[svcw]

Wow.

[muawiyah]

Forgot to mention that there are two strong strains of beliefs about Santa Claus among Scandinavian-American traditionalists. FIrst, there's the crowd who are AGAINST Santa Claus, or even Christmas. They don't even celebrate Christmas. You'll find Scandinavian Lutheran congregations all through the Midwest who still hold to this standard.

Then there's the "other crowd" who founded Santa Claus IN, Christmas Valley, OR, Christmas, FL, and so on. They take a different position on the matter and might even be said to "worship" Santa Claus (Little Red Man), Reindeer (Reindeer Man), and Herb Woman (a whole lotta' other stuff including three household goddesses ~ e.g. Saravasti).

What we call "faith healing" cuts through the different beliefs about Santa Claus so you find that happening all over the place ~ which is why they end up with a very high infant mortality rate.

Enough state prosecutors have been successful at busting these guys for not taking their kids to the doctors as needed that they have been changing their church's names!

It's the peyote eating bunch (a subset of the COTFB) who are most disturbing. They managed to affiliate themselves with the American Indian Religion (as they call it) to gain access to peyote. FLDS also built their Texas temple right smack dab in the world's most prolific peyote fields ~ not that they ever use the stuff, but check the teeth. Peyote use, like crystal meth, Cipro and some peridontal gum diseases will loosen your teeth!