Let’s start with the bad news: in honour of China’s economic rise, a Chinese-looking woman was the first Christmas Grinch here in the States. The sourpuss teacher in upper New York ruined the Christmas spirit for a class full of seven- and eight-year-olds when she told them that there is no Santa Claus, and that the presents under their trees did not come from the North Pole and St Nick but were put there by their parents. Boo, you stupid woman, it’s outrageous that a teacher would strip children of their innocence and demystify something as precious as Christmas.
Then there’s always the Brooklyn Museum and its annual attack on Christian sensibilities in the name of free speech with its disgusting exhibition whose name I will not mention. The show features a video in which ants crawl over a bloody crucifix and Jesus. The author of this crap fortunately died of Aids 15 years ago, but the museum’s director, one Arnold Lehman, includes it in order to show how trendy he is. He also went running to the Feds once he lost 35 per cent of its endowment on the stock market. My heart bleeds. He is the vile one who once showed a painting of the Virgin Mary made of elephant dung and pornographic photos. Not to worry. Most people involved with that outrage are dead or dying. The Almighty has a way of dealing with such scum.
Then there are those sports announcers who make fun every time a white professional football player — one of the rare college graduates who can read and write and play football — goes down on one knee and says a very brief and silent prayer after scoring a touchdown. Just imagine those blowhards if a Muslim — which many of the black football players are — did the same thing. They’d probably shut up in their soundproof booths in silent respect. They’d be scared shitless to make fun of them. Only Christians need apply. There are black footballers who are ex-cons, but only Tim Tebow is singled out as being…a Christian. He is lampooned as a freak. Some freak. In the meantime, he has a long winning streak going for him, which drives the jerks in the booths nuts.
Mind you, Jesus Christ is the only man who is still hated after 2,000 years. This in itself does not prove the divinity of our Lord Jesus, but it does show that his words and example haven’t dated. They still have an amazing power to provoke hatred as well as adoration. Of course those expressing the hatred of Christ usually pretend it is directed at side targets, like the institutional Church or organised religion. But why would anyone object to a man preaching an innocuous message of benevolence? Many of his followers died under torture to bear witness to him after the Resurrection. These martyrs were the principal human message of Christianity in its infancy, deeply impressing and finally converting millions.
And look at it another way. The four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, as well as Paul’s epistles, portray the same recognisable man. Never have so many writers managed to convey the same impression of the same human being over and over again. That Jesus exuded holiness is no secret. And although the Gospels were written by non-professionals, they include more truth and power than you find in Homer and Dante and Milton put together. Coming indirectly to us as they do, they have endured like no others, their durability all the more striking when one considers the fads and fashions the secular world goes through.
Pascal calculated the odds of eternal bliss and concluded that if one erroneously believes in God one loses nothing at the end; whereas if one correctly believes in God one gains everything, which is eternal bliss. Blaize Pascal was a mathematician and philosopher and figured out the odds, and I’m very happy that he did because it means theological illiterates and shrill disbelievers will end up with eternal damnation. Publicity freaks like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are not in for a good time, while I’m laughing all the way to church. People like Dawkins have never engaged with religion in a serious manner. They are shoddy self-proclaimed scholars who can only doubt and proclaim their doubts as proof of the absence of God and Christ. Give me a real scholar like Pascal, who proved mathematically that one cannot go wrong by believing in God.
Mind you, while 92 per cent of Americans believe in God, only 35 per cent in Britain do. No wonder the weather is so bad; even God at times plays favourites. Sophisticated Brits, especially Guardian readers, make fun of American mega-churches and the like, but just look at what the C of E has done for Britain and then go find a quiet corner, if that is possible in overcrowded, bleak Britain, and cry. British churches lie empty and depressing, whereas American ones are thriving and happy places. Britain exports reality shows and freaks, while in America the spirit of Jesus lives on, or at least is debated in the public arena.
In any case, I don’t know of many places in America where one can stand up, insult the Christian religion and announce the future demise of the Republic through force of arms. So-called Imams, those extremely ugly, hairy creatures, do that daily in Britain, then pick up their welfare cheques and go to their miserable homes for pilaf. The Brits should wake up. Revert to being a Christian, English-speaking nation and throw the bums out. And for the 35th year, I wish all Speccie readers a very happy Christmas.
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