President Obama has announced that this year the White House will have a “holiday” tree instead of the traditional “Christmas” tree. This seems to have raised quite an uproar in the Christian community, and I have to admit, it really bothered me to an extent, as well. Then I began thinking about the symbolism of a Christmas tree and its origins and a different train of thought began to emerge. One only has to do a little research to find interesting facts about our tradition. First of all, decorating a tree during December is strictly a Pagan rite. The tree was originally set up outside and decorated with seeds, bread and other treats for the wildlife. Pagans believe that the Yule, approximately December 21st, is the beginning of the year as this is when the days grow longer. The tree was a celebration of this event, as well as the Yule log, which was supposed to be large enough to burn continuously throughout the 24 hour celebration. From the information I could find, the Christian community adopted this tradition in order to attract the Pagans to their faith. This was decided during the reign of Constantine, who saw his empire being torn apart because of warring religious factions. Constantine, who was Pagan himself, organized a council of religious leaders at Niceae in 325, three centuries after Christ’s death. These leaders voted on what rites and celebrations would be included in the Christian faith, as well as what writings were important enough to include in the official bible. Constantine converted to Christianity to keep his empire together and the newly reformed Christian faith was begun.
Since it is not recorded as to when the exact date of Christ’s birth, the Catholic Pope set December 25 as that time, and the event was celebrated as “Christ’s Mass” or “Christmas”. Personally, I don’t believe that Jesus was born in the heart of winter, but in the spring of the year. My reason for this belief is the mention of the shepherds watching over their flocks in the fields, which was more likely to be done in the warmer spring months.
So why would President Obama’s decision bother so many Christian? I believe it is because Christians feel their identity is being lost. America has always been a Christian country. With the influence of each new wave of immigrants, new beliefs and traditions are brought to this country, and we become more of a melting pot. I feel that our President is trying to show respect to all faiths in his actions. I would caution him, though, to not bend so far in trying to make this a country of all faiths that he loses sight of what has made this country last as long as it has under one government. The majority of Americans still have a basic belief in God and we live our lives according to our own personal relationships with him. I, as many of the Christian faith do, feel that our identity as a God-fearing nation is being slowly eroded into a cacophony of differing faiths, gods, beliefs, and traditions. An event which I feel will, in time, bring this great country to its knees.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
The Question of God's Existence
My younger sister and I were having a conversation the other day, which isn’t really unusual. Somehow the subject came around to God. My sister is a decided agnostic; I, on the other hand, feel there just has to be some kind of higher power out there.
Her argument for being a non believer is that how could some wonderful, benevolent being, which is in charge of it all let all the terrible things happen in the world. This is a common argument among agnostics, and I do see their point. Sometimes it is very hard to have the faith that there is someone out there watching over us.
She also makes the point that with all the religions out there being in such conflict with each other, how one would be able to find a “true” one. Of course, each church believes that they have the truth and the others are just muddling along.
Let me give you a little background on how we were raised, and you might see how we come to have such divergent beliefs.
My mother was raised in a strict Christian household. As a child, though, I believe we went to whatever church sent a bus around to pick us up. I remember attending services at Nazarene, Baptist, and Church of Christ; all of which proclaimed they had the true gospel and you would need to be baptized according to their tenants in order to be saved. This sounded rather complicated to a young girl and I couldn’t see why a baptism in one church would be any better than any other.
My father didn’t really have any belief at all. I know my great grandfather attended a church, but I don’t really recall the rest of the family following his lead.
My mother is now Pentecostal, and very happy in her choice, which is fine for her.
I lean toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and am indeed of member, but I do have some problems with how some members interpret scripture. My main problem is when my husband died at the age of 55, many felt I should begin sitting with the widows and living accordingly. I did not feel the same and have had some great difficulty in even attending church for the past seven years.
The real issue seems to be that everyone believes that they are the one and only true religion and only those who come to believe as they do are considered believers. Some faiths even go so far as to be intent on wiping out all they consider unbelievers, which make everything even more confusing.
I have come to realize that faith and religion is not the same thing. Each of us must have our personal relationship with a higher power, whether that is Confucius, Mohammed, Christ, Buddha, or the myriad of others that we, on earth, believe in.
My personal relationship is with Christ, even if I don’t feel that it is the same as others of my religion. I have to believe that there is something better on the other side of this life. Otherwise, what reason is there to live? I generally feel that my life here has been one of darkness, with tiny spots of light; the birth of my children and grandchildren, and meeting my third husband, who was the love of my life. Other than that, I do not feel particularly blessed even when I was living exactly as I was told I should be living. My husband still died less than a year after we had married, my eldest children lost their father, as well, in a motorcycle accident which made no sense, and my great nephew, Jesse, whom we all viewed as a shining star, was killed in a freak accident. I do see my sister’s point.
This is why I must believe that if I can just get through this life and keep faith that there is something better, so I will not go crazy. Since there is no way of actually proving one side of this argument or the other, I guess we’ll all just have to wait to see who was actually right.
Her argument for being a non believer is that how could some wonderful, benevolent being, which is in charge of it all let all the terrible things happen in the world. This is a common argument among agnostics, and I do see their point. Sometimes it is very hard to have the faith that there is someone out there watching over us.
She also makes the point that with all the religions out there being in such conflict with each other, how one would be able to find a “true” one. Of course, each church believes that they have the truth and the others are just muddling along.
Let me give you a little background on how we were raised, and you might see how we come to have such divergent beliefs.
My mother was raised in a strict Christian household. As a child, though, I believe we went to whatever church sent a bus around to pick us up. I remember attending services at Nazarene, Baptist, and Church of Christ; all of which proclaimed they had the true gospel and you would need to be baptized according to their tenants in order to be saved. This sounded rather complicated to a young girl and I couldn’t see why a baptism in one church would be any better than any other.
My father didn’t really have any belief at all. I know my great grandfather attended a church, but I don’t really recall the rest of the family following his lead.
My mother is now Pentecostal, and very happy in her choice, which is fine for her.
I lean toward the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and am indeed of member, but I do have some problems with how some members interpret scripture. My main problem is when my husband died at the age of 55, many felt I should begin sitting with the widows and living accordingly. I did not feel the same and have had some great difficulty in even attending church for the past seven years.
The real issue seems to be that everyone believes that they are the one and only true religion and only those who come to believe as they do are considered believers. Some faiths even go so far as to be intent on wiping out all they consider unbelievers, which make everything even more confusing.
I have come to realize that faith and religion is not the same thing. Each of us must have our personal relationship with a higher power, whether that is Confucius, Mohammed, Christ, Buddha, or the myriad of others that we, on earth, believe in.
My personal relationship is with Christ, even if I don’t feel that it is the same as others of my religion. I have to believe that there is something better on the other side of this life. Otherwise, what reason is there to live? I generally feel that my life here has been one of darkness, with tiny spots of light; the birth of my children and grandchildren, and meeting my third husband, who was the love of my life. Other than that, I do not feel particularly blessed even when I was living exactly as I was told I should be living. My husband still died less than a year after we had married, my eldest children lost their father, as well, in a motorcycle accident which made no sense, and my great nephew, Jesse, whom we all viewed as a shining star, was killed in a freak accident. I do see my sister’s point.
This is why I must believe that if I can just get through this life and keep faith that there is something better, so I will not go crazy. Since there is no way of actually proving one side of this argument or the other, I guess we’ll all just have to wait to see who was actually right.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Hunting - Sport or Not
Today I had occasion to do some shopping in one of our local farm stores. My youngest son, whose favorite pastime is browsing this top of market, took me on the grand tour. I say grand tour, but I’d been in the store before only I normally just get what I came in for and leave. This time he insisted we walk every aisle; including the hunting aisle.
Now, I was raised in a hunting family. Dad always bought his deer and elk tags and we depended on this meat to get us through the year. Once or twice in the fall my uncles and my dad would get together to hunt dove, quail, pheasant, sage grouse and cottontail rabbit. When I got old enough to hunt with Dad I would go along and help clean and carry whatever was on the agenda for that season. I can remember walking for several hours behind my dad as he tracked a deer or elk, and learning to stop immediately when he said to. You see, my dad had learned to watch for the game bird’s eye to blink. I could walk all day and not see a thing, but Daddy always came home with a full limit to put in the freezer. We were the same with fishing. We didn’t keep anything that wasn’t big enough to eat, and we ate what we were fishing for.
So today, as I was saying we were cruising through this farm store and now I’m paying attention to the stuff in the hunting aisles. Game blinds, deer stands, deer corn, you name it, they had it. Okay, I think, what the heck do they need all this stuff for? Well, here in Oklahoma as in some other states, all this stuff is legal to use to hunt wildlife. Which brings me to another that is legal here. Game farms where you tell the owner what you want to hunt for, they turn it loose in a certain area, show where they turned it loose, then you “hunt” it. The majority of this stuff is actually raised on the farm, is used to human contact, and probably wouldn’t understand that somebody was going to hunt it if you told it.
Let me state this plainly: I am not against hunting. My family has relied on it to help put food on the table for as long as I can remember. I think hunting is a wonderful way of managing our wildlife and the revenue it brings in is very much needed by the agencies to which the task has been given. However, placing bait out for wildlife then sitting comfortably in a stand while the deer comes to you is NOT hunting. Privately held game farms and ranches where the wildlife is hand raised then released for someone who refers to himself as a sportsman is not hunting in my book either; culling, maybe, but not hunting. Let’s not mix up hunting with sports.
Sports are games. We cheer for our favorite team, or play the game ourselves. We wear the colors of our team. We go out to a stadium and enjoy hotdogs, peanuts, chips, beer, etc. We host tailgate parties. Enjoying sports is inviting the gang over to watch football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc., on our brand new big screen TV.
Hunting is just that. It’s going out early in the morning, seeing your breath steam in the frosty air, and tracking your game. Walking, for hours sometimes, just to see an animal’s tracks in the frost or snow are hunting. You only take what you’re going to eat, and don’t worry how big the rack is on that elk, or how it’s going to look above the fireplace. There’s no guarantee you’re going to bag your limit in hunting. You don’t even get the guarantee you’ll see your prey. If you’re lucky; you’ve got a good guide, or done your homework before the season starts and know where the good game trails are; the weather is with you; and you make a decent shot – that’s hunting.
Now, I was raised in a hunting family. Dad always bought his deer and elk tags and we depended on this meat to get us through the year. Once or twice in the fall my uncles and my dad would get together to hunt dove, quail, pheasant, sage grouse and cottontail rabbit. When I got old enough to hunt with Dad I would go along and help clean and carry whatever was on the agenda for that season. I can remember walking for several hours behind my dad as he tracked a deer or elk, and learning to stop immediately when he said to. You see, my dad had learned to watch for the game bird’s eye to blink. I could walk all day and not see a thing, but Daddy always came home with a full limit to put in the freezer. We were the same with fishing. We didn’t keep anything that wasn’t big enough to eat, and we ate what we were fishing for.
So today, as I was saying we were cruising through this farm store and now I’m paying attention to the stuff in the hunting aisles. Game blinds, deer stands, deer corn, you name it, they had it. Okay, I think, what the heck do they need all this stuff for? Well, here in Oklahoma as in some other states, all this stuff is legal to use to hunt wildlife. Which brings me to another that is legal here. Game farms where you tell the owner what you want to hunt for, they turn it loose in a certain area, show where they turned it loose, then you “hunt” it. The majority of this stuff is actually raised on the farm, is used to human contact, and probably wouldn’t understand that somebody was going to hunt it if you told it.
Let me state this plainly: I am not against hunting. My family has relied on it to help put food on the table for as long as I can remember. I think hunting is a wonderful way of managing our wildlife and the revenue it brings in is very much needed by the agencies to which the task has been given. However, placing bait out for wildlife then sitting comfortably in a stand while the deer comes to you is NOT hunting. Privately held game farms and ranches where the wildlife is hand raised then released for someone who refers to himself as a sportsman is not hunting in my book either; culling, maybe, but not hunting. Let’s not mix up hunting with sports.
Sports are games. We cheer for our favorite team, or play the game ourselves. We wear the colors of our team. We go out to a stadium and enjoy hotdogs, peanuts, chips, beer, etc. We host tailgate parties. Enjoying sports is inviting the gang over to watch football, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc., on our brand new big screen TV.
Hunting is just that. It’s going out early in the morning, seeing your breath steam in the frosty air, and tracking your game. Walking, for hours sometimes, just to see an animal’s tracks in the frost or snow are hunting. You only take what you’re going to eat, and don’t worry how big the rack is on that elk, or how it’s going to look above the fireplace. There’s no guarantee you’re going to bag your limit in hunting. You don’t even get the guarantee you’ll see your prey. If you’re lucky; you’ve got a good guide, or done your homework before the season starts and know where the good game trails are; the weather is with you; and you make a decent shot – that’s hunting.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Politicizing of the Olympics
You’ve probably heard that we – meaning Chicago – missed out as hosts to the 2012 Olympics. I know I’d seen a couple of news blurbs before the voting had started, mostly featuring Michelle Obama courting those responsible for the decision. I hadn’t really thought of the Olympics as being anything more than sports highest goal; the best and most elite athletes of the world bringing home the gold, not which country gets to host. I know, I know, there’s the prestige and, of course, the revenue that comes along with hosting the Olympics. But, blaming our DEMOCRAT president and his cabinet because obviously someone has screwed up something that should have been such a simple task, since Chicago lost out in the first round, come on people, that’s just absurd. Now why would all the reporters, bloggers, etc. swarm such a subject as being political, or even noteworthy? The Olympics have nothing to do with politics…
Hmmm, well now let me think, didn’t something political happen with the Olympics way back in history somewhere? Oh yeah, in Berlin’s 1936 Olympics didn’t Hitler storm out when Jesse Owens, a black athlete, won four gold medals in track and field. Kind of screwed up that old Arian Nation thing about being the best, didn’t it? But we’re too enlightened for that kind of thing now. There’s no reason for those kinds of tantrums. Oh yeah, didn’t some country boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a protest of the USSR invading Afghanistan? Umm, I think that was us, wasn’t it? How embarrassing. And to think, those irresponsible, mean old Russians boycotted us right back during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. How dare they!
Well, I guess if you want to get right down to brass tacks, the Olympics had a political undertone as early as A.D. 394 when Emperor Theodosius had to abolish them due to bitter relations between the Romans and the Greeks. In 1896 the US didn’t even compete as official representatives. A ten man team barely made it to Athens in time to participate. Another political move that was highly debatable was the cancelation of Jim Thorpe’s 1912 record of winning both the decathlon and pentathlon because he had played professional baseball; a move that was reversed in 1983.
So the question now should be when are we going to get along without all those nasty invisible political lines drawn in the sand? Losing out on hosting the Olympics in Chicago was nothing more than the rest of the world wanting to hold them in Rio. It wasn’t a political statement that I can see. I honestly don’t think the rest of the world really cares which political party is in the white house, only what we, as a country, do that affects their little corner. You would think that since humankind has reached space and found out that earth is more a beautiful blue gem floating in the darkness, than a bunch of little lines which no one can really see, all of us would be more inclined to consider this our planet over whatever political view we might have.
Hmmm, well now let me think, didn’t something political happen with the Olympics way back in history somewhere? Oh yeah, in Berlin’s 1936 Olympics didn’t Hitler storm out when Jesse Owens, a black athlete, won four gold medals in track and field. Kind of screwed up that old Arian Nation thing about being the best, didn’t it? But we’re too enlightened for that kind of thing now. There’s no reason for those kinds of tantrums. Oh yeah, didn’t some country boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a protest of the USSR invading Afghanistan? Umm, I think that was us, wasn’t it? How embarrassing. And to think, those irresponsible, mean old Russians boycotted us right back during the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics. How dare they!
Well, I guess if you want to get right down to brass tacks, the Olympics had a political undertone as early as A.D. 394 when Emperor Theodosius had to abolish them due to bitter relations between the Romans and the Greeks. In 1896 the US didn’t even compete as official representatives. A ten man team barely made it to Athens in time to participate. Another political move that was highly debatable was the cancelation of Jim Thorpe’s 1912 record of winning both the decathlon and pentathlon because he had played professional baseball; a move that was reversed in 1983.
So the question now should be when are we going to get along without all those nasty invisible political lines drawn in the sand? Losing out on hosting the Olympics in Chicago was nothing more than the rest of the world wanting to hold them in Rio. It wasn’t a political statement that I can see. I honestly don’t think the rest of the world really cares which political party is in the white house, only what we, as a country, do that affects their little corner. You would think that since humankind has reached space and found out that earth is more a beautiful blue gem floating in the darkness, than a bunch of little lines which no one can really see, all of us would be more inclined to consider this our planet over whatever political view we might have.
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