Despite the attack on Christmas, it is good to know according to a poll conducted by Marist and the Knights of Columbus two-thirds of Americans prefer to say “Merry Christmas” over “Happy Holidays”. Now Some Christmas Humor:

From all of us here at RedState to all of you, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

— Erick

The Gospel of Luke 2:1-20

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

From all of us here at RedState to all of you, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!

— Erick

The Gospel of Luke 2:1-20

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. – John 1:14

Third Century Christian theologian Origen deemed the celebrations of birthdays the work of sinners, not saints; and so opposed the celebration of the birth of Jesus as if he were a pharaoh or king.

Seventeen hundred winter solstices later, we wonder if he would more vociferously bemoan the attention given the passing of the most celebrated atheist of the 21st Century. (Especially given Scriptural references to the Son of Man as “King of kings”, but we understand that Christ’s realm is “not of this earth” and that we are not qualified to cross theological swords with the distinguished Alexandrian scholar.)

Christopher Hitchens, the author of God is not Great: How Religion poisons Everything, died ten days before Christmas and it has been curious to see how his passing has been received by our divided culture, especially given his excommunication from The Left over his support for the war in Iraq.

For instance, last night on Hugh Hewitt’s talk radio show, the self-described catholic evangelical conservative re-broadcast a three-hour interview he conducted with Hitchens soon after the release of his Hitch-22 memoir in 2010. Why would such a strong Christian develop such an attachment to the author of such venomous diatribes against Mother Teresa and celebrate his passing just two days before Christmas Day?

Yes, we conservatives were thrilled to have him join us in compassion for the Kurds and other victims of Saddam Hussein and in opposing the radical Islamist threat generally; and we appreciated his contempt for the corrupt acts of Bill Clinton. But let us weigh the glory of a liberal partially mugged by conservative-converting reality with this polemic on Mother Teresa and the Roman Catholic Church:

This returns us to the medieval corruption of the church, which sold indulgences to the rich while preaching hellfire and continence to the poor. MT was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction. And she was a friend to the worst of the rich, taking misappropriated money from the atrocious Duvalier family in Haiti (whose rule she praised in return) and from Charles Keating of the Lincoln Savings and Loan.

As to the latter, we are reminded of Aunt Esther’s “I’ll take money from the Devil to do God’s work” after discovering that Nephew Fred Sanford’s contributions to the church were gambling winnings.

But what are we to make of Hitchen’s vitriol against a woman that chose to live and serve with the poorest of the poor of her own free will. There’s more:

One of the curses of India, as of other poor countries, is the quack medicine man, who fleeces the sufferer by promises of miraculous healing. Sunday was a great day for these parasites, who saw their crummy methods endorsed by his holiness and given a more or less free ride in the international press. Forgotten were the elementary rules of logic, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and that what can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. More than that, we witnessed the elevation and consecration of extreme dogmatism, blinkered faith, and the cult of a mediocre human personality.

Clearly Hitchens’ conservative epiphany is incomplete if he thinks there is a “cure” for poverty and that the ONLY cure was made manifest only after man first utilized rubber trees to form Trojans. Surely the British-turned American scholar had read Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, but I digress.

I think the key to Hitchens’ contempt for God, religion and Mother Teresa and so much of the chattering class’s indulgence of him lies in his above-expressed resentment of the “elevation of…the cult of a mediocre human personality.”

The Apostle Paul warned us:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;… – 2 Timothy 4:3

The Hitch made our ears itch and we loved to scratch them, especially when the scratching was a shared contempt for liberals and their blindness to mass murder.

But aren’t we all partially blind, and can’t said blindness be, ironically, traced to the opening of our eyes:

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. - Genesis 3:5

Ah yes, to be as knowing gods! Feels right doesn’t it. Feels so good to scratch the itch we share, that we ignore the contempt for God and his servants.

Yes, Eve bit the apple. God knew she would do so before he created a world in which he could grow sons and daughters that could choose to live with him forever. God knew that he would have to become flesh (See Christmas), dwell among us and give his only begotten son to make this miracle come true from those that believeth on him.

God knew we would fall and that the only way to pick us up would require that he do what to us would be the equivalent of us becoming a dog to save the souls of dogs.

I’m not a Roman Catholic and so don’t pretend to speak for them on beatification or purgatory. I am a Christian, though, and so share what matters most with my fellow Christians, including the flawed Mother Teresa, and can safely say that someone who on their life’s journey finally sees the light and departs from the political left over the persecution of the Kurds, had no business regressing to hate on Mother Teresa.

In his Divine Comedy, Dante describes his Purgatorio, as life’s journey in surrendering our life to God and letting him help us overcome deadly sins like pride, greed and envy. In this regard, Christians and atheists share the journey of life and the overcoming of, or succumbing to, such sins.

Christopher Hitchens was a life in progress. I don’t pretend to read hearts and souls; and while the utterances of his lips bespeak unbelief, he also reminds of God’s admonition in Revelation 3:16 to the ambivalent that, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”

Clearly then, Christopher was too cold to be spued out from God’s mouth and so I pray that Dante’s vision extends to the after-life, for Hitchens’ sake. Meanwhile, I am reminded to “Go ye” and bear witness to Scripture that admonishes us to rely not on any such purgatorial wishes, and to make more Christmases merrier by turning people hot for Christ before they leave this earth.

Mike DeVine

Atlanta Law & Politics columnist –  Examiner.com

Editor - Hillbilly Politics

Co-Founder and Editor - Political Daily

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

More DeVine Gamecock rooster crowings at Modern Conservative, Unified Patriots,  and Conservative Outlooks. All Charlotte Observer and Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-eds archived at Townhall.com.

I thought about Americans and what each one might need

I Pray each has presents and gifts beneath their trees

So, what one thing could I give that would last the test of time

A gift that would last forever defying all evil and crime

So here is a Christmas Prayer for you, to those I hold so dear

May the Christmas spirit be every day – not just once a year

May God be with you always – during your time upon this earth

Our salvation signed and sealed at the time of the “Christ Child’s “ birth

A hug, a kiss or compliment for those you love – is forever a blessing earned

For those who travel the airways and highways, in fact may ner return

Don’t let the sun set upon angry words, power struggles or idle threats

For those words you say today – may tomorrow be your worst regrets

May God bless you with wisdom and grace to face each and every day

May he protect you from evil and temptation – strength to resist what people say

When you have a moment – count your many blessings one by one

And give thanks to God in the Highest for his only begotten son

To All Americans
As Always,
Little Tboca

As you can tell I have not been posting much this month.   I just have not had much extra time to write about all the aggravating garbage that has been going on politically. The two main topics this month have been the Republican primary and the payroll tax holiday.

It’s Christmas time so I’m going to be quick and charitable in what I have to say.

As for the Republican primary, the debates are over, at least for a little while.

Thank God.

I do not know which became more intolerable the debates themselves or people telling me who won the debate. Usually people who have a hatred for one candidate or another and could not possibly watch a debate objectively if their lives depended upon it. This applies equally to the so-called professional pundits and all of us who take to keyboard to voice our opinion. Most particularly disturbing, are the pundits who refuse to endorse any candidate but have no problem denigrating the candidates they do not like. There are a few of them out there and in the spirit of Christmas charity I will drop the issue.

I won’t go on about one particular radio personality who, single-handedly, eliminated a candidate before he even got into the race..

Okay, I said I would drop it.

As for this payroll holiday fiasco, I will not point any fingers at anyone for what has transpired. This is my true act of Christmas charity. Instead I will let this video express my feelings:

Now for a little Christmas spirit. My whole life I have loved the Peanuts. I have never been a religious fellow but I have always been moved by Linus’s monologue in “A Charlie Brown  Christmas.” So here it is:

Merry Christmas to all. Most of all to our service men and women who sacrifice so much to defend our right to say crazy things!

The one charity that has the lowest administrative costs (i.e. more of your donation actually gets to the needy) is being boycotted by the Gay Liberation Network. Why? Because it adheres to its religious beliefs. It stands up for what it believes in.

(Ever notice that folks who admire others who “stand up for what they believe in” almost invariably don’t appreciate it when they don’t agree with what’s being stood up for?)

Bil Browning explains his opposition to the Army this way.

As the holidays approach, the Salvation Army bell ringers are out in front of stores dunning shoppers for donations. If you care about gay rights, you’ll skip their bucket in favor of a charity that doesn’t actively discriminate against the LGBT community.

The Salvation Army has a history of active discrimination against gays and lesbians. While you might think you’re helping the hungry and homeless by dropping a few dollars in the bright red buckets, not everyone can share in the donations. Many LGBT people are rejected by the evangelical church charity because they’re “sexually impure.”

While the Army, as a church, does indeed believe that homosexuality goes against God’s plan for us, they most emphatically do not discriminate on who can receive their aid. That charge is entirely false. Everyone can share in the donations.

However, the Army is allowed to decide who represents it to the public. And that’s where the Army will indeed stand up for what it believes in.

And the GLN is free to start its own charity. Light a candle instead of curse the “darkness”, and all that.

In the meantime, consider dropping a little bit more in the kettle this year. And it may not be a bad idea to make that a standard practice. Donations have been going down year-over-year, and which is why the “kettle season” has been moved up to a few days before Thanksgiving, rather than the long tradition of the day after it. It’s a down economy, but especially for the needy.

Doug Payton blogs at Considerettes.