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Why I Love Christmas
I love Christmas. I enjoy the lights, the decorations, the carolers, the smell of Christmas trees everywhere and, most of all, I love that people, for even a couple of weeks, try to be just a little bit nicer to each other.
Jesus was an amazing guy, whether you believe he was the son of God, a prophet or just a really kind man. His message of peace, love and kindness toward your fellow man continues to reverberate today—it was one of hope and goodness. Whether you believe he was holy or not, you can’t deny that he changed the world.
And what did he get for his inspiring message of love? Well, we all know that story too.
It is an amazing thing to me that people of goodwill are attacked and vilified. Every religion in the world has detractors. And even more interesting is the fact that those detractors often don’t realize that they are walking in the steps of those who have destroyed some of the world’s greatest assets.
How about we actually take Jesus’ message of love and peace and keep it going throughout the coming year?
I heard a radio host yesterday say that she wouldn’t watch a movie with a Scientologist celebrity in it because of his religion.
Wow, really? Can you say “bigot?” If she said this about a Jew, she would have been inundated with phone calls. But I would be willing to bet that she really never even considered that this was discrimination.
There was a different radio and TV show host here in Denver that used to rail against my religion many years ago. One day on his show he made a comment about how Scientologists thought he was prejudiced. One of his own people said something along the lines of: “Well, you are.” He was more than a little astonished.
Attacks on anyone’s religion is bigotry, no matter what.
What does this have to do with Christmas? Well, I actually do have a point. Christ talked about love and he didn’t qualify it. He never said: “Only love those in your own religion, race or gender.”
Everyone in life has a choice to make. Do you want to be on the side of those who spread love, peace and harmony or do you want to be on the side of those who destroy such things? If you vilify another’s religion, you are placing yourself on the side of those who tortured and murdered Jesus. Who wants to be one of those guys?!
Instead of that, how about we actually take his message of love and peace and keep it going throughout the coming year? Let’s love our neighbor no matter his race, religion, color… or any other reason we have to not love him.
That is, after all, what I think Christmas is all about.
