In article ,
says...

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:12 -0500, John H
wrote:

Christmas, and the fact that so many people get so much enjoyment from
the season, must really **** off the atheists.

Not only that.... it really ****es off a lot of Christians, because
they know it is celebrating a Pagan holiday with a ton of Pagan
trappings.... and they will do anything to prevent being guilty of
idolatrous worship....

... there are a lot of Christian children around here that will get no
presents and wouldn't want them, if they did.... there are Christian
homes with absolute prohibitions against anything associated with
Christmas.... no trees, no 12 days, no Yule log, no parades, no
exchanging gifts, no ornaments, no mistletoe, no green, no red, no
presents, no Santa, and *certainly* no eggnog. And you'll NEVER catch
THEM saying, "Merry Christmas."
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/...xmas/celeb.htm

Don't be so quick to paint all Christians with that broad brush.

Wow, and in my 50 years I have never met one, much less heard of one
trying to shut down my celebration... hummmmmm...

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:56:01 -0500, I am Tosk
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:12 -0500, John H
wrote:

Christmas, and the fact that so many people get so much enjoyment from
the season, must really **** off the atheists.

Not only that.... it really ****es off a lot of Christians, because
they know it is celebrating a Pagan holiday with a ton of Pagan
trappings.... and they will do anything to prevent being guilty of
idolatrous worship....

... there are a lot of Christian children around here that will get no
presents and wouldn't want them, if they did.... there are Christian
homes with absolute prohibitions against anything associated with
Christmas.... no trees, no 12 days, no Yule log, no parades, no
exchanging gifts, no ornaments, no mistletoe, no green, no red, no
presents, no Santa, and *certainly* no eggnog. And you'll NEVER catch
THEM saying, "Merry Christmas."
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/...xmas/celeb.htm

Don't be so quick to paint all Christians with that broad brush.

Wow, and in my 50 years I have never met one, much less heard of one
trying to shut down my celebration... hummmmmm...

Me neither. But Gene has many living right around his house. Do you
reckon he polls the neighbors to see which are Christians, which
prohibit anything to do with Christmas, which don't say "Merry
Christmas", and so on.

Must be hard to get all those questions answered.

--

John H

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:56:41 -0500, John H
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:56:01 -0500, I am Tosk
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:12 -0500, John H
wrote:

Christmas, and the fact that so many people get so much enjoyment from
the season, must really **** off the atheists.

Not only that.... it really ****es off a lot of Christians, because
they know it is celebrating a Pagan holiday with a ton of Pagan
trappings.... and they will do anything to prevent being guilty of
idolatrous worship....

... there are a lot of Christian children around here that will get no
presents and wouldn't want them, if they did.... there are Christian
homes with absolute prohibitions against anything associated with
Christmas.... no trees, no 12 days, no Yule log, no parades, no
exchanging gifts, no ornaments, no mistletoe, no green, no red, no
presents, no Santa, and *certainly* no eggnog. And you'll NEVER catch
THEM saying, "Merry Christmas."
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/...xmas/celeb.htm

Don't be so quick to paint all Christians with that broad brush.

Wow, and in my 50 years I have never met one, much less heard of one
trying to shut down my celebration... hummmmmm...

Me neither. But Gene has many living right around his house. Do you
reckon he polls the neighbors to see which are Christians, which
prohibit anything to do with Christmas, which don't say "Merry
Christmas", and so on.

Must be hard to get all those questions answered.

Nah, it is quite easy. I have in-laws that constantly want to *save*
me with their particular twist on "the way the truth and the light." I
don't have to ask to get questions answered.... you folks

There it is, the "you folks"... Seems it's not "us folks" who are the
problem, it's "your" family. Nobody pushes it around here to my family
of myself, even my dad's Mormon friends. Guess you just need to get some
friends who respect you more... Or like here, maybe you start in on it
and they just finish the conversation??

are usually
pretty "in your face" about what your Lord and God demandeth other
folks shall know and follow.

I have a tree and mistletoe, they don't.... go figure.....

Oh, yeah, I forgot.... some of the Quakers.... locally, the Quaker
college doesn't even have an American flag on campus! But I've got one
of those!

Have a Happy Holiday!

On 12/16/09 10:22 AM, Gene wrote:
On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:56:41 -0500, John
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:56:01 -0500, I am Tosk
wrote:

In ,
says...

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:12 -0500, John
wrote:

Christmas, and the fact that so many people get so much enjoyment from
the season, must really **** off the atheists.

Not only that.... it really ****es off a lot of Christians, because
they know it is celebrating a Pagan holiday with a ton of Pagan
trappings.... and they will do anything to prevent being guilty of
idolatrous worship....

... there are a lot of Christian children around here that will get no
presents and wouldn't want them, if they did.... there are Christian
homes with absolute prohibitions against anything associated with
Christmas.... no trees, no 12 days, no Yule log, no parades, no
exchanging gifts, no ornaments, no mistletoe, no green, no red, no
presents, no Santa, and *certainly* no eggnog. And you'll NEVER catch
THEM saying, "Merry Christmas."
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/...xmas/celeb.htm

Don't be so quick to paint all Christians with that broad brush.

Wow, and in my 50 years I have never met one, much less heard of one
trying to shut down my celebration... hummmmmm...

Me neither. But Gene has many living right around his house. Do you
reckon he polls the neighbors to see which are Christians, which
prohibit anything to do with Christmas, which don't say "Merry
Christmas", and so on.

Must be hard to get all those questions answered.

Nah, it is quite easy. I have in-laws that constantly want to *save*
me with their particular twist on "the way the truth and the light." I
don't have to ask to get questions answered.... you folks are usually
pretty "in your face" about what your Lord and God demandeth other
folks shall know and follow.

I have a tree and mistletoe, they don't.... go figure.....

You're just hoping you'll get kissed.

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:22:12 -0500, Gene
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:56:41 -0500, John H
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:56:01 -0500, I am Tosk
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:12 -0500, John H
wrote:

Christmas, and the fact that so many people get so much enjoyment from
the season, must really **** off the atheists.

Not only that.... it really ****es off a lot of Christians, because
they know it is celebrating a Pagan holiday with a ton of Pagan
trappings.... and they will do anything to prevent being guilty of
idolatrous worship....

... there are a lot of Christian children around here that will get no
presents and wouldn't want them, if they did.... there are Christian
homes with absolute prohibitions against anything associated with
Christmas.... no trees, no 12 days, no Yule log, no parades, no
exchanging gifts, no ornaments, no mistletoe, no green, no red, no
presents, no Santa, and *certainly* no eggnog. And you'll NEVER catch
THEM saying, "Merry Christmas."
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/...xmas/celeb.htm

Don't be so quick to paint all Christians with that broad brush.

Wow, and in my 50 years I have never met one, much less heard of one
trying to shut down my celebration... hummmmmm...

Me neither. But Gene has many living right around his house. Do you
reckon he polls the neighbors to see which are Christians, which
prohibit anything to do with Christmas, which don't say "Merry
Christmas", and so on.

Must be hard to get all those questions answered.

Nah, it is quite easy. I have in-laws that constantly want to *save*
me with their particular twist on "the way the truth and the light." I
don't have to ask to get questions answered.... you folks are usually
pretty "in your face" about what your Lord and God demandeth other
folks shall know and follow.

I have a tree and mistletoe, they don't.... go figure.....

Oh, yeah, I forgot.... some of the Quakers.... locally, the Quaker
college doesn't even have an American flag on campus! But I've got one
of those!

Have a Happy Holiday!

Thanks! Right back atcha!

Your phrase, "...there are a lot of Christian children around here..."
is what led to my comments above. I was wondering how you knew so much
about your neighbors.
--

John H

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:49:08 -0500, Gene
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:34:51 -0500, John H
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:22:12 -0500, Gene
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 08:56:41 -0500, John H
wrote:

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:56:01 -0500, I am Tosk
wrote:

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 15:59:12 -0500, John H
wrote:

Christmas, and the fact that so many people get so much enjoyment from
the season, must really **** off the atheists.

Not only that.... it really ****es off a lot of Christians, because
they know it is celebrating a Pagan holiday with a ton of Pagan
trappings.... and they will do anything to prevent being guilty of
idolatrous worship....

... there are a lot of Christian children around here that will get no
presents and wouldn't want them, if they did.... there are Christian
homes with absolute prohibitions against anything associated with
Christmas.... no trees, no 12 days, no Yule log, no parades, no
exchanging gifts, no ornaments, no mistletoe, no green, no red, no
presents, no Santa, and *certainly* no eggnog. And you'll NEVER catch
THEM saying, "Merry Christmas."
http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/...xmas/celeb.htm

Don't be so quick to paint all Christians with that broad brush.

Wow, and in my 50 years I have never met one, much less heard of one
trying to shut down my celebration... hummmmmm...

Me neither. But Gene has many living right around his house. Do you
reckon he polls the neighbors to see which are Christians, which
prohibit anything to do with Christmas, which don't say "Merry
Christmas", and so on.

Must be hard to get all those questions answered.

Nah, it is quite easy. I have in-laws that constantly want to *save*
me with their particular twist on "the way the truth and the light." I
don't have to ask to get questions answered.... you folks are usually
pretty "in your face" about what your Lord and God demandeth other
folks shall know and follow.

I have a tree and mistletoe, they don't.... go figure.....

Oh, yeah, I forgot.... some of the Quakers.... locally, the Quaker
college doesn't even have an American flag on campus! But I've got one
of those!

Have a Happy Holiday!

Thanks! Right back atcha!

Your phrase, "...there are a lot of Christian children around here..."
is what led to my comments above. I was wondering how you knew so much
about your neighbors.

I think all of my neighbors go to the Methodist church at the end of
our road. They aren't the nutcase variety, although at a restaurant
tonight, one nosy old broad (who I didn't even know) took us to task
(wife and son included) for not attending church often enough. I was
nice, you would have been proud...

So all those children to which you refer aren't from 'around here',
i.e. around you.

Probably 55% of this county is hard core, either Southern Baptist or
Primitive Baptist.

What I MEANT was that there are a lot of fundamentalist denominations
in this area, which I have already enumerated. I don't peer into my
neighbor's windows, I just know a lot about the denominations and
their rites. Why?

Why what?

My father owned a stone company and I have been to every church and
synagogue in (it seems) NC/SC/VA/TN that had a cemetery. I learned a
lot from all of those folks. I also graduated from a Methodist
college. I didn't drop down from another planet, with no experience in
the matter.....

Good for you.
--

John H

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:04:27 -0500, Gene
wrote:

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:04:56 -0500, John H
wrote:

So all those children to which you refer aren't from 'around here',
i.e. around you.

How literally do you want to take this? The folks in my immediate
neighborhood (houses I could see from my roof) go to that church.
Three miles to the east of me is a Primitive Baptist Church, three
miles to the west is some sort of "independent" Pentecostal church.
Those kids won't be doing Christmas.

Let me give you the numbers. This county covers 366 sq. miles, 6 miles
of that is water, so we have a total of 360 sq. miles of land that is
"potentially" habitable, though much of that is forested or farmed
land. There are at least 162 recorded congregations (the "independents
probably won't be counted). So, every church gets their 2.6 sq. miles
of followers. Obviously, that isn't terribly accurate, because the big
churches get more land.... leaving the small churches even smaller
patches of land to draw from. Small numbers make for isolationism and
that makes for some pretty weird, uh, "interpretations" of
scripture...

Do you maybe begin to see why this is called the Bible belt? Maybe
this place isn't like DC? I spent a LOT of time in Lanham and,
frankly, I didn't see this stuff, either. Maybe you've never BEEN
there? Ever been to a church where music was considered the devil's
work? Even been to a church where they don't pass a collection plate,
but palm the "tithe" to the pastor on the way out? Have you ever even
*heard* of shaped notes, or know why they are necessary? Ever been
*expected* to call the folks in your church "brother" or "sister"?
Have you ever been told that a member of the congregation is to be
shunned until the Pastor says otherwise?

Maybe you think these are things that happened "a long long time ago
in a galaxy far far away." Nope, seen all of these things with my own
eyes. Different, now? Nope... I've got similar horror stories for when
my son was in a Baptist School...... I know you would like things to
fit neatly into that tidy box.... fact is, they don't.

Very nicely explained. My answer to most of your questions, above, is
'no'. And, although it would be great if everything, including Iran's
nuclear ambitions and the belief the country will go bankrupt
'without' government health care, fit in a nice little box, I
understand that it doesn't.

I've been associated with only a few individuals from the 'radical'
Christian organizations. I've seen no reason to get as familiar with
them as you are. When the hard-core Bible thumpers come banging at my
door and persistently refuse to get the message, I ask them two
questions: Do they believe, literally, in Noahs Ark? When they answer
in the affirmative, I ask them who cleaned up all the crap in the
bottom. That works.
--

John H

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:04:56 -0500, John H
wrote:

So all those children to which you refer aren't from 'around here',
i.e. around you.

How literally do you want to take this? The folks in my immediate
neighborhood (houses I could see from my roof) go to that church.
Three miles to the east of me is a Primitive Baptist Church, three
miles to the west is some sort of "independent" Pentecostal church.
Those kids won't be doing Christmas.

Let me give you the numbers. This county covers 366 sq. miles, 6 miles
of that is water, so we have a total of 360 sq. miles of land that is
"potentially" habitable, though much of that is forested or farmed
land. There are at least 162 recorded congregations (the "independents
probably won't be counted). So, every church gets their 2.6 sq. miles
of followers. Obviously, that isn't terribly accurate, because the big
churches get more land.... leaving the small churches even smaller
patches of land to draw from. Small numbers make for isolationism and
that makes for some pretty weird, uh, "interpretations" of
scripture...

Do you maybe begin to see why this is called the Bible belt? Maybe
this place isn't like DC? I spent a LOT of time in Lanham and,
frankly, I didn't see this stuff, either. Maybe you've never BEEN
there? Ever been to a church where music was considered the devil's
work? Even been to a church where they don't pass a collection plate,
but palm the "tithe" to the pastor on the way out? Have you ever even
*heard* of shaped notes, or know why they are necessary? Ever been
*expected* to call the folks in your church "brother" or "sister"?
Have you ever been told that a member of the congregation is to be
shunned until the Pastor says otherwise?

Maybe you think these are things that happened "a long long time ago
in a galaxy far far away." Nope, seen all of these things with my own
eyes. Different, now? Nope... I've got similar horror stories for when
my son was in a Baptist School...... I know you would like things to
fit neatly into that tidy box.... fact is, they don't.

Time to move

On Dec 16, 6:49*pm, Gene wrote:


I think all of my neighbors go to the Methodist church at the end of
our road. They aren't the nutcase variety, although at a restaurant
tonight, one nosy old broad (who I didn't even know) took us to task
(wife and son included) for not attending church often enough. I was
nice, you would have been proud...

Being civil is nice. i soulnd't have a done like the elderly lady,
but i probably would have at least invited you and your family ( Like
I do at my home congregation) to our annual Christmas dinner. Just
show up and eat and enjoy!

Probably 55% of this county is hard core, either Southern Baptist or
Primitive Baptist.

Not all, but some can be a pretty stiff bunch!


What I MEANT was that there are a lot of fundamentalist denominations
in this area, which I have already enumerated. I don't peer into my
neighbor's windows, I just know a lot about the denominations and
their rites. Why?

My father owned a stone company and I have been to every church and
synagogue in (it seems) NC/SC/VA/TN that had a cemetery. I learned a
lot from all of those folks. I also graduated from a Methodist
college. I didn't drop down from another planet, with no experience in
the matter.....
--

Cool!


It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are
enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.
*-Thomas Sowell

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepage
*http://pamandgene.tranquilrefuge.net/boating/the_boat/my_boat.htm

Forté Agent 6.00 Build 1186

AN ATHEIST IN THE WOODS
An atheist was walking through the woods.

'What majestic trees!
'What powerful rivers!
'What beautiful animals!
He said to himself.


As he was walking alongside the river,he heard a rustling in
the bushes behind him.


He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards
him.

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his
shoulder & saw that the bear was closing in on him..


He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer.


He tripped & fell on the ground.


He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was
right on top of him, reaching for him with


his left paw & raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out,
'Oh my God!'

Time Stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was silent.


As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky..

'You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don't exist
and even credit creation to cosmic accident.'
'Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament?

Am I to count you as a believer?

The atheist looked directly into the light, 'It would be hypocritical
of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps
you could make the BEAR a Christian'?


'Very well,' said the voice.


The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And the bear
dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head &
spoke:

'Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty
through Christ our Lord, Amen.'