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‘Kids, there is no Santa’: Pastor unloads on families waiting to take Christmas photo

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The first Christmas? Lolwut, again Jesus wasn't even born on the 25th of December

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JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
If I'm getting down with an imaginary friend, I'm gonna get down with the one that brings me presents. Thanks for the info, though.
 

adj_noun

Member
“Kids, I want to tell you today that there is no such thing as Santa Claus,” the man tells people waiting in line for Christmas photos at the Westgate Mall in Amarillo, Tex. “Santa Claus does not exist. The Christmas season is about Jesus."

...
 

Lucreto

Member
If there was one person I would like to pepper spray it would be this guy.

I doubt anyone would help him recover either.

What annoys me even more that he had his phone out to record anyone that would approach him.
 
Oh wow. I mean, yeah the Christmas season is usually celebrated for Jesus as well as other reasons that I really shouldn't go into detail but others need me to or they assume the wrong thing, but he wasn't even born on Christmas. Then again it's not a well known fact and certain Christians blow up if you tell them that. I believe in Jesus but there is room for Santa too.
 
Oh wow. I mean, yeah the Christmas season is usually celebrated for Jesus, but he wasn't even born on Christmas. Then again it's not a well known fact and certain Christians blow up if you tell them that. I believe in Jesus but there is room for Santa too.

It is?

In my experience, Santa and gifts >>>>> Jesus.
 
Oh wow. I mean, yeah the Christmas season is usually celebrated for Jesus, but he wasn't even born on Christmas. Then again it's not a well known fact and certain Christians blow up if you tell them that. I believe in Jesus but there is room for Santa too.

Chirstmas existed as a celebration before the title of "Christmas" became a thing.
 

deadlast

Member
I don't like Santa Claus and how parents raise their kids believing in a lie before finally telling them/or kids find out by themselves.
Now I will get 100 replies about how this is the same as religion, which I disagree with
But, this man doesn't have the right to go around meddling in other people's business.
How else do you teach your kids to spot a con?
 

tebunker

Banned
Oh wow. I mean, yeah the Christmas season is usually celebrated for Jesus, but he wasn't even born on Christmas. Then again it's not a well known fact and certain Christians blow up if you tell them that. I believe in Jesus but there is room for Santa too.

Chirstmas existed as a celebration before the title of "Christmas" became a thing.

It is?

In my experience, Santa and gifts >>>>> Jesus.



It is times like this that I am amazed people forget that Google exists and instead rely on recency biases.

Like for reals, the world we know today has only really been this way for roughly 40 years. Our "traditions" and normalcies that we take for granted are barely a scratch in even American history.

Some simple searches and research will show that the timing around the Winter Solstice was a pagan celebration and Co-opted by the Catholic Church. Hell, most if not all religious holidays come from Catholicism, and for the most parts Protestant-sects didn't even celebrate these holidays until the 20th century. Look up easter for some interesting stuff.

Anyway, take some time, look some stuff up, read some conflicting research. It actually is pretty darn interesting.
 

BibiMaghoo

Member
I feel like that is disturbing the peace, by definition, and that he could be arrested for it here. He is not trying to educate the children with his beliefs but destroy children's beliefs and annoy parents.
 
I think it's great that he's preventing people from lying to their children, but someone should tell him that his parents lied to him about God.
 

Ogodei

Member
How is Santa creating toys from nothing functionally different from The Sermon on the Mount?

I'm not particularly anti-religion, because the true people of faith (unlike this self-important windbag in the OP) do a lot of good work in this world, but you really shouldn't compare your fantastical stories favorably to other fantastical stories.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
On the one hand I'm okay with telling kids about the reality about Santa Claus as soon as possible.

On the other hand the fact that this pastor is still parading the idea that the holidays are about Jesus Christ and not an attempt by a Roman emperor to bring Pagans into Christianity is lultastic.
 

Sheroking

Member
It is times like this that I am amazed people forget that Google exists and instead rely on recency biases.

Like for reals, the world we know today has only really been this way for roughly 40 years. Our "traditions" and normalcies that we take for granted are barely a scratch in even American history.

Some simple searches and research will show that the timing around the Winter Solstice was a pagan celebration and Co-opted by the Catholic Church. Hell, most if not all religious holidays come from Catholicism, and for the most parts Protestant-sects didn't even celebrate these holidays until the 20th century. Look up easter for some interesting stuff.

Anyway, take some time, look some stuff up, read some conflicting research. It actually is pretty darn interesting.

Even recently, Christmas has become as much of a secular holiday as it is a religious one. Consumerism, neutral ornaments and a mythology quite separate from Jesus are all major parts of the season.

I'm not sure the name "Jesus" has ever come up during my family Christmases and I'm the only atheist in the bunch.
 

n0razi

Member
"My wife and I, we go to gay bars, we go to porn shops. If you’re going to be a fisher of men, you’ve got to go where the fish are."



Props for that at least lol
 
It is times like this that I am amazed people forget that Google exists and instead rely on recency biases.

Like for reals, the world we know today has only really been this way for roughly 40 years. Our "traditions" and normalcies that we take for granted are barely a scratch in even American history.

Some simple searches and research will show that the timing around the Winter Solstice was a pagan celebration and Co-opted by the Catholic Church. Hell, most if not all religious holidays come from Catholicism, and for the most parts Protestant-sects didn't even celebrate these holidays until the 20th century. Look up easter for some interesting stuff.

Anyway, take some time, look some stuff up, read some conflicting research. It actually is pretty darn interesting.

My post had nothing to do with the history the holiday and traditions, which I already know very well and everything to do with how it's perceived and celebrated today. There's no other point that needed to be made here.
 

shira

Member
There's a lot of hard core Christians around here that hate Christmas and what it has become. They have their beliefs but would never press them on others or kids.
 
I appreciate the fact that you wanted to spot the errors about what I said but maybe I should have been more clearer. Christmas, at least the majority in my area, has been more synonymous with Christ but of course there are other traditions and religions involved. Yes I know that it wasn't like that originally but I'm not here to type a long post detailing the history of everything I put. Would be very annoying haha. Some even celebrate the Holidays with no religious background at all and that's okay. Again, I know that not everyone celebrates The Holidays cause of Baby Jesus and all that jazz since there a lot more different traditions out there (which is awesome. I love learning about new things) but I guess I was thinking more of myself. Sorry about that.

But no I'm not going to get into the history of the world. At least not today haha.
 
I don't agree with the guy's views and he's definitely expressing them in a dickish way, but I can't get outraged about this. Like the arguments sound exactly like "how am I supposed to talk to my kids about gay people" but with crazy/evangelical people instead. If some loon is spouting off about Jesus when I'm in line with my daughter and she asks me what he's on about, I'll have a calm conversation with her that some people believe different things and we need to be respectful of their beliefs even if they present them in unorthodox or potentially rude ways. Or, you know, some people are just crazy assholes, let's ignore him and afterwards we'll get ice cream. Whatever. But I don't think it's fair to jump straight to the "HE MADE ME HAVE AN UNCOMFORTABLE CONVERSATION WITH MY KIDS" argument because you really shouldn't have that hard a time talking to your kids about the fact that people exist who you might not otherwise interact with and have views that you personally don't share.
 
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