Keeping the Christ in Christmas

[Sandra Craft]

?Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.?

- Steve Maraboli

I think Maraboli is one of those motivational speakers, which would usually put me off but I think this sentiment is a spot on response to the "war on Xmas".

[Crow]

The only good thing is the consumerism.

Feed the hungry: Don't need to the society I live in has this sorted, if people are going hungry it is their own fault.
Clothe the naked: Same as above.
Forgive the guilty: I don't really care about them either way.
Care for the ill: There is the NHS for that.
Welcome the unwanted: Nope they are unwanted for a reason, you can get radiation poisoning or some other unwanted illness.
Love they enemies: Don't have any.
Do unto others as you would have done unto you: I'm pretty sure most people wouldn't want that.

If you need reminding to do some pretty basic stuff once a year you are pretty scummy person anyway, or your country is a bit shit.

[Icarus]

Feed the hungry: Don't need to the society I live in has this sorted, if people are going hungry it is their own fault.

.

I disagree. Many a hungry person is not responsible for their unfortunate plight.  What kind of society are we if we show no compassion for the the sick or hungry?  Crows society has this sorted out he says. Mine does not, so I have a different attitude about whether or not to allow the unfortunates to go hungry.

Some of those people are freeloaders but some are worthy individuals who are destitute in spite of their best efforts. Homeless single mothers come to mind.  Those women are in their plight because some despicable bastard has abandoned them or gone to jail. Some are widows who can not make it on their own.

I am the consummate, hard nosed, atheist, yet I support with time and monetary contributions to a faith based (perish the thought) local outfit who does what they can to help the homeless and hungry.

I going with your take on this subject Books.  Call me a senile old fool if you like, I can handle it.

Crow: I am not attacking you, my virtual friend. Merely disagreeing with your post.

Hey! While I am wound up, let me tell you about my day. We are not doing Christmas dinner or any celebration at my house. Instead my wife, Elaine, spent the first part of the day baking five different kinds of cookies and a pan of chocolate fudge. I washed dishes and ran the electric mixer thingy for her. She packaged a lot of them in several Christmassy containers, and then got herself all dressed respectably. She then left the house to take some of those goodies to various medical re-hab facilities around town. She visited with some of the patients who may not have had visitors. She left cookies and her kindest wishes. She can be a bitch sometimes but on good days she is a princess.

[Sandra Craft]

I am the consummate, hard nosed, atheist, yet I support with time and monetary contributions to a faith based (perish the thought) local outfit who does what they can to help the homeless and hungry.

Me too, except for the hard-nosed part (I'm more soft-nosed), but more to the point these actions are all central to Xtianity yet most of the people I see claiming a "war on Xmas" are the least likely to do any of these.  I see them as being the ones truly at war with Xtianity.

[Crow]

Feed the hungry: Don't need to the society I live in has this sorted, if people are going hungry it is their own fault.

.

I disagree. Many a hungry person is not responsible for their unfortunate plight.  What kind of society are we if we show no compassion for the the sick or hungry?  Crows society has this sorted out he says. Mine does not, so I have a different attitude about whether or not to allow the unfortunates to go hungry.

Some of those people are freeloaders but some are worthy individuals who are destitute in spite of their best efforts. Homeless single mothers come to mind.  Those women are in their plight because some despicable bastard has abandoned them or gone to jail. Some are widows who can not make it on their own.

I am the consummate, hard nosed, atheist, yet I support with time and monetary contributions to a faith based (perish the thought) local outfit who does what they can to help the homeless and hungry.

I going with your take on this subject Books.  Call me a senile old fool if you like, I can handle it.

Crow: I am not attacking you, my virtual friend. Merely disagreeing with your post.

Hey! While I am wound up, let me tell you about my day. We are not doing Christmas dinner or any celebration at my house. Instead my wife, Elaine, spent the first part of the day baking five different kinds of cookies and a pan of chocolate fudge. I washed dishes and ran the electric mixer thingy for her. She packaged a lot of them in several Christmassy containers, and then got herself all dressed respectably. She then left the house to take some of those goodies to various medical re-hab facilities around town. She visited with some of the patients who may not have had visitors. She left cookies and her kindest wishes. She can be a bitch sometimes but on good days she is a princess.

One day of kindness isn't going to change it for those who are hungry they might have a full belly for one day of the year but the systematic problem isn't going to be solved. I don't know how the system works in the US and I assume it is different from state to state but in the UK alongside benefits for the unemployed (it isn't much but it is enough to budget for food), food banks, meals on wheels, alongside many different charities both secular and religious that provide food for the hungry there is no reason that anybody should go hungry in the UK unless it is either their own pride or ignorance on what is available to them. It could be better done as everything usually can be or at least done in a different manner that might be better for those who are hungry. The most obvious solution I see as people that are going hungry actually have enough money to spend it on food but are focusing on other things is that everyone regardless of fiscal situation has access to a basic food supplies that provide nutrition, with a focus on infant malnutrition, restructuring of farming methods that provide higher yields that are more diverse and optimise the land use such as agroforestry, less focus on meat products to again optimise the production yields of land use, incorporate the best of biotech into this system, and give smaller independent farmers more priority over multinational corporations to focus on food independence of each country.

Kindness never solved anything it is just a fa?ade that hides and ignores the problem at their root. The solutions require drastic changes to societal foundations that have formed over the last 10 thousand years, we know of better solutions and that they are doable and far more efficient however they are going to be expensive, take time and require real effort to implement. For many we have a system that works well enough and makes a small number of people very very rich so why should anything change.

[Pasta Chick]

I'm with Crow on this one, actually.  One of the things that's always bothered me about the holiday season is that people suddenly get all altruistic in helpful but entirely short-sighted ways, pat themselves on the back for what awesome and caring people they are and resume business as usual for the rest of the year.  Totally ignoring the long-term problems and screeching about how socialized health care is evil and people need to learn to help themselves.

[OldGit]

If god put the Christ in Christmas, who put the cunt in Scunthorpe?