Other Religious Groups Crowd into Christmas


From coast to coast, well maybe not so much in the deep South, groups with a different religious view than Christians are taking advantage of Christmas displays to make their presence known. A couple of times I've been at the State Capital close to me here in Des Moines, IA, for the presentation of an atheists' holiday display next to the manger scene. I understand other non-Christian groups are also displaying their presence. And, why not? If Christians insist on using public property to evangelize others might as well also.

An interesting group now emerging at this time of year are the Satanists. A U. S. House member from Northern Wisconsin expressed outrage in the national media a few days ago because a Satanist group put of a Satan tree in a Railroad Museum in Green Bay. How dare they, he said. He has children and now will not bring them to see the decorations at the museum. 

My guess it more groups will crowd in on Winter Solstice displays like Christmas until there is a fight for public space. Then, public officials will may a practical decision to allow no displays and we will forget about them. 

As I recall, all of this started when a wealthy Christian it would be brilliant to provide every state with a manager scene for its state Capitol. All Capitals allowed the display. Governors showed up for the unveiling. The Freedom From Religion Foundation quickly manufactured it our parody of the manager scene and that is now also displayed in most Capitols. So far as I know, no Governor has shown up for it's presentation. 

News about these non Christian displays reminded me of my new interest, watching young pastors from the denomination called Lutheran Missouri Synod try to deal with its rapidly declining numbers. The young preachers want to provide pastoral credentials with online training instead of expensive on campus seminar programs. They think more new churches could be started. One of the things they say on their podcasts is that Christianity must now survive in a "Pagan society." Sometimes one will say "prePagan Society". It seems obvious to me Christianity has allowed its followers to believe all kinds of different things about its god. While Pagans have various gods Christianity had one but with a huge number of different attributes. Each denomination and each person within that denomination had her own opinion about its god.

Happy Whatever Holidays.

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