Video
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Ads can't change real meaning of Christmas
Q: What do you think of the American Humanist Association's new "Godless Holiday" campaign? The ads will say: "No God? . . . No Problem! Be good for goodness' sake. Humanism is the idea that you can be good without a belief in God.
Interestingly enough, we've already tackled the second part of this question. On Oct. 28, On Faith asked, "Is there good without God? Can people be good without God?" I responded by saying that, from the Christian perspective, all human goodness is rooted in the Image of God, and that, as a result, while people can be good without believing in God, they can't possibly be good without Him. Acknowledged or unacknowledged, He is the unseen Reality behind our human capacity for kindness, altruism, and generosity.
As for the American Humanist Association's "Godless Holiday Campaign," this promotional effort strikes me as a bit superfluous. Do people in America really need any encouragement to believe that they can celebrate without God? The secularization of Christmas is nothing new. The "holidays" are already, in many quarters, about as "godless" as they can possibly be. So if the AHA wants to be perceived as "progressive" or "revolutionary," they're not likely to achieve that goal with these ads.
I should add that Christmas is not a day for Christians to congratulate themselves on their moral and spiritual superiority, as the AHA ads seem to imply. Far from it. For believers, Christmas is a time to confess their desperate need of a Savior. If humanists think they can "be good for goodness' sake," they're entitled to that view and to tell others about it. But the sober-minded Christian knows that even his most exemplary actions can never be free of a subtle strain of narrow self-centeredness. That's why, year after year - ads or no ads, secularization or no secularization - Christians will continue to rejoice in the Advent of the One who comes to deliver them from the impurities of their own best efforts - the "true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world" (John 1:9).
By
Jim Daly
|
November 24, 2009; 3:21 PM ET
Save & Share:
Previous: Remember to give thanks |
Next: Which God do Humanists reject?
Posted by: Paganplace | November 30, 2009 1:23 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Dear Norrie,
Spoken like a true post-modern. But do you truly live your life that way? What drives you to get up out of bed in the morning? What gives your life significance?
Posted by: DouginMoz | November 30, 2009 1:13 AM
Report Offensive Comment
"Ads can't change real meaning of Christmas"
Buddhists and Amherst grads of the 1950's [Eng. 1-2, Prof. Baird] realize that there is no "real meaning" of anything.
Posted by: norriehoyt | November 27, 2009 12:29 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Of course it's superfluous, that's the whole point. I don't suppose you can imagine something like this going over your head, but I'll bet if you try hard enough you might get it.
And this bit about the "sober-minded Christian" ... really, I mean .. sober? You have to be drunk to believe this crap
Posted by: khote14 | November 25, 2009 7:07 PM
Report Offensive Comment
Of course for christians this is a time to celebrate the ability to create a myth (the birth of jesus is ummmmm 12.25) and the power they have to enforce it on everyone else's calender without regard to honesty and truth that this was an assimilated holiday of other religions as was, of course, the myth of jesus's life.
hariaum
Posted by: Navin1 | November 25, 2009 5:30 PM
Report Offensive Comment
The comments to this entry are closed.
""Do people in America really need any encouragement to believe that they can celebrate without God?""
No, but thanks to words and acts of dehumanization by certain pietistic Christians with big mouthpieces, after a number of years of the 'Christian majority' being told by politicians you support to go out and spend and blame it all on 'secular humanists...'
Well, it seems some secular humanists found it necessary to tell *you* that your *neighbors* can celebrate holidays without kneeling to *you.*
That your neighbors, and even self-styled 'enemies' *are human.*
""I should add that Christmas is not a day for Christians to congratulate themselves on their moral and spiritual superiority, as the AHA ads seem to imply. Far from it.""
Coulda fooled me, really. Considering what's said even here.