Replies

"How did the kindly Christian saint, good Bishop Nicholas, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity?

The first Europeans to arrive in the New World brought St. Nicholas. Vikings dedicated their cathedral to him in Greenland. On his first voyage, Columbus named a Haitian port for St. Nicholas on December 6, 1492. In Florida, Spaniards named an early settlement St. Nicholas Ferry, now known as Jacksonville. However, St. Nicholas had a difficult time during the 16th century Protestant Reformation which took a dim view of saints. Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success; only in England were the religious folk traditions of Christmas permanently altered. (It is ironic that fervent Puritan Christians began what turned into a trend to a more secular Christmas observance.) "

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=35

There you have it. Fanatical puritans *ahem* protestants, in an attempt to stamp out Catholic traditions, inadvertently create an artificial wall between Christianity and a Christian icon (Saint Nicholas becomes the non-religious Santa Clause). The result is an increased secularization of Christmas.

And those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

It is ironic that fervent Puritan Christians began what turned into a trend to a more secular Christmas observance.

[Christmas overall] - [Christian accretions] = [old pagan Yuletide]

If you're a Puritan, how could you make such a booboo? Answer: antipapist fanaticism. Also known as throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

I don't always care for Falwell -- he has a pompous streak that becomes more obvious when he's trying to be jolly and affable -- but I think he certainly has a point. The activities of the ACLU with respect to common Christianity-based observances have been, and are, poisonous and loaded with (let's face it) Jewish sectarian zeal.

The ACLU types need to face the facts: with carnivorous passions like Islamofascism abroad and stalking the Western world, it's pretty stupid politics to try to poison the culture that is the stoutest rampart between you and dying violently in a Moslem-instigated pogrom.