It’s almost as much a Christmas tradition as eggnog and Rankin/Bass – The political left’s propaganda disparaging Noel appears like clockwork every December. The season inevitably triggers progressives into rantings and ravings about the “white supremacist” evils of western culture, Christianity and the need for a more “secular” or “multicultural” form of celebration. In other words, Christians aren’t allowed to have their own holidays.
Protected holidays are only reserved for cultures with spicy foods and child marriage.
And, if you went to a public school in the west in the past few decades you probably dealt with multiple liberal teachers who regaled you with their “profound insights” on the “true history” of western holiday traditions. The problem is, most of what these teachers tell their students is a lie based on generations of carefully crafted political narratives.
The disinformation campaigns against Christmas have been so effective in the past that there are even groups of Christians that actually believe the same nonsense and repeat it as if they have discovered some fantastic conspiratorial secrets that only “true Christians” know.
Let’s examine some of these lies and why they are historically inaccurate…
Lie #1: Christmas Is A Pagan Holiday?
Utterly false in every way, but many western students have heard this claim thousands of times over and AI chatbots continue to spread the fallacy today. The idea comes from the incorrect claim that Christmas is an artificial amalgamation of traditions stolen from pagan events like Saturnalia and the Roman Solis Festival as a way to convert the heathens centuries ago.
Saturnalia was held on Dec 17, not Dec 25, and focused on animal sacrifices and a loosening of moral rules. Christmas was started as a completely separate tradition with separate beliefs and a Christian message.
The Roman Solis Festival was created a century after Christians began celebrating December 25th as the birth of Christ. Surviving Roman records from Hyppolytus mention Christmas as early as 200AD. Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170–235 AD) is widely regarded by modern scholars as the earliest known Christian writer to effectively calculate the birth of Jesus as December 25th.
The earliest calendar record of the pagan Solis Festival was 354AD, over 150 years later. It was created by Roman Emperor Aurelian, who was a pagan hostile to the spread of Christianity. He sought to co-opt or compete with Christian celebrations, rather than Christians trying to co-opt paganism.
Lie #2: The Birth Date Of December 25th For Jesus Is Completely Made Up?
The date of December 25th for the birth of Jesus was a deduction from scripture, analyzed in conjunction with historical knowledge about those who worked in the temple.
St. Luke related the announcement of the birth of St. John the Baptist to his elderly parents, St. Zechariah and St. Elizabeth. St. Zechariah was a priest of the class of Abijah (Lk 1:5), the eighth class of 24 priestly classes (Neh 12:17). Each class served one week in the temple, twice a year. Josef Heinrich Friedlieb has established that the priestly class of Abijah would have been on duty during the second week of the Jewish month Tishri, the week of the Day of Atonement or in our calendar, between Sept. 22 and 30.
While on duty, the Archangel Gabriel informed Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son (Lk 1:5-24). Thereupon, they conceived John, who after presumably 40 weeks in the womb would have been born at the end of June. For this reason, Christians celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Baptist June 24.
St. Luke also recorded how the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John (Lk 1:36), which means the Annunciation occurred March 25. Nine months from March 25, or six months from June 24, renders the birth of Christ at Dec. 25 – Christmas.
Modern scholars support Hippolytus in his calculations of December 25th. Whether someone believes in the bible or not, the point remains that the date for Christmas was not pulled from thin air or adapted over time to “co-opt pagan traditions.”
Lie #3: Mary And Joseph Were “Illegal Immigrants”?
This false claim has resurfaced recently in the wake of mass deportations of illegals in the US, and it comes from people who apparently have no knowledge of biblical history.
Mary and Joseph fled Judea for Egypt at a time when both were controlled regions of the Roman Empire. Therefore, they did not immigrate, let alone immigrate illegally. They were both considered subjects of Rome and remained within the Roman Empire as they traveled.
Lie #4: St. Nicholas Was A Third Worlder?
In the process of woke activists trying to make everything black and brown, Santa Claus seems to be one of their favorite targets for race swapping. Leftists argue that St. Nicholas was born in Turkey, and thus, he must have been heavily melanated.
St. Nicholas was born in Turkey, but he was born to wealthy Greek parents in 270 AD in a Greek colony at a time when the Levant was controlled by the Roman Empire. The creation of Islam and the Muslim invasions did not happen for another 350 years, meaning, most of the region was fair skinned or “olive skinned”. By today’s woke diversity totem pole standards, St. Nicholas would be considered a white guy with a tan.
All records of Nicholas of Myra’s life show widespread reverence for his charity, which led to his eventual sainthood (granted 100 years after his death) and the celebration of his achievements for centuries.
Lie #5: Jesus Was Not A Real Historic Person?
Historic accounts say otherwise, including records from the Romans who saw Jesus as a reactionary enemy. Roman historian Tacitus (c. 116 AD) mentions “Christus” executed under Pilate, and Jewish historian Josephus (c. 93 AD) also refers to Jesus, both confirming Jesus’s existence and execution by Romans for followers who called him Messiah, thus supporting the record of events described in the Bible.
Lie #6: There Is No Leftist War On Christmas?
The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing people that he doesn’t exist. Yes, there absolutely is a war on Christmas. One of the root foundations of Marxism/Communism is the crusade to erase religion as a competing ideological fount, and woke leftists are indeed communists. Karl Marx particularly despised Christianity and argued that:
“The social principles of Christianity preach cowardice, self-contempt, abasement, submission, humility, in a word all the qualities of the canaille (lower class people).”
Of course, Christianity doesn’t preach any of these things in the way Marx claimed, but communists see Christianity as an obstacle to their collectivist revolution because it preaches reverence to God above government and asserts that rights are inherent rather than being privileges granted by government. In other words, erasing Christianity is an important step in building a communist empire where the state becomes god.
The political left will argue that their incessant demands for more “secular” holiday celebrations are designed to make immigrants feel more included, but they don’t make similar demands for any other religious traditions. It is interesting that Christianity is the only religion that is consistently targeted and Christmas is the only religious celebration consistently forced to accommodate other belief systems.
Liberal teachers have been training children for decades to hate Christianity and to view Christmas as a sham. This is not the behavior of a political group at peace. It is the behavior of a psy-op, a war campaign to demoralize their enemies.
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