Back! and a LITTLE about Christmas

Well, I've finally been able to gain computer access. For now. SO, the Week in Review:

My reign as King of the Blogs was a short one, thanks to a substandard challenge post on my part. I still could have won if I had gotten more votes at the site, but I lost by 0.5 points. Thanks to the four of you who voted or me!

Now to get back to "business", whatever that means.

My wife is reading Fank Schaeffer's Faith of Our Sons, which is an awesome book. I'm looking forward to reading it when she gets done. Some of the things she's read to me really remind me of what I've read of his father -- especially his reaction to people who are "thinking about" our troops, rather than coming right out and saying "praying for" them. I'll have more on this later, and a full review will show up at The Pew Reviews fter I get to read it.

There's a pretty good story about the real Santa Claus here, and an atheist talks about finding "spirituality" at Christmas -- even if you don't believe in God -- here. I think that's wonderful and all, but I still wish that people would just get their own holiday, and keep their hands off of mine. You don't believe in what the day is all about, don't celebrate it. I'm sure that some creative atheist could come up with something they could celebrate at about the same time of year. Of course, as I've mentioned before, I also wish that Christians would take their holidays seriously, and actually remember that there was a purpose to them beyond getting presents -- and giving presents. Of course, if we're going to get away from any religious recognition at all, we'd have to get rid of the word 'holiday' -- comes from holy day, after all.

The Decatur Daily has the right idea, but they miss the point with this sentence: "Our weeks of celebrating can add to the event if we keep in mind that Christ came to earth to offer mankind a new code by which to live."

He did much more than that. If all we do is live by His teachings, and ignore who He was, and what He came to do, we miss the real point of His teachings. He came to die, and to conquer death, and by doing so made it possible for man to be reconciled with God. We can't do it on our own -- we can't even figure out how to do it ourselves, and we've spent millenia trying. Christ died and rose again so that we don't have to keep trying.