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Santa Claus or SATAN cause
by Lewis McNeely on Thursday, Dec 10th, 2009 at 01:10 pm
After discussion from the FB masses I had an epiphany. I had been asking the question: If the current meaning of a tradition or celebration is far removed from the original meaning then does the original meaning matter? In terms of good and evil, if the original evil meaning was what made something evil, would the now good meaning not now make that same thing good? Of course this is only in neutral cases where the act or celebration is truly neutral. For example; wearing a hat is neutral in terms of good an evil. But say... hats in Alaska were originally conceived as a way to identify with the dark underworld. Now in modern times, hats are simply a way to keep heat in. SInce hat wearing is spiritually neutral then it could only be its current meaning that determines whether it is bad or good. Take another example. Robin Hood (first registered democrat by the way. Just kidding.) says he steals from the rich to give to the poor. Since stealing is not a spiritually neutral action but a clearly immoral action, then no matter what meaning is assigned to it, it will always be morally wrong. Now lets bring it into the original discussion. Santa according to tradition and verifiable data without a doubt has his origins in evil paganism. But years later in the US, the meaning of Santa is entirely benevolent. Paganism is not the meaning assigned to him today. So because a kind old man bringing gifts to children is not an inherently evil action then the only thing that can determine whether the tradition is good or bad would seem to be the meaning assigned to it today by those who practice it. Christians who do (and should) have an interest in the morality of the events they participate in many times struggle with whether an item, event, book or movie is going to be harmful to them or their children. My thinking is to look at from scripture. Is God opposed to it or the message it is trying to teach? Is the action itself noted as sin? Paul mentions there are some disputable matters that believers debate. Paul noted some of these as: whether we eat meat or only vegetables, whether one day is celebrated as a Sabbath or everyday. Here are his thoughts from Romans 14:1 Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. So what do we do with Santa? Well, I am convinced that the concept of a benevolent person bringing gifts to children around the world is harmless in itself. The issue to me is not whether it has pagan origins. The issue that I personally see as a problem with Santa is two fold; the first being the issue of lying to our kids. Some say that because the meaning is good the lying is acceptable. Well, in my family it is not. The other issue is Santa is certainly a distraction to the celebration of Christ's births. Now here is the part that will really ruffle the fur on some sacred cows. There is nothing in scripture I know of that says Christians have to celebrate the birth of Christ. In fact, in taking communion we are celebrating His death. 1 Cor 11. For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. I do feel it's totally cool to celebrate every aspect of the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet Paul said he preached Christ and Him crucified. Once again emphasis on the death part. So I am not certain that we as believers have to be so bent out of shape about Santa stealing away focus from a holiday that we actual stole from paganism in the first place. Do I think Santa should win out? No, not by any means. Yet I am not going to be upset at all the attention Santa gets for 3 weeks of the year when I can give 52 weeks of the year to celebrating the life of Christ. So back to the origins thing. I like what Michael Morrison says here on http://www.wcg.org/lit/church/holidays/paganism.htm. He notes "So the question arises, How careful must we be in weeding paganisms out of our lives? Where do we draw the line? The answer is, different Christians draw the line in different places. We need to allow some diversity on these issues. Some conservative churches used to forbid wedding rings. Some forbid Christmas and Easter. They are careful to do what God says, and if God tells them to avoid paganism, then they carefully do it. Some are so careful that they err on the side of forbidding too much — but they err. They make commands about things that God doesn't command. That is a sin". So bottom line to me is I think the meaning behind any spiritually neutral action or event is determined by the current meaning not the original. Emphasis on "spiritually neutral" No amount of changing the meaning of sinful acts will ever make those acts acceptable to God (or me).

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