President Obama skips church on Christmas...along with almost half of the country.
Conservatives are up in arms because President Obama did not attend church on Christmas. Hold on and wait for it because here comes all the "he's a muslim!" malarky. You know who I'm talking about. They are the same people who also say his birth certificate is fake. However, ask one of them to prove their certificate isn't fake and guaranteed they can't. Hey geniuses! Why are you mad about him not attending church if you are positive he's a Muslim?
I think giving the man who is the leader of the free world a little slack when it comes to missing an hour in church on December 25th is more than ok. The job has to be the most stressful and let's face it, when the president is on "vacation," he's really not. He still does what he needs to do. He just does it in Hawaii rather then the White House. President Bush did the same from Crawford. People giving any president grief for going golfing is really not taking in consideration that amount of stress that is being relieved when taking a little break from the job. Don't worry. I'm sure there is a little red button somewhere on the golf bag so he can blow up the world whenever he wants.The moral of the story is who cares? Depending on who's poll you look at you can spin vacation time any way you want with any president.
NOW BACK TO CHRISTMAS...
A pew survery (link below) talks about christians and their church-going habits. Let's talk about people who consider themselves christian.
The definition of christian means: christ-like. A true christian is someone who reads the bible and follows it's teachings every day without fail. They usually go to church every Sunday and even may attend bible studies or youth groups.
The definition of a "Christmas Christian" (that's what I call them) are the people who only attend church on Christmas or Easter. They will tell you that "oh yes, I'm a christian. I don't go to church but I believe in God." Guess what? That doesn't make you a christian. It makes you a non-athiest.They have no knowledge of what is in the bible or what their beliefs should be. They just know that it is politically correct to say they are christians because being atheist or agnostic is frowned upon..for now.
A Pew survey this month finds that only 54 percent of Christians attend religious services on Christmas, and just a little over one-half of Christians consider it to be more of a religious holiday than a cultural one. It also takes note of the generation gap in religious views of the holiday. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/18/celebrating-christmas-and-the-holidays-then-and-now
Apparently the younger generation is getting more and more complacent about not attending church on Christmas as well. Not only that but they don't even consider it a religious holiday.
Adults under age 30 are far less likely than older Americans to say they see Christmas as more of a religious than a cultural holiday. They are also less likely to attend Christmas religious services and to believe in the virgin birth… the new survey also shows that even among Christians, young people are more likely than older adults to view Christmas as more of a cultural than a religious holiday. *Mediate.com
Times are changing at a very rapid pace. The christmas we had in the 1950's, 60's,70's and 80's is no longer what we have now. The under-commercialization of the holiday when we were kids is just a weak memory that shall never be duplicated. The special days of waiting and waiting for Rudolph to air on tv and sitting down with the whole family to watch it is gone. Now you can buy Rudolph and Its a Wonderful Life and watch it anytime you want. Buying decorations on December 1st is gone. Now they are sold in August. Christmas music used to be played between Dec 1st and New Years in stores and now I'm sick of it by the time Thanksgiving rolls around. All stores were closed Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now you can shop all day and still get your Starbucks late at 3pm on Christmas Day (I know because that's what I did). There were original toys that were made well and lasted years and now kids get crap that breaks and most of the toys are just knock offs of the toys of 30 years ago. Whatever happened to the christmas lists we gave mom and dad with a short list of toys? Now parents go and buy hundreds of dollars worth of toys and electronics because they are afraid their kid's christmas will be ruined if they don't. I got five or six gifts total and they were always great gifts. If I didn't get what I wanted it just meant mom and dad didn't have the money. I was ok with it.
Other highlights from the survey include:
- Among the religiously unaffiliated, 87% say they celebrate Christmas, including 68% who view Christmas as more of a cultural holiday.
- Roughly eight-in-ten Americans (79%) say they plan to put up a Christmas tree this year. By comparison, 92% say they typically put up a Christmas tree when they were children.
- Nearly six-in-ten Americans say they plan to give homemade gifts this holiday season, such as baked goods or crafts. There is a big gender gap on this question; two-thirds of women (65%) plan to give homemade gifts, compared with 51% of men.
- Those who celebrate Christmas as more of a religious event are much more apt than those who view it as a cultural occasion to say they will attend religious services this Christmas (73% vs. 30%) and to believe in the virgin birth (91% vs. 50%). But on other measures, the differences in the ways the two groups will mark the holidays are much smaller. Roughly nine-in-ten in both groups will gather with family and friends and buy gifts this Christmas, and identical shares of each group will pretend to get a visit from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve (33% each).
I know this was supposed to be about Obama not going to church but the way we are heading, it's not going to be such a big deal. Besides, Muslims don't go to church on christmas...right?
