Posted on 12/20/2016 8:05:10 AM PST by Kaslin
Where I live (near Los Angeles) you can drive for blocks without seeing a single home with Christmas lights, let alone a manger scene or some other religious decoration. And you can drive miles and see fewer than a dozen.
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, in an area where most residents were either Italian or Jewish. So many homes had Christmas decorations that you could almost be sure that if the home wasn't decorated, a Jewish family lived in it. And while I was -- and remain -- a committed Jew, I loved -- and still love -- those decorated homes. It makes December special.
But today, December is not special in large swathes of America. Secularism has taken its toll. And the lack of color this time of the year compared to decades ago perfectly exemplifies some of its consequences.
Secularism literally and figuratively knocks color out of life.
Without God and religion there is, of course, much to enjoy in life. You can enjoy Bach without believing in God (though Bach would not have composed anything if he didn't believe in God); you can enjoy sports, books, travel and so much more.
But there is a monochromatic character to life without God and religion. And you can literally see it this month. When I compare blocks of homes without Christmas decorations to blocks filled with homes with Christmas decorations, I think of my trips to the Soviet Union and other communist countries. One of the first things that struck any visitor from the West was how gray everything looked. There was essentially no color -- just as today's decoration-free homes appear.
Secularism in the West has a deadening effect. It tends to suck the joy of life out of individuals and the larger society. It is particularly noticeable in young people. Secular kids are more likely to be jaded and cynical than kids raised in religious Christian and Jewish homes.
(Conversely, secularism has an enlivening effect in fundamentalist Muslim countries, which tend to suck the joy out of life even more so than secularism does in the West. That's one reason one can root for secularism in Iran and against secularism in the West.)
What secular joys can compare to a family putting up Christmas decorations and a Christmas tree, going to church together, singing or listening to Christmas carols and engaging in the other rituals surrounding Christmas? None.
The same question can be posed to Jews. What secular joys compare to having Shabbat meals every week with family and friends, or building a sukkah (the holiday booth) with your children for Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles)? None -- for adults or children.
A Christian caller on my radio show told me about his son-in-law who doesn't celebrate Christmas but does celebrate "the first snow." With all due respect, celebrating the first snow, or the winter solstice, does not bring the joy to an individual's life or a family's life that celebrating Christmas brings.
The indoctrinated -- better-known as the well-educated -- have been misled to believe that because secular government is good and theocracy is bad, secularism must be good. But it isn't.
Secularism not only knocks out joy but also destroys ultimate meaning.
Without God and religion, life is ultimately no more than random coincidence. You and I have no more meaning or purpose than puffs of clouds. The only difference is that clouds don't need to believe that they have meaning.
This lack of meaning in secular society is the reason for the development of the post-Christian isms and movements in the West. They give people meaning. Marxism, communism, fascism and Nazism -- not to mention all the nonviolent but socially destructive left-wing movements of our day -- are all secular substitutes for what religion once gave: meaning.
Secularism also destroys moral absolutes. Without God and moral revelation, morality is entirely subjective -- "What you or your society says is good is good, and what I or my society says is good is good." Is it any wonder that the most secular institution in the West, the university, is also the place of the greatest amount of moral idiocy?
Secularism also destroys art. Contemporary art museums are filled with nihilism and talent-free meaninglessness masquerading as art. And worse, they are increasingly filled with the scatological. One of the Guggenheim Museum's latest featured works is a solid-gold toilet that's usable by visitors. It's titled "America" so that one can literally urinate and defecate on America -- and feel sophisticated while doing so.
America is a society in decline because Americans have abandoned the religious foundations of their country. The colorless and joyless Christmas manifested in the increasing number of homes without Christmas decorations is a clear and dispiriting example.
You gotta get out of the PR of Kalifornia to see the rest of the country.
As many, or more, than ever here, in Godless, Secular Sonoma County.
I think the author is either out of ideas or caught in a time warp.
The purpose is to bring joy to others and remind them of the season.
Of course, the simple fact that nobody can see my house makes it a very easy choice these days.
In our area there are more decorations than in any year since Obama took office. Seems people are very pleased that Trump is in office.
Well, bah-humbug to you, too.
Drab and no color, reminds me of some of Hillary’s pantsuits.
I love the colors of Christmas.
Church and State separation use of language history:
Jefferson was echoing the language of the founder of the first Baptist church in America, Roger Williams who had written in 1644 of “hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world.”Article Six of the United States Constitution also specifies that “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Jefferson’s metaphor of a wall of separation has been cited repeatedly by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Reynolds v. United States (1879) the Court wrote that Jefferson’s comments “may be accepted almost as an authoritative declaration of the scope and effect of the [First] Amendment.” In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), Justice Hugo Black wrote: “In the words of Thomas Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect a wall of separation between church and state.
However, the Court has not always interpreted the constitutional principle as absolute, and the proper extent of separation between government and religion in the U.S. remains an ongoing subject of impassioned debate.
I agree this is a kind of worthless rant. I live not to far from Dennis and sure its not like in a city but where we live on the edge of L.A and Ventura counties its all the suburbs and some streets are crazy off the hook. Some of these communities the wealthier ones spend an ordainment amount of time and money and people drive to see it. Like most everything in the LA bubble a car is required and traffic will be encountered.
I think Dennis still lives in Hidden Hills and to be fair that place is frickin straight out of Desperate House wives nutty. I hope he has moved.
I live in a college town. We put up white lights all over town but they stay up until Spring. It adds a little festiveness to a dreary cold winter.
This year in western NY (Trump Country), there have been more Christmas displays than I have seen in many years. Elaborate ones. Also, I have seen a number of HUGE Trump signs, still up in support after the election. It is like everyone is celebrating a new world.
It was never work for me. I always loved the time of year when I would tote those boxes out of storage and start unraveling and testing all those strings of lights to hang. I love hanging strings of Christmas lights. The colder outside, the better. I blast Christmas music from my garage stereo and keep some cold turkey and cold beers in the refrigerator for refreshment. Usually I do this the day after Thanksgiving, when all the womenfolk are out shopping for the day. They like coming home to all the lights.
Clark Griswold is my hero by the way as I'm a lot like that in real life. Even my kids say that they are reminded of me whenever they see him in a Vacation movie.
I would love to put up lights, but climbing up on a ladder isn’t feasible anymore. I wish there were kids in the neighborhood that would put them up for a few bucks. I know there are companies that will put them up and take them down for you but they are expensive
Mr. Douglas, I agree, although I do celebrate because my family does. The few I’ve spent alone, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I also celebrate Jesus all year and am very grateful for what his coming has meant to me personally, and to humanity as a whole. But I dread December every year and just wince through the whole month. I also get much poorer! Maybe I’m just at that age (bah humbug sixties).
Well, bah-humbug to you, too.
My compromise is that we only watch Christmas movies from Thanksgiving through the end of the year (and that’s a lot since we don’t have TV), and she decorates the house, and she cooks me fish sometimes.
Christmas to me is mall traffic (which I no longer do) credit card debt (which we no longer do) and cancer causing sweets (which I avoid as much as humanly possible). My southern gospel band wanted me to play Christmas and New Years with them. I said no can do, though I am singing in the Christmas choir tomorrow.
I think Christmas season is just too darned divisive these days. I prefer to celebrate it every day.
I’m guessing you were from secular western WA. Here in eastern WA lots of Christmas decorations and “Merry Christmas” is heard frequently.
My daughter and I think there are more decorations this year in San Jose, California. The Willow Glenn part of town has always been festive, but seems much much more this year.
I love the lights!
On the street where i live (just outside Houston, TX) the Boy Scouts do a deal in which for $25 a year, they put an American flag in front of your house on all Flag Holidays. I think those of us who pay that fee are the most conservative people in the neighborhood and we are the ones with at least some sort of Christmas lights on display.
Where we live in SE Virginia (Gloucester County) the majority of homes near us have some lighting displayed. It ranges from the traditional single candle-style light in each window to full-scale yard displays. And of course, in Newport News Park is the Christmas drive-through. The displays are breathtaking. So... no gray secularism taking over here.
I think that is part of it (I’m 63). But I think our culture is tiring of it as well.
You and I attack it the same way.
However, you brought up something that I forgot about. My negativity is not entirely benign. The “much poorer” part hits it. Back when I was about 30, I started seeing the whole thing as a scam to get us to buy a bunch of stuff for each other that we don’t really want or need. I decided to refuse to play. I absolutely HATE being manipulated. And hate it more when I participate anyway due to peer pressure.
I forgot about that. I LITERALLY see the whole US Christmas thing as the equivalent of the money changers, who’s tables Jesus overturned.
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