birth of Jesus Christ Archives

This is a followup to my prior post about Christmas being secularized…

As a minimum, Christmas is a remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ. (Note the “Christ” part of the word “Christmas.”) As a historical event, it is something that anyone of any faith (or even atheists) can choose to acknowledge and/or celebrate — just as anyone can acknowledge and appreciate the historical event Hanukkah is based on

Why Christians would give such emphasis to that birth is due to what Jesus Christ stood for. (Carefully read the New Testament for specifics.) The bottom line is that His message was one of love, acceptance, and forgiveness. Shouldn’t we all support that?

Centuries later, various related secondary religious traditions evolved in parallel with the birth of Jesus Christ’s remembrance. One is Saint Nicholas — now translated to what we Americans call Santa Claus… Another is the Christmas Tree, which also has some religious connotations (here is one explanation).

Regretfully, we live in times where secularization is in vogue, and Religion (and the Bible) are antiquated ideas, even under attack. Is it any wonder that we can no longer even have constructive discussions about our different perspectives?

Worse, right under our noses, religion is being taught in public schools. What, you say? Check out SEL (Social Emotional Learning). It is being marketed very cleverly, but its real objective is to convert students from Judeo-Christian families into atheists (a religion). See my prior discussion about this.

My closing Christmas thought is again this…

Since we are experiencing unprecedented threats to our personal safety, freedoms, and lives, maybe we ought to rethink our commitment to God.

As Americans’ participation in Religion has gone downhill, the evil we are seeing on a daily basis has steadily increased. Draw your own Critical Thinking conclusions, but IMO, that correlation is not a coincidence.

Jesus is the Reason for the Season.

I hope that you and your family have a happy, holy Christmas and holiday season!

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Critically Thinking about this perspective in 2025…

Regretfully, we live in times where secularization is all the rage, and Religion (and the Bible) are out of vogue, even under attack. Is it any wonder that we can no longer even have respectful discussions about our different perspectives? What happens now is that one party will bludgeon the other with the moral superiority card (SEL, CRT, DEI, Woke, etc.). Other responses that fall into this category are phony virtue signaling and absurd relativism.

Humans instinctively need a moral code, so the reason that all these happen every day is that some Americans are abandoning what was a widely shared value system: Judeo-Christianity. But since the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the Bible, etc. are old-fashioned, here are three questions to critically think about:

Where is this new set of “moral standards” and “virtues” publicly posted?
Who has the credentials to create such an official list?
Where does the authority come from to enforce adherence to such standards?

One excuse for this secularization is the assertion that some people espousing Religions have a long history of going off the rails.

We need to be clear that when there are bad events associated with a Religion, it is the people involved who are the problem, not the Religion. For example, when some early Catholic Popes were evil men, that was not a reflection on Jesus Christ or His Church, but on those individuals. (Similarly, when the US has Presidents who are self-serving, it is not a reflection on America or the Constitution, but on those people.)

Secularizing Christmas Cards

An experience I recently had is one of many that puts this secularization of our society, including Christmas, into focus… Every year my wife and I snail mail Christmas cards to a few friends and family. Every year we choose a Christmas card with a clear traditional birth of Jesus Christ theme. (We then add some personal updates about the last year, on the reverse.)

This year I again went to where we have been buying such cards: VistaPrint (which is a large purveyor of a wide variety of products from business cards to wedding gifts). I started like I always do and selected: 4×8 cards —> Christmas —> religious. Hmmm: all of the “religious cards” were just photos of family members, Christmas trees, etc.

What struck me was that there was not a single religious card (i.e., about the birth of Jesus Christ), e.g., a star over Bethlehem, the three wise men, etc. In the past, VistaPrint had multiple options for these. I then did several searches for this popular sized card and nothing came up.

I decided to do an online chat with an agent and see if I was doing something wrong. I communicated with a pleasant customer service person. She followed up with an email. After much looking on her part she confirmed that VistaPrint had no 4×8 Christmas cards with any Christ-related scene!!

In her email she made a simply stunning statement (my emphasis):

“Following our chat, I reviewed all the templates available on our website. At the moment, we do not offer religious-themed templates, as these designs can be sensitive and may not be suitable for all audiences.”

As polite as I could be (not my forte), I strongly objected to her startling and unacceptable statement that they did not have religious cards for a religious holiday, as some people may be offended…

She apologized and said that they could make up one for me, which they did.

IMO it’s mind-boggling that I would have to do this. I’m sure in VistaPrint’s files that they have over a hundred nativity, etc. scenes to use on 4×8 Christmas cards, but that they chose zero in 2025 is disturbing.

My closing thought here is this…

Since we are experiencing unprecedented threats to our personal freedoms and lives, maybe we ought to re-think our commitment to God. As Americans’ participation in Religion has gone downhill, the evil and incompetence we are seeing on a daily basis has steadily increased. Draw your own Critical Thinking conclusions, but IMO that correlation is not a coincidence.

Here is other information from this scientist that you might find interesting: