---From the New York Sun, 21 September 1897.
Posted on 12/26/2005 8:14:44 AM PST by Conservatrix
BETHEL — While controversy swirls over a substitute teacher who told first-graders that Santa Claus doesn’t exist, a local dairy farmer and church deacon has put the same message in a very public place. By erecting a sign along the eastbound side of I-78, between the Bethel and Grimes exits, Leonard H. Martin has taken it upon himself to shatter the myth of Santa Claus for any youngster able to read the message from the back seat of a car as their parents drive by.
It marks the second consecutive year that Martin has posted what he termed a spiritual message on his land adjacent to I-78.
Last year, the sign stated, “Santa is a myth, lying to our children brings moral decay.”
For this season, Martin toned it down slightly. The sign now reads, “Worship God, who is all knowing & all seeing, Santa is a Myth.”
Martin, who operates a dairy farm at 250 Legion Drive, Bethel Township, is also a deacon with Harmony Christian Fellowship.
“We wanted to bring out the point that (Americans) are making Santa out to be what God actually is,” Martin said Tuesday. “We’re making Santa a god. I believe that is idol worship.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ldnews.com ...
As an atheist, I consider religion to be a lie. However, I do not put up signs proclaiming such, nor, in all my years as a teacher of children, did I take advantage of my position to disabuse students of their religious or cultural beliefs.
These Christians should have showed a little more respect and kindness for their fellow human beings, especially during a season that celebrates the birth of their beloved Jesus.
Yes, that would be the truth. ...and when I decide to tell my children that truth should be my choosing. Morality is, in fact, based on the belief of a higher power-- I agree totally. Santa Claus is not taught, by the majority of us, as qualifying as a higher power. As my children reach the age where they can differentiate that, it will be made known to them. As it is, they are under no delusions that Jesus and Santa are the same person.
How dare he use the First Amendment! Do you consider arrogance to be a "sin" of some sort?
He has the right. He also needs to realize there will be consequences. My statement that he is arrogant is a rebuttal to someone who claimed he was "devout" and "humble". In general, although there are exceptions, I've found that the two are mutually exclusive. And by the way, "pride" is considered a bad policy, if not an actual "sin".
Contrarily, although I don't think he should be "forced" to bring down the billboard, I have no problem with him being shamed into taking it down himself-- or being confronted with the fact that he is, in point of fact, self-righteous and arrogant.
---From the New York Sun, 21 September 1897.
Perhaps they could consider a name change.
What does he say about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy???
When did St. Nicolas become a god?
Boris Karloff is just his narrator.
There are only two religions. You merely embrace one - out of the many versions - of the man-centered religion.
Also:
"I've already mentioned in 'From Skepticism To Worship' how my mind was able to intellectually accept two very different ways of interpreting the bible. In reading it as an explicitly stated, technical document, all I saw was a heap of contradiction and error that rendered the whole collection of books as nonsense. Reading it as poetry or literature, however, provided a completely different view, one that enabled me to see the harmony and higher meanings in the overall text.
For years, I had debated biblical inerrancy as a skeptic. While my new understanding of scripture allowed me to see reconcilable paradox where I had previously seen contradiction, and also dispensed many of my other arguments as irrelevant or insignificant, there still remained some legitimate points of contention that I simply didn't have the time or the resources to solve.
In trying to find quick answers, I turned from the library to the Internet and ran smack into J.P. Holding’s Tekton Apologetics Ministries. In my opinion, this guy is the most thorough researcher and honest apologist I have ever read. His website is a treasure to any Christian who is bothered or entertained by debate. The anti-Christian crowd is fond of dismissing Christian apologists for telling 'what could have been or the way things may have been', but there is no denying that Mr. Holding's research illustrates what actually was and the way things actually were.
The moment that I saw the truth in the bible, I couldn't escape it and I gave myself to Jesus Christ. But I was weak in my newfound faith and I didn't have the evidence that one acquires from trusting God. I had never stopped debating - I had just switched sides, only I was ill prepared to defend my new position. To be engaged in constant debate without answers is to be in a state of suspended faith or perpetual doubt. Had it not been for the answers that J.P. Holding had posted online, my Christian faith may not have survived its infancy.
Thanks, J.P.!"
A MAN CALLED J.P. HOLDING Answers at Tektonics.org
Santa is not a Myth. He is a Mythter.
Right jolly old FReeper: Churchman can kiss my ass.
LOL!
You're sooooooo bad. (I like that!)
Some folks think that if they are the most strident, they are doing the best in God's eyes. Of course, they don't consider that, by alienating those they are trying to reach with such stridency, they are doing more harm than good.
Cruelty in the guise of piety is still cruelty.
Everyone is born with an anus, some take it as a role model.
The guy is right. leave him be.
" never heard of anyone who thought that Santa Claus was God.
Neither have I. Santa is a phantasm... no more real than the things that stand before us in a dream... Who is ‘prince of phantasms’ in the Bible??? "
That's like the people who claim they read the horoscope for fun - they don't really believe it.
I assure you children believe that Santa Clause is real. Does growing up to the realization that he's a myth promote aetheism? Has anyone researched that proposition?
I hear you. Faith in God isn't arrived at by logic because that's of the carnal mind. Your heart saw Him and loved Him - a spiritual event. Then it all made sense.
By taking out a bill board, he was making it hard on parents, upsetting little children, and calling attention to himself (he did get his name in the paper, didn't he?).
Regardless of the rightness (or, wrongness, in my opinion) his methods are what are objectionable. I would point out that while small children may on occasion be disillusioned by discovering that Santa is a myth, a whole lot of people are going to form the opinion that Christians are miserable fanaticts who haven't an ounce of fun in their being. Not a very good missionary tactic, in my opinion.
Extremely well-put!
You outted Conservatrix, alright. She hasn't posted again on either thread she started since you connected the dots!
Good job!
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