Opening our big expensive presents while homeless people suffer and starve partying and celebrating while other countries starve to death.
Most people wont take in a stranger ;its freezing out side a lot of homeless people die in this season. People kill themselves out of loneliness, singles do more this year then any other time of year. Does the church really care?Do religions care? what are they doing to help the situation?
I honestly don't feel like celebrating this year. I do not see the churches that care. YIKES you know my old Pentecostal churches use to take Christian cruises that cost a lot and parties their buts off this time a year.
OK.
So you look at Christmas cruises and overlook the homeless shelters and the boxed dinners and all the stuff people do for the suffering at Christmas. Go ahead.
But if this bothers you so much, then I suggest that you go FIND a homeless shelter or a rehab center or an
'old folks home' or something and spend your Christmas there, helping out.
y'know what? There will be many other people there with you, also helping out, and a huge proportion of those helpers will be religious, and the Christmases celebrated there will have joy.
In other words, if you don't want to go on the cruise, don't. Take your money and give it to someone who needs it more than you do. Then you can look down your nose all you want to.
But be careful when you do that, because when those cruise people come home, you just might find them next to you in the shelter, handing out food, blankets and clothing the rest of the year.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go 'do Christmas.' That is, my own tradition is that all my gifts are hand made. Knitted socks, shawls, mittens, gloves, quilts. Yes, in my own proud defense, I do these well and one simply cannot BUY a cashmere shawl or cashmere gloves in a store without wincing, while I can produce them for considerably less money and a lot of work and time. That's the point, the work and time, and the thought that goes into the person for whom these things are made. ....and trust me, the recipients of these gifts do NOT shove them in drawers never to be seen again short of a yard sale.
Then, for every shawl I make for my family, another gets made for someone in the chemo infusion center. Every hat I make for my daughters gets repeated for that same infusion center.
Lap quilts, too...every one that goes to someone I love gets a twin to go to that shelter.
This is how I celebrate Christmas. I love Christmas. I start celebrating Christmas beginning in July. I have a VERY dim view of those who disparage or dismiss it. Whether one celebrates Christmas, or Hannukah, or Winter solstice, or whatever holiday one assigns to the changing of the season, CELEBRATE IT.
Those who have just dismissed all holidays? They are missing out. Don't dismiss them. Make them yours. Do what you think should be done, and helping others is generally a good idea.