A child destined

I listened this morning to the Nine Lessons and Carols broadcast live from King's College in Cambridge, England. (Church services just take on an added dimension when done in a British accent, don't you think?)

As I got ready this morning while listening to the program, I realized that despite the near-hysterical reactions some people have to nativity scenes and Christmas carols -- and even Santa Claus -- millions were listening with me on every continent to commemorate and celebrate the Holy Night of Christ's birth.

The dividing line is pretty much the same as it was some 2,000 years ago. For peasant shepherds, two aged prophets, a handful of insightful sages, and a humble couple from the backwaters of the Roman Empire, it was the glorious culmination of centuries of waiting and watching, the appearance of the Word become flesh, God with us.

For others, it was a time of fear, jealousy, irrational hatred -- and even murder. St. Matthew tells us that all of Jerusalem was troubled when the wise men came to Herod and reported that they'd seen the star that signified the birth of a new King. You know the rest of the story -- the wanton slaughter of the innocents to try to eradicate this threat to Herod's power.

Even Simeon, the grizzled prophet who embraced the infant Jesus when he was presented in the Temple, knew that nothing in the universe would ever be the same now that the Messiah had come:

“This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

St. Luke, 2:34b

And so here we are two millennia later, still witnessing the divide along the fault line that is Jesus Christ. He still causes joy and hope for millions and fear and hatred for millions. Which means his message is still potent and his Person still one that is not easily ignored.

Grace, mercy and peace to you all, and God bless us, every one.

I've got a lot of problems with you people!

Here's another holiday to add to your winter smorgasboard: Today is Festivus. Yes, that Festivus made immortal by Mr. Costanza on Seinfeld.

And in the spirit of Festivus, I'd like to have a moment for the traditional Airing of Grievances:

To Paris Hilton, please, PLEASE go away.

To all spammers everywhere, I do not have a penis and I don't need Viagra, thank you.

To the men on the personal ads who have double chins and beer bellies, describe themselves as "athletic" and say they want the same in a woman, get off the computer and go run a few laps, will ya?

To Martha Stewart, complaining about the bad food in prison, get over it and shut up. You'll be back to foie gras and Beluga before you know it.

To Michael Moore, for the love of God, get an original title ... and gastric bypass ... and a one-way ticket to Yemen while you're at it.

To the "insurgents" in Iraq who enjoy blowing people up and sawing people's heads off, may someone else get to the 72 virgins before you do.

As for the rest of us, Happy Festivus!!! (I feel better now.)

A GGB Must Read

Joseph Loconte at NRO gives piercing perspective to the One whose birthday we are about to celebrate:

Joseph Loconte on Christ on National Review Online

More info on arrest of Christians at outing parade

Kudos to Jason Coleman, a visitor here at GGB World, who has posted extensive information about the obscene suppression of some Christian protesters who had the audacity to exercise their First Amendment rights. (Read my earlier post on this topic here.)

Jason, who is an atheist, understands that Constitutionally-protected speech must be given free reign, regardless of content. Way to go, Jason.

And yet more from the "eeek" department ...

This is getting ridiculous, folks ...

AFA.Net - Divisions - Center for Law and Policy - Press Release - 12/16/2004

Double eeek!!

After you read the post below, read this:
Michelle Malkin's Christians in the Crossfire

Does Australia of today lead to North Korea, Saudi Arabia, et al, of tomorrow?

Eeek!!

Does anyone else find this just the least bit frightening?

Two Christian pastors in Australia have been found guilty of religious vilification of Muslims. The decision threatens us all.

Read the article here.

And a welcome to all our new visitors ...

To all of the, well, three or four people who read this blog, I thank you for your patronage, and thank you to the two kind souls who've left comments this week. :)

Remembering hell

Through a series of jumps through cyberspace today, I found myself at several sites devoted to the memory of the Holocaust and the horror of the death camps, particularly the notorious Auschwitz where the majority of Hitler's victims met their last days.

I hope I never get "used" to such sights.

The next natural questions were "how" and "why," to which humanity may never have a final and satisfying answer. Nevertheless, even a cursory study of the monster who was Adolf Hitler and the moral implosion of Nazi Germany should make us think before "never again" becomes "oh no, not again."

Not only that, an honest study of the rise of the Reich should give us a lesson in intellectual honesty. The imbecilic comparisons between Bush and Hitler are so ridiculous they would be comical if they weren't so obscene. If you haven't read anything about Hitler since 10th grade, go right now and Google on "Adolf Hitler."

Take a look at the photos of bodies piled like trash in Auschwitz and the horrifically emaciated bodies of camp prisoners. Read about Hitler's politics and philosophy, about his seething hatred toward the Jews, who he blamed for every conceivable problem on earth, his personal orders to exterminate SIX MILLION PEOPLE through gassing, starvation, torture and burning, and tell me if any U.S. leader approaches his level of depravity. As much as I don't like him and think he's dangerous, I wouldn't dare accuse John Kerry of being capable of or willing to commit such depravity and evil.

"But innocent children in Iraq have died, too."

You're not paying attention, are you? Go look ... GO LOOK. Which world leaders have targeted entire groups based on their religion or ethnicity alone? Which have sought out civilians and women and children for systematic extinction? Which have used the most barbaric and gruesome methods of torture and death imaginable against civilian populations?

Osama bin Laden ... 3,000 dead in the World Trade Center Towers ... blames the West and capitalism for the failings of his own society ...

Saddam Hussein ... employed rape rooms and torture of children ... disposed of dissidents in industrial shredders ...

Kim Jong Il ... persecutes the Christian Hmong minority with relentless pursuit, so much so that North Korea is declared the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian ... 300,000 believers have "disappeared"

Now you tell me who the real "Hitler" is.

Yo quiero Pepto Bismol

Nice case of la nausea this afternoon, prompted by pro-Castro comments summarized on Right Wing News. (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.)

It's so easy to deconstruct Commie logic, it's almost a crime, but this'll make me feel better. So, here's a comment from "blurp" (which is obviously the sound of pieces of his/her brain dripping out and hitting the pavement) with running commentary from your humble correspondent.

"Sometimes violence is necessary for a better society. Great point."

(If you're talking about ridding the world of muderous, rapacious dictators, yeah, but that apparently is not what blurp had in mind ...)

"Also, consider tax evaders in the USA. They have a duty to pay their taxes to help society. If they don't, what should we do? Ask nicely again? No. We get police to toss them in jail. Sometimes you have threaten violence against people to create a greater social good."

(Oh ... I get it!! My money and resources don't belong to me, they belong to the government! And the government knows better and is just trying to make everyone happy! And throwing people in jail makes them more compassionate and helpful. Geez, thanks for clearing that up.)

"In way (sic), what Castro does is nearly democratic, in the sense that he uses his power to insure (sic) the majority are helped even though a few individuals may be treated poorly."

(I thought that was totalitarianism. Oh, but wait, it's all for the good of the majority, so it's OK. My bad.)

Besides, if there were a vote, Castro would win anyway. So I don't see how his actions against a small minority are anti-democratic.

(Threats of violence, jail and death are extremely persuasive with the voting population, even more so than John Edwards' hair.)

Let's just get one thing straight

Between the Cupertino, Calif., teacher who got banned from distributing historical documents that referenced God (including the Declaration of Independence) to the tiresome and predictable assault on public displays of Christmas, I'm getting a little cranky.

Religion is not magic, folks. Christmas trees and Nativity scenes are not mind control devices. They were not planted there in a devious attempt to turn your children into leisure-suit-wearing televangelists with bad hair. Get over it, already.

Oh ... and Merry Christmas everyone!

QotD

"You can get so well educated in America that your thoughts become detached from common sense. You can get so complicated in your thinking that the obvious isn't real to you anymore."

-- Columnist Peggy Noonan

A GGB Must Read

Mary Eberstadt looks at modern music from the flip side of the equation:

Eminem Is Right

(Hat tip: Board's Head Tavern)

QotD

"... the school's chief administrator, far from erecting a wall of separation between church and state, has put up an even more impervious wall of separation between students and knowledge."

-- Tony Snow in a column discussing the case of Williams v. Cupertino, in which a high school teacher has been banned from distributing historical documents that reference God, including the Declaration of Independence (see column here)

Deconstructing Michael and Janeane ...

... is not hard, but I thought I'd have some fun doing it anyway.

Janeane Garofalo on Sean Hannity's radio show recently agreed with Michael Moore's assertion that the terrorist threat is overblown (as I first mentioned here). They basically say that your chance of being blown to smithereens by a terrorist act is only slightly more likely than the chance that J. Lo will stay married to Marc Anthony. Ergo, the war in Iraq is the military equivalent of using chemotherapy to get rid of the flu.

However, you don't have to be a geopolitical scientist to figure out that the terrorists really aren't trying just to kill people. Really. If Osama bin Laden and company had wanted to simply kill 3,000 Americans on 9/11, any city would have done the trick.

No ... terrorists want to terrorize. They want to flip economies upside down and send world leaders scurrying for their teddy bears so they can achieve their own ends. Dead people are just a tool, a means to an end.

Theoretically, a terrorist could kill no one and still terrorize. They can bomb buildings and gum up computer networks without hurting a soul, all toward the same end.

Hitting the World Trade Center was not merely for theatrical display or concentrated casualties. A hit at America's financial center sends shockwaves throughout the whole nation and the whole economy and, thus, the economy of virtually every nation on the planet.

Moore and Garofalo either don't get this or think that there are worst things than rattling the nation's economy and stability. You wonder if it's the latter.

QotD

I promise, folks, I'm going to get back to blogging and stop just posting quotes, but here's a beauty:

"Grace is love that sprouts legs, climbs into your life and settles in."

-- Jim Nicholson at The Boar's Head Tavern

QotD

"Christmas, according to Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1999, is when those in that particular faith tradition celebrate 'the birth of a homeless child.' Or, as Al Gore put it in 1997, 'Two thousand years ago, a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child.'

"For Pete's sake, they weren't homeless — they couldn't get a hotel room. They had to sleep in the stable only because Dad had to schlep halfway across the country to pay his taxes in the town of his birth, which sounds like the kind of cockamamie bureaucratic nightmare only a blue state could cook up."

-- Columnist Mark Steyn

Michelle bangs her head and hits the nail

Michelle Malkin needs an aspirin:

Michelle Malkin: REPEAT AFTER ME: PRO-ENFORCEMENT IS NOT "ANTI-IMMIGRANT"

She really nails the whole open-borders nonsense in this post, and be sure to link forward to her full column. An excerpt:

Political correctness is the handmaiden of terrorism. By smearing the overwhelming majority of Americans who support real borders as racists and xenophobes, the OBL [open-borders lobby] obscures its deadly agenda: sabotaging our existing immigration laws and blocking any new efforts to punish those who abuse the system...

Happy birthday, Jack

Just so you'll know, I am officially a member of the pajamahadeen as of now. It's a good feeling.

Sorry for the blogbreak, but I'm back to (belatedly) celebrate the 106th anniversary of the Nov. 29 birthday of C.S. "Jack" Lewis, the Oxford Don, my patron saint, author of Mere Christianity, the Narnia Chronicles and the Perelandra Trilogy. Read anything of his. Read it all.

Lewis accomplished what scant few Christian writers have managed in the intervening century, and I'll be blunt: He made art, not propaganda.

As Chuck Colson put it:

What was it that made him such a keen observer of cultural and intellectual trends? The answer may be somewhat discomfiting to modern evangelicals: One reason is precisely that Lewis was not an evangelical. He was a professor in the academy, with a specialty in medieval literature, which gave him a mental framework shaped by the whole scope of intellectual history and Christian thought. As a result, he was liberated from the narrow confines of the religious views of the day—which meant he was able to analyze and critique them.

Ouch. But you'll have to admit -- he's right.

As Frank Schaeffer explained in Addicted to Mediocrity (and I'm paraphrasing here), evangelical protestant pietism put a low value on learning and art for its own sake. Learning to play the cello or speak five languages was legitimate only if it was "for the Lord."

But as Colson points out, Lewis was not a professional religious person -- he was an English professor, smack dab in the middle of "secular" Oxford and Cambridge teaching Shakespeare and Chaucer.

As much as I cringe every time Barbra Streisand opens her mouth ... as much as I think Michael Moore is an unrepentant agitator ... let's not retreat back into Churchworld just yet. In honor of Jack Lewis, it's time to read, listen, watch. And I mean something else besides Left Behind and The Omega Code.

Morning in America

I woke up this morning in a heated apartment -- didn't have to run to the woodpile to ward off the November chill, just turned a knob. I woke up alone, but that's only because I happen to be single, not because someone took my husband in the middle of the night. My Bible is next to the bed where it was yesterday -- no one has confiscated it or put me in jail for reading it. (Although Lord knows I need to read it more.) I had expensive coffee and a ridiculously oversized cheese bagel for breakfast as I tuned into XM Radio's 20th anniversary broadcast of the Live Aid Concert, which was to raise money for starving children in ...

... okay, you get the picture. It's hard not to be cliched on a day like today. We in America are so outrageously wealthy and privileged and free -- by global standards. And that glass insulator we call a TV set -- say what you will about Beslan or Fallujah, it spares us most of the horror.

A small glossy catalog -- one of many clogging my mailbox at this time of year -- arrived yesterday. It's a gift catalog from International Christian Concern, an organization that supports persecuted believers worldwide. Here's a few of their bargains:

- $35 per month to financially support the wives and children of men who've been jailed or martyred for their faith. Most of us pay more for cable service.
- $30 per month to help rebuild the lives of young Pakistani Christian girls who've been raped, abducted and forcibly converted to Islam. That's one dinner at a nice restaurant for me.
- $3 to print and smuggle a Bible into nations hostile to Christianity. Let's not even go into how easy it is to burn $3.

And how about a house for $650 in Indonesia to replace one torched by Islamic jihadists? How 'bout $100 to provide lifestock, a key source of food and income to an impoverished family?

Of course, my first knee-jerk reaction is, "Why isn't the media on to this? Why isn't there an outcry over the two million who've been murdered over the past two decades in Sudan?" And as I listen to Live Aid, where's Bob Geldof when you need him?

But this is my problem. What am I gonna do about it? What's worth $3 or $30 or $100 that I could do without for the sake of those who truly do without? Just what the heck are my priorities anyway?

Somethin' to chew on with your Thanksgiving turkey. And God bless us all.