Happy HalloThankHanuKwanChristmas! Well, that's what commercialism has done to the 4th quarter holiday season. Autumn arrives in late September and here come Christmas Carols, Halloween decorations on sale at 50% off as soon as they hit the store shelves and somewhere in the middle you find things like Halloween, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Veterans Day and others thrown in.
Thank you, thank you retail industry. Is it the retail industry.....or is it more??
I shall spare each of you my definitions of the holidays, they are subject to interpretation anyway. If you're Jewish, you'll prefer Hanukkah. If you're Christian you may be pro-Christmas and anti-Halloween. If you're a citizen of the USA, you'll relish over-eating, parades, and football games on Thanksgiving Day. If you're of African-American descent, you will cherish your heritage at the celebration of Kwanzaa. If you're a veteran in the USA, Veterans Day will be held near and dear to your heart.
Guess what? I bet I just missed a bunch of other holidays and someone out there will call me on it. We all do the best we can to celebrate our heritage, our religious faith, our communities, and having fun for the sake of having fun.
Sometimes we get very outspoken against something we do not understand. Just because we don't understand someone other people's reason for joy is no reason to be mean and verbally or physically attack them.
That said; however, when people pervert their faith and use it for evil/generally bad purposes, then we have the right to call them out on it and put a stop to it.
I read an article recently in which reference was made to atheists and satanists promoting practices to children and asking a school board to approve of materials for distribution. If you don't want religion in the schools, then you must not permit anti-religion either. It has to be equal both ways. If for example, you don't allow the Bible and Christianity in school materials, then Islam cannot be taught either. If you won't allow religion, you can't have anti-religion (e.g. atheism) in the school
If you believe in good, you must believe in evil.
If you believe in God, you must believe in the devil.
If you believe in heaven, you must believe in hell.
Every action incurs and equal and opposite reaction.
Look at our schools today. They are a jumbled mess. Took Christianity out but put pure evolution in. They do not permit the discussion of the beliefs of Christianity even though Christianity exists. They do not permit prayer. All of a sudden lately, though, there is a huge push to permit the teaching of Islamic beliefs, atheistic beliefs, and even satanic beliefs. If you're going to teach one, you must teach them all, equally.
And we wonder why our youth are confused, depressed, angry, and getting into trouble. WE are confusing them by our very lack to teach them with fare and true content. WE are allowing our government-influenced educators and school boards to be bullied further and further into teaching our children a bunch of confused and partial belief systems.
(Don't even get me started on the Common Core system that is completely degrading mathematics among other courses.)
How have we gone from celebrating each holiday for its own worth and respecting others' celebrations to demoralizing our children with conflicting belief systems? Do we blame the greed of the retail industry? Do we blame teachers or school boards? Do we blame various religious and anti-religious groups? Do we blame ourselves? Do we blame our own faith? Do we blame each other? Do we blame the leaders of our country?
Something to consider: we elect our leaders (either by voting or failing to vote and allowing bad leaders into power), we elect our school boards who hire the teachers of our young people. We choose where to attend church, if we attend church. We allow bullying of our educational system and our young people on the largest scale possible and yet we do nothing about it.
We see parents run to the schools and complain if Suzi Q or John Doe get insulted and we complain bitterly because the school didn't protect our child. BUT GUESS WHAT FOLKS?? Life is mean. Life is not easy. If it were pleasant and easy all the time, we'd most likely be in heaven (for those who believe it exists.
I'm not saying not to stand up for your children when there is a serious problem, which can include bullying. We do need to teach our children to stand up for themselves too.
We are setting the poorest of examples in this country in the current era. We allow small sub-groups to bully our educational system instead of standing up and saying this isn't good stuff/good curriculum. Do not misunderstand me, I am all for adding new and good things. I have no problem teaching all about all religions and anti-religions, let's be equal. Equal is the component. Give our children and grandchildren an equal balance of knowledge so they don't continue growing up confused, needing more and more chemical medications pumped into them to help them cope with the lack of mental tools we failed to provide them.
Back to the holidays......enjoy each one. Play, celebrate, pray, and savor. Enjoy each one in its own time, not in one jumbled mess.
From my faith to yours, may you be blessed.
Thank you, thank you retail industry. Is it the retail industry.....or is it more??
I shall spare each of you my definitions of the holidays, they are subject to interpretation anyway. If you're Jewish, you'll prefer Hanukkah. If you're Christian you may be pro-Christmas and anti-Halloween. If you're a citizen of the USA, you'll relish over-eating, parades, and football games on Thanksgiving Day. If you're of African-American descent, you will cherish your heritage at the celebration of Kwanzaa. If you're a veteran in the USA, Veterans Day will be held near and dear to your heart.
Guess what? I bet I just missed a bunch of other holidays and someone out there will call me on it. We all do the best we can to celebrate our heritage, our religious faith, our communities, and having fun for the sake of having fun.
Sometimes we get very outspoken against something we do not understand. Just because we don't understand someone other people's reason for joy is no reason to be mean and verbally or physically attack them.
That said; however, when people pervert their faith and use it for evil/generally bad purposes, then we have the right to call them out on it and put a stop to it.
I read an article recently in which reference was made to atheists and satanists promoting practices to children and asking a school board to approve of materials for distribution. If you don't want religion in the schools, then you must not permit anti-religion either. It has to be equal both ways. If for example, you don't allow the Bible and Christianity in school materials, then Islam cannot be taught either. If you won't allow religion, you can't have anti-religion (e.g. atheism) in the school
If you believe in good, you must believe in evil.
If you believe in God, you must believe in the devil.
If you believe in heaven, you must believe in hell.
Every action incurs and equal and opposite reaction.
Look at our schools today. They are a jumbled mess. Took Christianity out but put pure evolution in. They do not permit the discussion of the beliefs of Christianity even though Christianity exists. They do not permit prayer. All of a sudden lately, though, there is a huge push to permit the teaching of Islamic beliefs, atheistic beliefs, and even satanic beliefs. If you're going to teach one, you must teach them all, equally.
And we wonder why our youth are confused, depressed, angry, and getting into trouble. WE are confusing them by our very lack to teach them with fare and true content. WE are allowing our government-influenced educators and school boards to be bullied further and further into teaching our children a bunch of confused and partial belief systems.
(Don't even get me started on the Common Core system that is completely degrading mathematics among other courses.)
How have we gone from celebrating each holiday for its own worth and respecting others' celebrations to demoralizing our children with conflicting belief systems? Do we blame the greed of the retail industry? Do we blame teachers or school boards? Do we blame various religious and anti-religious groups? Do we blame ourselves? Do we blame our own faith? Do we blame each other? Do we blame the leaders of our country?
Something to consider: we elect our leaders (either by voting or failing to vote and allowing bad leaders into power), we elect our school boards who hire the teachers of our young people. We choose where to attend church, if we attend church. We allow bullying of our educational system and our young people on the largest scale possible and yet we do nothing about it.
We see parents run to the schools and complain if Suzi Q or John Doe get insulted and we complain bitterly because the school didn't protect our child. BUT GUESS WHAT FOLKS?? Life is mean. Life is not easy. If it were pleasant and easy all the time, we'd most likely be in heaven (for those who believe it exists.
I'm not saying not to stand up for your children when there is a serious problem, which can include bullying. We do need to teach our children to stand up for themselves too.
We are setting the poorest of examples in this country in the current era. We allow small sub-groups to bully our educational system instead of standing up and saying this isn't good stuff/good curriculum. Do not misunderstand me, I am all for adding new and good things. I have no problem teaching all about all religions and anti-religions, let's be equal. Equal is the component. Give our children and grandchildren an equal balance of knowledge so they don't continue growing up confused, needing more and more chemical medications pumped into them to help them cope with the lack of mental tools we failed to provide them.
Back to the holidays......enjoy each one. Play, celebrate, pray, and savor. Enjoy each one in its own time, not in one jumbled mess.
From my faith to yours, may you be blessed.
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