Christmas is almost here, which means the usual mid-wit scolds are out pushing their standard anti-Christian narratives. I've noticed that in a lot of these discussions, certain flavors of Protestants are indistinguishable from evangelical atheists. Both see it as their mission to destroy Christmas joy wherever they find it.
Sadly, I'm finding people who aren't normally hostile to faith reciting tropes that Christmas is really a repackaged Yule or Saturnalia or whatnot, and claiming that much of the holiday was stolen from pagan practices.
Long-time readers at the Chateau know better. The pagans "gods" are nothing more than rogue angels, and their ceremonies often resembled those ordained by God because they were created in mockery of Him.
Christ came to redeem mankind, and part of that required these customs to be re-oriented, but not necessarily destroyed. Thus, changing the nature of various seasonal festivals is essentially reclaiming the calendar, similar to converting temples into churches. In some instances, like sacred groves, these were cut down to prove the impotence of their purportedly divine patrons, but I doubt anyone would agree that the Pantheon should have been torn down rather than be reoriented to God.
Leave a reply to A.H. Lloyd Cancel reply