This one showed up in my feed and before I had a chance to watch the video I penned & posted the following response: Wow, how incredibly unChristian for this organization to claim the winter holiday as their own proprietary domain. It’s almost as bad as those times I’ve heard some say that you can’t know real Love if you don’t know Jesus, as if Love originated with what was a First Century Jewish sect. Amazing and very narrow minded. As far as I can tell, I don’t think the Jesus depicted in the Book of Matthew would approve of this message of exclusion and ownership of a season set aside to for us come together and show our connection and love for one another. But, then again, maybe they believe in a different Jesus.

Then I watched the attached video by the Friendly Atheist, Hemant Mehta: 

Hemant isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, and the video (clip) could have easily been about 15-minutes shorter. I decided to do a little background check on the story before posting to my website and that was quite the rabbit hole. I was three pages deep into the google search before I found a News site link, CBS News, but it was from 2010, perhaps one of the last times these two organizations caught anyone’s attention. Most of the prior links were from the Catholic League or FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation) directly, or X/Reddit/Facebook links (WHICH ARE NOT NEWS SOURCES!). 

My conclusion: yeah, this billboard was put up by a conservative Catholic-adjacent organization and expresses none of the values said to have come from the person they believe was born several thousand years ago. Based on the reporting of Hemant Mehta, the leader of the Catholic League gets a large yearly compensation that insulates him from any kind of suffering or worry that many may be facing during this winter season. Maybe that’s why he can’t imagine that the message of the season is meant to inspire bringing in the stranger and the one who isn’t from your tribe to find rest and fellowship and compassion. Or maybe, just as I posited above, he just believes in a different (heartless) Jesus. 

Sources:

Tags: anti-xmas cheer, different Jesus, in bad faith, meditations on, no war on xmas

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