Jon Stewart declares war on the faux ‘War on Christmas’
December 4, 2012 - 5:28 PM
December 4, 2012 - 5:28 PM
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Thursday, May 23, 2013
THE ROANOKE TIMES
It’s about damn time started talking about the war on Christmas. It should have started right after all the corn sold out at halloween. I tells ya one thing, you’d never know there was a war on if the only thing you listed to was muzak in public places. I’ve been staying at a hotel for the last few days and all heard was Nat King Cole and Andy Williams crooning Christmas standards, over and over…again and again and I can’t get the stuff out of my head.
Although Stewart serves his corporate masters by making what should normally sicken us seem funny, this screed ranks as one of his best.
More importantly, the cracks are widening in the Congressional GOP.
http://news.yahoo.com/gop-leaders-remove-4-plum-house-committees-195415482–finance.html
When so many Christians spend Sunday at the mall, I am not buying any war on Christmas nor any especial devotion to Advent either.
Why do I get the feeling that those who harp about the “war on Christmas” are also the ones who abandon their families early on Thanksgiving so they camp out at their favorite store on Black Friday morning?
Stewart and his writers are genius in action. Hilarious!
I hope John S. dies a horrible death …..
Short pump would be better named ” short bus”.
Yes, shortpump, show us that xmas spirit… perhaps you would like to see John Stewart thrown in an oven, but us civilized folks would like to keep him around because not only is he a funny human being, but also a charitable one.
This trumped up war on a holiday the early Christians stole from the Pagans and Wiccans. Good luck with that.
Perhaps next it will be New Year’s war on our liver… The liver is evil and must be punished! #TeamJohnnyWalker
Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s, St. Valentine’s, Thanksgiving!
…But we are still not a country based on Christian Principles?
Some people can’t handle the truth apparently. Christmas is EVERYWHERE, if indeed there is a “War on Christmas”, Christmas is kicking ass and taking names as it continues its reign supreme.
Christmas Trees, poinsettias and Santa show up at church functions and you people call us crass, empty or Godless? Maybe it will dawn on you just who is perpetrating the “War on Christmas” when Santa joins the live Nativity scene… but I doubt it.
http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/hanukkah.asp
pp….St Patrick’s Day, really? Valentine’s Day. “Christian principles” start to look a lot like “Hallmark Rip Off Days”.
Except for those, the holidays you list all have their roots in pagan celebrations. Solstice, harvest, rebirth and renewal celebrations…all of them can be traced back to our pagan ancestors. Which was smart on the part of early Christians trying to spread the faith, but they’re not unique to Christianity.
Christmas as we know it now has little to do with the celebration of Christ’s birth. Christmas as we know it has become, in my opinion, a distorted celebration of capitalism.
LOL! Really, pp?!
“Christmas, Easter, St. Patrick’s, St. Valentine’s, Thanksgiving!
…But we are still not a country based on Christian Principles?”
Comment by pistol pete — December 5, 2012 @ 7:56 am
I guess you can place our country’s principals in the same boat as holidays based on Pagan rituals and foundation. Well… except for thanksgiving, and just ask the Native Americans how thankful christians really were.
Christmas- Pagan holiday Winter Solstice
Easter- Pagan holiday Spring Equinox, or rebirth of nature
St. Valentine and St. Patrick’s- Just an excuse to have lots of sex and drink way too much beer.
Thanksgiving- Celebrate the beginning of a sociopathic culture in order to steal land, culture, rape women and children, by using their religion as an excuse to do so.
Yes… I can see why you embrace these things. Marriage is still a sanctimonious union too… LOL! I bet you celebrate Jerry Falwell’s birthday with Twinkies in the shape of swastikas?
“St. Patrick was born in Bannavem Taberniae, England c. 386. As a teen, he was captured then enslaved in Ireland. He escaped six years later. In 431, he was appointed Bishop of the Irish. Through missionary work, he converted Ireland to Christianity”
“St. Valentine was a priest who was martyred (clubbed then beheaded) for performing Christian marriages and not worshiping Roman Gods.”
Amen Nosaj!
Then we can always go into the whole thing that Christmas isn’t actually Christian, it was a “holiday” invented to get others to stop practicing their pagan rituals.
But why start believing the truth now, after all these years?! Bring it on! Doorbuster Deals!
Wicca’s been around for less than 100 years. How on earth did the Christians of the 2nd and 3rd centuries steal their festivals? Though if Christianity involved time travel, I might go to church more often!
Laura, I don’t see where anyone mentioned Wicca specifically, but there are lots of different pagan religions and most of them predate Christianity.
Kristen, I was referring to Justin True’s comment at #9. As to the pagan origins of Christianity’s major festivals, I know them well (a degree in medieval history will do that to a person
).
Laura, so what you are saying is that Wicca is not a part of Paganism? Wicca does not deserve a place beside Paganism?
Wicca is just another derivative of Pagans. They are essentially one and the same in many respects. That’s all I was trying to say. But if you want to time travel and find out the technicalities of your religion, by all means, share your info upon your return.
Justin, the only point in your original comment I was contesting was your assertion that Christianity stole from Wicca. This is historically impossible, given that Wicca is a revivalist tradition less than a century old that itself borrowed (or stole, however you wish to see it) from those same pagan traditions that early Christianity did back in the days of the Roman Empire. Suggesting that Christianity retroactively stole/borrowed from Wicca because Wicca is a revival of paganism is nonsense. I am not trying to defend the “purity” of Christian traditions, but pointing out that both Christianity and Wicca assimilated material from the same source at different points in history.
As for whether or not Wicca deserves a place beside Paganism, why don’t you ask a Pagan?
Laura,
I have always grouped Wiccans and Pagans together. Which you have ever so eloquently proven to me that that is the wrong way to go about things. I was wrong. I see your point of view now. You saying that Wicca and Christianity stole, or ‘Borrowed’ from Paganism would be a more truthful and historically correct statement. I stand corrected. Thank you for correcting me.
I hope that I didn’t offend any Wiccans in the house by associating your religion with Christianity… How embarrassing would that be?
Wicca is a Pagan path, much like Druidry or Asatru (among others). It fits under the umbrella but is not wholly representative of Paganism or Pagan belief/practice, which are quite varied. People who practice Pagan beliefs other than Wicca tend to take offense to Paganism and Wicca being equated, because that’s not the case. Wicca is a modern attempt to revive older pre-Christian practices of much of Europe, popularized by Gerald Gardner in the 1950′s and 60′s.
It’s called ‘Yuletide’, thank you. A Germanic Pagan holiday celebrating the shortest day of the year, a tree was cut and placed inside the dwelling in celebration thereof.
Speaking of time travel, my favorite part of John Stewart’s monologue was right at the end, where he says, with Fred Flintstone and Santa on screen behind him, “Yes, there is even a Christmas show abut Christmas thousands of years before Jesus’s birth.” Too funny!
http://www.google.com/search?q=tardis&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#biv=i|2;d|i8AYdfTEjBnqaM:
For you Laura….TARDIS! Now we just need to assign it to a religion.
War on Christmas continues http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22133907/seniors-decry-ban-christmas-tree-their-complex-newhall
It was the company’s call, Henry. Surely independent private business should be allowed to make their own call on those matters.
It was the company’s call, Henry. Surely independent private business should be allowed to make their own call on those matters.
I remember when Chick-fil-A made their own call on matter of principle. The left had a cow, so to speak.
I remember when Chick-fil-A made their own call on matter of principle. The left had a cow, so to speak.
Since when did principals rely on xenophobic hate? If Chick-bigot-A wants to stand up for their Christian “principals” by selling their sandwiches to keep mentally handicapped people out of church (Leviticus 21:16-21), the murder of children who make fun of bald people by two she bears(2 Kings 2:23-25), or how about god telling people how to abort a child and also outcast the woman as well, (NUmbers 5:21-27)…
Yes! How about them principals!? Something we should all live by!
Just call the thing a “Holiday Tree” and get over it! Geez…