Yet another insidious conspiracy theory...

Not that any voice of reason is listened to anymore but here is my two cents on a brand new conspiracy theory. The story going around the net is that at 1:58 into the Dark Knight Rises there is an image of Sandy Hook neighborhood of Gotham as a Bane target on a map. This is being given as proof somehow the movie predicted the horror of Dec 14^th. Thing is Gotham is an alternate name for NYC and everything in Gotham is really a reference to NYC. Just south of NYC on the north coast of NJ is a bit of land that sticks out called Sandy Hook. It would make perfect sense for someone drawing a fantasy NYC/Gotham map to include that name as a southern neighborhood of Gotham. Anyway reason and rational thinking have little to do with internet group thinking so carry on with crazy conspiracy theories. I happen to follow conspiracy theories as a kind of hobby but I have more sense than to actually believe them.

That Cheshire Grin

This morning I saw Joel Osteen on the Today show or one of those other morning coffee news light shows. He as always sounded pleasant and had that painted on smile. It's hard not to like him but you know somehow I always managed to feel a little queasy when I see him. Yesterday morning on his Sunday Morning broadcast I finally understood what is that is inherently wrong with him. I don't mean theologically I have understood why is theology is crap for years. I overlook bad theology most people are morons about theology anyway. No it is much deeper. His belief system removes normal compassionate understanding and tolerance. He demonstrated it with a story he told of driving through a Houston neighborhood with what he described as “sloppy houses” one after the other of poorly kept lawns and houses in need of fresh paint. Then he came across a house with a nice lawn and good paint job. He was impressed and latter learned the owner went to his mega church. This demonstrated the superiority of his congregation everyone was terribly pleased with themselves for their neat lawns and well painted houses. Not once did the thought occur to him many of the people in those sloppy houses may have had financial or health problems. Perhaps cancer had drained their household funds. Perhaps they were elderly and could not afford a lawn service. There are hundreds of reasons people may not be able to avoid a “sloppy house” Unlike people like Osteen and his daddy before him these people are not given large amounts of donations from total strangers for doing nothing but smiling and saying pleasantries on TV. The very thought of organizing neighborhood volunteers to help improve the neighborhood did not occur to him; he merely judged all the sloppy house people and praised the neat house. All theology aside and there is plenty in the Bible to condemn him; just from a basic sense of common decency he fails to be as human as he could be. He equates success and leisure with faith and devotion. He invents a world where goodness and worldly success go hand in hand and by implication poverty and disease are associated with a lack of faith and being in an ungodly state. The basic truth that everyone gets old weak and dies is ignored in his worldview. It is incredibly childish. I now know clearly why I have that uneasy feeling when I see that Cheshire grin.

The war on Christmas

"Puritans in the English Parliament eliminated Christmas as a national holiday in 1645, amid widespread anti-Christmas sentiment. Settlers in New England went even further, outlawing Christmas celebrations entirely in 1659. Anyone caught shirking their work duties or feasting was forced to pay a significant penalty of five shillings. Christmas returned to England in 1660, but in New England it remained banned until the 1680s, when the Crown managed to exert greater control over its subjects in Massachusetts. In 1686, the royal governor of the colony, Sir Edmund Andros, sponsored a Christmas Day service at the Boston Town House. Fearing a violent backlash from Puritan settlers, Andros was flanked by redcoats as he prayed and sang Christmas hymns."

 

"Anti-Christmas sentiment flared up again around the time of the American Revolution. Colonial New Englanders began to associate Christmas with royal officialdom, and refused to mark it as a holiday. Even after the U.S. Constitution came into effect, the Senate assembled on Christmas Day in 1797, as did the House in 1802. It was only in the following decades that disdain for the holiday slowly ebbed away. Clement Clarke Moore's poem "A Visit From St. Nicholas" — aka "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" — was published in New York in 1823 to enormous success. In 1836, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas a public holiday, and other states soon followed suit. But New England remained defiantly Scrooge-like; as late as 1850, schools and markets remained open on Christmas Day. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow finally noted a "transition state about Christmas" in New England in 1856. "The old Puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so," he wrote. Christmas Day was formally declared a federal holiday by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870. "

 

http://theweek.com/article/index/222676/when-americans-banned-christmas

 

 

Clearing the confusion

 

Rupert and his third wife Wendi ( Thank God they are protecting the sanctity of marriage) are on the left and the Morlocks are on the right. I know it's hard to tell but if you look closely you can see the difference.

Just a little FYI for Xmas time.

Χριστὸς = Christos
Please notice the first letter called a Chi looks like an X.
People who use Xmas are not against Christ and it has a long and valid tradition.

 ὅτι ἐτέχθη ὑμῖν σήμερον σωτὴρ, ὅς ἐστι Χριστὸς Κύριος, ἐν πόλει Δαυΐδ. Luke 2:11

Jesus and all the apostles spoke Aramaic and Hebrew and most likely Koine Greek as well.
The New Testament was written in Koine (of the common people) Greek.
The New Testament was NOT written in English or Latin for that matter.

Just the same many people will get all defensive and anti Xmas this year as they do every year.
God save Christianity from the Christians