It's CHRISTmas .. SUCK. IT. UP!!

Philly's City Hall

Ask yourself this...

WHY IS IT THAT WE HAVE TO BE TOLERANT OF ALL OTHER RELIGIONS BUT ITS PERFECTLY FINE TO ANYTHING HAVING TO DO WITH GOD, CHRIST OR CHRISTIANITY IN THE CENTER OF A DART BOARD.

I'm sick and tired of it ... SICK AND TIRED OF IT..

LEARN HISTORY PEOPLE!!!!!! Our founding father's were deep believers in God.. The Capital.. The Washington Monument.. every historical building in Washington DC has references or statues or murals or ceiling paintings depicting their beliefs.

The lastest attack on the word CHRISTmas was targeted at an annual event that is held in the courtyard at Philadelphia's City Hall.

The CHRISTmas Village are booths and tents of vendors set up like a medieval village .. they sell all kinds of German food and candy and crafts and CHRISTmas stuff from all over the world.

If you've never been.. the German CHRISTmas ornaments are AMAZING!!

So what's the problem.. A CHRISTmas village selling CHRISTmas stuff..

Well there was a problem.. and the problem was that some people didn't like the world CHRISTmas.. so they called the mayor's office and complained.

Two things here:

1. Do people NOT have anything better to do with their time? and...2. I thought Mayor Michael Nutter had bigger balls

Because as soon as he got ".. a few complaints" .. he had the word CHRISTmas taken off the sign over the CHRISTmas village.

Are you KIDDING me?? A few people complained of being offended. Well guess what? I get offended every single time Christianity is attacked.

But what really set me off this morning is watch a news report where Mayor Nutter ".. caved under pressure" from the national media and is putting the word CHRISTmas back on the sign. And if knowing that he was only prompted because of the media attention wasn't bad enough, someone wanted to know why there weren't OTHER RELIGIONS represented claiming bias.

OK. IDIOT!! DO YOU NOT KNOW CHRISTMAS IS A CELEBRATION OF THE BIRTH. OF. CHRIST????

Do I go to a store selling dreidels for Hanukkah wanting to know why they don't sell Christmas decorations??
Do I stomp my feet about Kwanza??
Should I be offended that Muslim's don't celebrate Ramadan with a big pork dinner?

No .. no.. NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't it funny that we have to be tolerant of other religions and beliefs but MY BELIEF is constantly under attack? Where are other people's tolerance?

Ohhh... but I guess the same people who refuse to be educated on the founding of this country also refuse to believe that CHRISTmas is a religious holiday.

So here's my question to those:

Why does God offend you? Why does CHRIST offend you? Why do people with a strong faith in Christianity offend you so?

While I was typing this, there was a story on the news about a high school football player, Ronnie Hastie, who made a touchdown in a semi final game.. knelt in the end zone and raised his finger in the air to give praise to God... something that he has done countless times before.

THIs time was penalized 15 yards for being arrogant, self promoting and offending the opposing team.

Really? REALLY?

Was that really arrogant? Was that really self promoting? And how the HELL did that offend the opposing team? I could see if he jumped up and down pointing at himself.. I can see if he pointed at the other team.. but he didn't. In his own words, he was giving praise to his God.

But being the good Christian that he is .. and being the tolerant person that we're suppose to be.. he said that from now on, he will walk to the side lines after the play and make his acknowledgement there, away from the field.

So maybe that should have been what he did in the first place.. but isn't that something that should have been addressed ON the side lines by the referees instead of penalizing the team?

I could go on and on but I'm not. I think you get the point. But I will say one last thing:

You can attempt to erase all references to God.. to Christ and to Christianity but you will never erase our faith because that is in our soul.

There's No Do-Overs

... so Sunday at church, Pastor Mark gave a really good sermon. You know it's a good sermon when it sticks to you long after the service is over.

I'm not going to get all bible thumping and throw out chapter and verses because, honestly? That would make ME just scroll down through the post. And I'm not usually one to talk about these things because I'm kind of like those quiet Christians ... yknow, letting your actions speak louder then my words?

Because let's face it.. I have a habit of dropping F-bombs like the word "THE" so it's just a lot better that I let my actions speak for me!! LOL!!

But that was the point of the sermom.

Actions say more about a person then their words do because words lie.. people lie.. for whatever reason.

And the thing is.. I don't usually get into the whole "Who's Getting Into Heaven" conversation because I'm just worried about ME getting into heaven and I might not have to wait until 2012 or the Apocolypse for it.

I could get hit by a car crossing the street .. or slip in the bathtub and hit my head (especially if I go in after Matt because he uses like, 3/4 of a bottle of conditioner on his hair!) .. or I could trip over the cat on the basement stairs.

When you think about it.. those are more probable then sticking around for the 4 Horsemen to ride down my street.

So with that.. do I really want to stand before God with all the minor stuff that makes my soul dark? Is it really worth it an eternity in Hell? Because once you stand before him, there are no second chances. No Do-Overs. No "Heheheh.. oops!"

That's the point I've been trying to beat (figuratively, not literally) into Josh. The stupid lying over stupid stuff.. the disrespect.. the attempts at manipulations.. (come on kid, I got 33 years on you!!). Is it worth it?

You can't change people.. you can't change how they act or what they say. You can only change yourself and your reactions but there are consequences for the things we do and the consequences far out weigh the moment.

And before y'all get all theological on me, Yes, God is a forgiving God.
Yes, Jesus Christ died for our sins.
Yes, we are all sinners.

But there's a HUGE difference between sinning and asking for forgiveness because you know in your  heart that you did wrong.. and conscientiously doing something because you think, "..well, I'm going to be forgiven anyway."

And before we even go there.. I just want to say this:

I know that there are people who are going to read this that aren't Christians.. or don't believe in God.. or are of different faiths.. or have serious issues with their belief system.

That's cool .. I wrote this more for me and I'm not going to get into a debate about what I believe versus what you believe. One of us is right.. one of us is wrong.. and eventually we'll find out who is and isn't. Just know that whatever faith or religion or belief system you have, the core principals are the same.

Being A Part Of History

Well...
No.
Not really.

A lot of you know that me and Tim took our simple asses to Washington DC on Aug 28th to attend the Restoring Honor Rally, the Glenn Beck event that was really  nothing more then a spiritual revival. Although if you believe what you heard from the likes of Chris Matthews and such, there were cross burnings and small animal sacrifices.

I can tell you there were not.

I'm also going to repost an entry from another blog that outlines our trip because honestly, whenever we set out to do something, we can NEVER get from Point A to Point B in a straight line.

Anyway.. so while we were amongst the 500,000 or more people (yes, that many. We were there) there was a camera crew interviewing people. I do have to say that a lot of people shied away from it because there had been so much talk from the mainstream media the week prior to the event that people thought that whoever they talked to may be misrepresenting who they were .. what media outlet they were from.. and feared their words were going to be taken out of context.

With good reason, I might add. EVERYBODY who reported on it got it wrong. But that's another post for another time.

But anyway.. so this camera crew happened upon the space where we were hanging and they started talking to the guy from Central PA who was there with his 8 or 9 year old daughter. They interviewed him for something like 15 or 20 minutes. Tim moved closer to hear what the guy was saying and I was standing behind him, a little to his right.

As much of a camera hog as I usually am, not having slept or showered in two days made my vanity get the best of me!

After the guy finished, my anti-social-would-welcome-solitary-confinement guy said, ".. I have something to say!" so they turned the camera on him. I really wasn't able to hear what he said at the time because there were soo many people buzzing about and I have a heard time hearing anyway so after the cameras left, I asked him and he said that we were all here because of God.. because of our faith in God.. and getting back to that faith.

A few weeks ago when Glenn Beck announced that they were putting together a documentary about 8.28 I told Tim that I bet he was going to be in there.. he didn't think so. Like he said, there were SO many people interviewed.. SO much film.. SO many more poignant things that a lot more people probably said.. he was just happy to have been given the opportunity to say his peace.

Last night, the documentary was released. We were all set to watch it when Josh needed help with his homework so I told Tim to start watching it ( because everything on Beck's site usually crashes because of all the traffic ) and I figured if he was already in, I could always catch up to it.

So over D = T x Y problems, I hear ".. LESEE! LEESE! LEEEEEESSSSSSEEEEEE!"

I go running into the bedroom ".. what? what? WHHHHAAATTT?"

He tells me to watch the laptop screen and as I am, still getting chills because yknow.. we were THERE, I hear his voice and see his on the screen.

We both couldn't believe.. it's an odd feeling you get when you see yourself or someone you love in a documentary about something that was so amazing and being watched by hundreds of thousands of people.

What's more amazing is what the showed.. him saying that being there is about God.. about faith and getting back to it.

Even today, it's still a little unbelievable.

If you get a chance to watch the documentary (I'm going to try and get a copy of it) .. he's the bald dude in the blue striped shirt around the 2 minute mark.

Towards the end of the documentary, I had face time. Me in my sweating t-shirt and Dietz and Watson baseball cap.. I'll tell you, it's much more impressive seeing Tim then it was seeing me!! LOL!!

Anyway.. being apart of history is cool. Having it documented? Priceless.