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---=-bY-Jon
Hill
S
our grapes? A bah-humbug Scrooge? Anti–
establishment? lrreligious? No!
Practica!. Logical. Truthful. And, believe it or
not, biblical! Here are my reasons for deleting Christ–
mas from my budget. Try it-you might like it!
The average yuletide spender squanders nearly ten
percent of his annual income on this overdone holi–
day, and keeps paying for it-no doubt at 18
+
percent
interest-for about two hundred shopping days
after.
And then it's time to start shopping and charging for
the next "nativity." In short,
1
can't afford it!
Materialism and commercialism so domínate this
"season to be jolly" that many businesses depend on
it for their survival. One
good
thing
to
notice-for
those who didn 't waste money they didn' t have
befare
December 25-is that on the 26th of Decem–
ber, the same things you paid (?) terrible prices for
are on sale for 30 to 50 percent off! That's the time to
buy-what you
need.
Giving is special
to
me.
1
resent being expected,
commanded, coerced, cajoled, beggared into giving.
My gifts go to my family and loved ones sponta–
neously, with love and
freedom-spaced
by natural
events that occur throughout the year. The total cost
is far less, and the gifts are
appreciated.
" 1
hate Christmas," said one department store
manager.
" 1
hate the hypocrisy, the one-day Chris-
tianity of Christmas;
1
hate the commercialism-and
l'm part of it!" The "spirit of Christmas" all too often
comes from a bottle. Hypocrisy and frustration stand
as the hallmarks of this season.
A famous physician says that the Santa Claus myth
is a fantastic web of lies which can cause your child–
when he finds out-confusion of mind, possible schiz–
oid splits in his personality, or even a physical ailment
resulting from the emotional letdown of " losing" so
close a friend as Santa. Truth is most precious-why
lie to your kids? You
know
they'll find out sooner or
later. And when they do, they'll always doubt a little
about what you say from then on . As one kid was
overheard to say: "Yea, and l'm going to check into
this Jesus Christ stuff too!" ls that the kind of seed
you want to sow?
1
hate to lie to my kids-how about
you?
More murders, divorces, family arguments, ene–
mies made from friends, depressions, suicides,
drunkenness, fights and just plain orneriness occur at
this time of year than any other period . The Xmas tree
bears bad fruit.
lntellectual honesty is another victim of Xmas. You
can search in vain and you will not find corroborat ion
for the birth of Christ on December 25th.
"Let's put Christ back in Christmas," many say–
because they see the evils
1
have just enumerated .
The difficulty is that Christ never was in Christmas in
the first place. Nowhere will you find Him command–
ing or even suggesting that we notice His
bírthday–
though He does command observance of His
death
day. In fact, it wasn 't until many centuries after His
death that the practice became "Christian. "
In fact, it's plainly pagan! Read
Four Thousand
Years of Christmas
by Earl Wendel Count sometime
and see. Then read Deuteronomy 12:30-31-or
maybe read that first; it's more easily available.
To give to every Tom, Dick, Atice and Mary and
NOT
to
give to Christ, particularly at a season which claims
Him as its center, seems to me the greatest hypocrisy
ot
all . lf people carne to
your
birthday party and
exchanged gifts among themselves, leaving
you
com–
pletely out, how would
you
feel?
lf
you are going to
give to anyone at Xmastime, how about to Christ and
His Work?
When
1
gave up Christmas,
1
didn't give up anything
but debt, materialism, hypocrisy, lying, bad fruits,
intellectual dishonesty and paganism. The freedom of
the truth is rich and gets richer every year.
1
wouldn't
trade it for anything. Why don ' t you join me in my
freedom?
Why not X out Xmas?