the expense of their Divinities.
If America continues down this road, we soon will be worshiping the 'Bland', an intermingled Deity consisting of Islamic, Jewish, Pentecostal, and Evangelical Deities. The 'Bland' will have no salt to savor, and will be so mundane as to be negligent.
Can we each take the nicest part of our Saviours and combine them into one new Super-Saviour?
It seems the religions, as manifested in the American west, are attempting to create a new God whose feet have been chopped off so He cannot step on anyone's toes.
Gone is the dynamism, the wonderful, the fearfulness, replaced with the effete, the well mannered and the gosh-shucks disposition of the New Mundane.
But here I will, and must digress.
After reading much of our American history, I have become convinced that we were not founded to be a Christian nation, but rather a re-public. A re-public of european settlers who were seeking out a new world without the yoke of a euroopean despot-King.
If we had, I believe, been meant to be founded as a Christian nation, then surely Jesus Christ would have been mentioned at least once in the Constitution. But He is not.
Much of what I have read about George Washington, for example, is that he was a freemason and a Deist, not neccessarily a Christian. I have read Washington never intoned Jesus or Christ when he prayed, but rather referred to Providence.
I think that the early europeans who settled here were not content to set up a 'Christian' government, because the two, Christian, and government, are incompatible. Also, the europeans were living under so called Christian governments and were inflamed at the policies and hypocrisies of said governments before they arrived in the new world.
In 1492, the Ferdinands had issued a pogrom to expel the Jews from the spanish territories. The church of England was founded by Henry VIII because the Holy Mother Church would not grant him a divorce.
These supposed 'Christian' governments, thought the new european settlers, were not all they had cracked up to be, and I believe the settlers were more than willing to be represented by a secular government that recognized a Deity.
So perhaps, America is shifting away from the american Jesus, and simply is embracing it's original Saviour. That Deity, That Providence, That Great Architect and Father of all, Who was seen as playing a part in the establishment of a new society.
That being said, today I thanked the Lord for the blessings I had received through His bounty, and patted my son's head, as he sat beside me at the dinner table, head bowed, eyes closed, and hands clasped.
Happy Thanksgiving!
