[ConservativeDude]

"but the main and most difficult message Jesus brought to this world was to love people"

While this is true, this statement is almost universally misunderstood today. Jesus also said that he came to divide (Luke 12:51). He did not come to bring peace or to unite, or to celebrate diversity, or to excuse alternative lifestyles.

He came to live a flawless and sinless life, and die and rise again for sinners like me, deserving of hell, but spared from it by God's grace and nothing else.

Accordingly, our responsibility is to preach the truth. In love, yes, at all times. But I think statements like "Jesus just wants us to love one another" in an era of cheap sentimentality, tolerance [a form of indifference, incidentally] and moral relativism, statements like that should be used sparingly and only with great care.

In Brothers Karamaszov, Dostoyevsky has a great line: "love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams". That is how I think of the love of Christ. It's not as pleasant as we like to think.

[Onelifetogive]

The last time I checked, God was not a Republican.

Is this intended to imply that God would be comfortable as a Dimocrat?

I can just see Clinton and God sitting around, puffing on cigars and talking about their own greatness...

[helen crump]

Christmas is a time when many people turn their thoughts toward Jesus and celebrate his birth. We don't know when Jesus was born but we know that he was born and find that reason to celebrate. The fact that many people find this a time of giving and search out people in need to help is probably the best way of all to celebrate the birth of one who came to do the same.

[MainFrame65]

" The last time I checked, God was not a Republican." ...And the last time I checked, Charley Reese was NOT an officlal spokesman for G_d.

[reed_inthe_wind]

When is the last time you checked - prior to 1972 I assume?

[knuthom]

I grew up in a Protestant church that believed in a literal interpretation of the King James Bible. Since there is no mention in the Bible of Dec. 25, the church refused to make Christmas a religious observance. Baldwin pianos and Hammond organs were verboten for the same reason.

I grew up in a church like this. My family did not celebrate Christmas at all. When I grew up, I learned that the preacher did, in secret. He had a Christmas tree in a back bedroom, so it would not be visible from the street.