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Open Letter to Religions: Christians & Jews Turn CHRISTMAS Into Nothing More Than A CASH COW
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posted Wednesday, 16 November 2005
Originally June 21, 2005 @ http://tabacco.myblogsite.com/
Open Letter to Religions: Christians & Jews Turn CHRISTMAS Into Nothing More Than A CASH COW
I don’t blame Jews for making Christmas the high point of their financial calendar. Their version of the Bible excludes the entire New Testament. But I do think that Christians, who are more concerned with “Xmas” presents and turkey and egg nog and sweet potatoes and liquor and family gatherings than they are with being fair to the poor, the infirm, the elderly and the disenfranchised, should rethink what those concerns have to do with God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost or Christianity. I don’t see it.
Let me begin by saying that although I was baptized a Methodist and grew up an Episcopalian, I haven’t seen the inside of a Church in over 20 years. I lost my faith in “Christianity” in particular and religions in general somewhere between the beginning of Richard Nixon’s administration and the end of Ronald Reagan’s. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of God and wonder what He must think of mankind. I’m not talking about atheists or agnostics; I’m referring to “Sunday morning Christians”. When I was a teen, that’s what I used to call my uncle, who raised me. Sometimes my parents, my maternal aunt, my uncle and I would walk to Eighth and Mound Streets. “Daddy” would walk down to Richmond Street and Union Baptist Church, “Mommy” would walk up to Smith Street and go to Calvary Methodist, and I would cross the street to attend St. Andrews Episcopal. That is all I intend to reveal of my own religious background except to say I received several certificates of merit for perfect attendance at Sunday school. I do believe in God! What I do not believe in is religions!
How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and hold slaves? How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and support segregation? How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and permit their government to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqi or North Korean or Viet Namese women and children under the name of democracy, when in fact the reason is, and always has been, colonialism and financial domination. I bet you know that over 1,700 American servicemen and women have died since GWB started this Iraqi war. But quick, tell me how many Iraqis have been killed. You don’t know and neither do I. But at least I care, do you? How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and not question why war is necessary to overthrow Saddam Hussein, a villain in an oil-bearing, Islamic country, why war was necessary to stop genocide in a white, European country such as Bosnia, and not even consider making an effort to stop the genocide in a black, African country such as Rwanda?? (I’m not just talking to Christians now, Jews were slave owners and profited in the slave market. American Jews are just as guilty as American Christians if they don’t lift one finger to stop the genocide of foreign women and children in oil-bearing places. So I’m not granting Jews a free pass on genocide, only on Christmas.)
Christians in the period 1600-1775 used to burn people, particularly women, at the stake as “witches”, started wars (the Crusades) to bring Christianity to the heathens - I thought that war was a heathen endeavor. Witch burning by Christians for heresy is the subject of a future article. For now, I will only quote the following website by Richard J. Green:
http://www.holocaust-history.org/~rjg/witches.shtml
“Some nine million women were burned at the stake as witches for being pagans or healers or merely wise or powerful women, with only occasional and timid intervention. I am pained by that holocaust as well.”
Does being a Christian (particularly a Catholic or an Evangelical) mean anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-personal rights and completely ignore or make life unbearable for the poor, the infirm, the elderly and the disenfranchised? I call this idiosyncrasy of modern Christians “Cherry Picking”.
“The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision.” - Lynn Lavner, comedienne
Jews use their money and influence to court political power, of which they have a great deal. You can’t blame them for that. But I have never known the Jewish people to try to proselytize on behalf of Judaism. I have never known them to use their immense political power to coerce non-Jews into conforming to their religious ideas or practices. The only group I have ever known to do that was called “Completed Jews” in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the late 1950s. They were in fact converted to Christianity and proselytized during lunchtime in the high school cafeteria. The most obnoxious group of individuals I have ever met.
In the late 1950s, I learned that a group of Walnut Hills High School students was picketing the Woolworth’s on McMillan in Cincinnati, Ohio, because of the segregated lunch counters in the South. I went there to picket. Guess what, there was not a single “Negro”, as we were called then, at the picket sight. Every other student there was a Jew. I took it upon myself to appear each and every day after that so that at least one “Negro” would be picketing for Negro rights. Needless to say, from that moment on I have always had a great deal of respect for the Jewish people. I even had dinner once at Hebrew Union College and used to attend “Fellowship House” in Cincinnati where mostly Jewish and “Negro” high school students could “hang out”. No, I am not calling any group “perfect” (I don’t think even Jews would claim they are that, regardless of the Bible’s comment that they are the chosen ones.) However, I do respect Jews as the most fair and moral religious group with which I am personally familiar, I also feel that Christians as a group and blacks, as political beings, could and should learn a lot from Jews.
If this article makes you uncomfortable, then its purpose has been partially achieved. If you, in some permanent way, change your ideas, focus and actions for the better regarding your fellow man (American, Islamic, gay, black, alcoholic, Jew, abortionist, Baptist, agnostic or whatever), then maybe you can again call yourself a Christian or a Jew without demeaning those religions. I don’t know a lot about other religions so I shall speak here only to Christians and Jews; I thought that both those religions were supposed to be based on love, not hate. Christians are supposed to “turn the other cheek”. The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” What has happened to those concepts? How can you be a Christian or a Jew and ignore those basic tenets?
Definition: tenet, noun
a doctrine, principle, belief, or opinion held as true by a school, sect, party, or person.
Ex. The practical consequences of any political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value (Edmund Burke).
People of the United States: STOP THE WAR AND GET OUT OF IRAQ. IT BELONGS TO THE IRAQIS, NOT MOBIL OIL!
Christians, Jews & other people with a heart, please go to:
http://editing.org.uk/petsurna.htm
And sign up to Ban Landmines Worldwide. Too many people are without legs because of them.
Thank you for caring. The futures of thousands of innocent men, women and children are at stake.
There is no charge or requirement to contribute.
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)
Open Letter to Religions: Christians & Jews Turn CHRISTMAS Into Nothing More Than A CASH COW
I don’t blame Jews for making Christmas the high point of their financial calendar. Their version of the Bible excludes the entire New Testament. But I do think that Christians, who are more concerned with “Xmas” presents and turkey and egg nog and sweet potatoes and liquor and family gatherings than they are with being fair to the poor, the infirm, the elderly and the disenfranchised, should rethink what those concerns have to do with God, Jesus, the Holy Ghost or Christianity. I don’t see it.
Let me begin by saying that although I was baptized a Methodist and grew up an Episcopalian, I haven’t seen the inside of a Church in over 20 years. I lost my faith in “Christianity” in particular and religions in general somewhere between the beginning of Richard Nixon’s administration and the end of Ronald Reagan’s. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of God and wonder what He must think of mankind. I’m not talking about atheists or agnostics; I’m referring to “Sunday morning Christians”. When I was a teen, that’s what I used to call my uncle, who raised me. Sometimes my parents, my maternal aunt, my uncle and I would walk to Eighth and Mound Streets. “Daddy” would walk down to Richmond Street and Union Baptist Church, “Mommy” would walk up to Smith Street and go to Calvary Methodist, and I would cross the street to attend St. Andrews Episcopal. That is all I intend to reveal of my own religious background except to say I received several certificates of merit for perfect attendance at Sunday school. I do believe in God! What I do not believe in is religions!
How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and hold slaves? How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and support segregation? How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and permit their government to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqi or North Korean or Viet Namese women and children under the name of democracy, when in fact the reason is, and always has been, colonialism and financial domination. I bet you know that over 1,700 American servicemen and women have died since GWB started this Iraqi war. But quick, tell me how many Iraqis have been killed. You don’t know and neither do I. But at least I care, do you? How could anyone consider him or herself a Christian and not question why war is necessary to overthrow Saddam Hussein, a villain in an oil-bearing, Islamic country, why war was necessary to stop genocide in a white, European country such as Bosnia, and not even consider making an effort to stop the genocide in a black, African country such as Rwanda?? (I’m not just talking to Christians now, Jews were slave owners and profited in the slave market. American Jews are just as guilty as American Christians if they don’t lift one finger to stop the genocide of foreign women and children in oil-bearing places. So I’m not granting Jews a free pass on genocide, only on Christmas.)
Christians in the period 1600-1775 used to burn people, particularly women, at the stake as “witches”, started wars (the Crusades) to bring Christianity to the heathens - I thought that war was a heathen endeavor. Witch burning by Christians for heresy is the subject of a future article. For now, I will only quote the following website by Richard J. Green:
http://www.holocaust-history.org/~rjg/witches.shtml
“Some nine million women were burned at the stake as witches for being pagans or healers or merely wise or powerful women, with only occasional and timid intervention. I am pained by that holocaust as well.”
Does being a Christian (particularly a Catholic or an Evangelical) mean anti-abortion, anti-gay, and anti-personal rights and completely ignore or make life unbearable for the poor, the infirm, the elderly and the disenfranchised? I call this idiosyncrasy of modern Christians “Cherry Picking”.
“The Bible contains six admonishments to homosexuals and 362 admonishments to heterosexuals. That doesn't mean that God doesn't love heterosexuals. It's just that they need more supervision.” - Lynn Lavner, comedienne
Jews use their money and influence to court political power, of which they have a great deal. You can’t blame them for that. But I have never known the Jewish people to try to proselytize on behalf of Judaism. I have never known them to use their immense political power to coerce non-Jews into conforming to their religious ideas or practices. The only group I have ever known to do that was called “Completed Jews” in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the late 1950s. They were in fact converted to Christianity and proselytized during lunchtime in the high school cafeteria. The most obnoxious group of individuals I have ever met.
In the late 1950s, I learned that a group of Walnut Hills High School students was picketing the Woolworth’s on McMillan in Cincinnati, Ohio, because of the segregated lunch counters in the South. I went there to picket. Guess what, there was not a single “Negro”, as we were called then, at the picket sight. Every other student there was a Jew. I took it upon myself to appear each and every day after that so that at least one “Negro” would be picketing for Negro rights. Needless to say, from that moment on I have always had a great deal of respect for the Jewish people. I even had dinner once at Hebrew Union College and used to attend “Fellowship House” in Cincinnati where mostly Jewish and “Negro” high school students could “hang out”. No, I am not calling any group “perfect” (I don’t think even Jews would claim they are that, regardless of the Bible’s comment that they are the chosen ones.) However, I do respect Jews as the most fair and moral religious group with which I am personally familiar, I also feel that Christians as a group and blacks, as political beings, could and should learn a lot from Jews.
If this article makes you uncomfortable, then its purpose has been partially achieved. If you, in some permanent way, change your ideas, focus and actions for the better regarding your fellow man (American, Islamic, gay, black, alcoholic, Jew, abortionist, Baptist, agnostic or whatever), then maybe you can again call yourself a Christian or a Jew without demeaning those religions. I don’t know a lot about other religions so I shall speak here only to Christians and Jews; I thought that both those religions were supposed to be based on love, not hate. Christians are supposed to “turn the other cheek”. The golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” What has happened to those concepts? How can you be a Christian or a Jew and ignore those basic tenets?
Definition: tenet, noun
a doctrine, principle, belief, or opinion held as true by a school, sect, party, or person.
Ex. The practical consequences of any political tenet go a great way in deciding upon its value (Edmund Burke).
People of the United States: STOP THE WAR AND GET OUT OF IRAQ. IT BELONGS TO THE IRAQIS, NOT MOBIL OIL!
Christians, Jews & other people with a heart, please go to:
http://editing.org.uk/petsurna.htm
And sign up to Ban Landmines Worldwide. Too many people are without legs because of them.
Thank you for caring. The futures of thousands of innocent men, women and children are at stake.
There is no charge or requirement to contribute.
T.A.B.A.C.C.O. (Truth About Business And Congressional Crimes Organization)
comments (1)
1. Tabacco left...
Monday, 12 December 2005 8:13 am :: http://tabacco.blog-city.com/
December 12th Headlines: POPE CRITICIZES COMMERCIALIZED CHRISTMAS -