The War On ... Jesus

Tony Hendra reminds us that both Evangelicals and Atheists are waging war of the root of Christmas.

Of course GT12 would like to point out that non-dysphoric atheists really don't spend much time, energy or worrying about this.

Anyhooo, this defense of Jesus from both his enemies and from his followers courtesy HuffPo (and we certainly have no war with Hendra's point of view):

In a way both atheists and fundos agree on the Christ they see in Christmas. The former may want to abolish it and the latter make it more 'Christian', but the Christ they're talking about is the same cartoon.

For the abolitionists, Christ is and has been the cause of incalculable bloodshed over the last two thousand years, as well as the oppression of women, the brutalization of the poor, the genocidal enslavement of people of color - any color - and environmental devastation. (The list is a lot longer than that, but it'll do for now) For the atheists it's Blame Christ First.

To do them justice they've got a point. Because that Christ is also the Christ of the fundos. The fundo Christ is only The Man of Mercy, Gentle-Jesus-Meek-and-Mild for the fundos themselves. The rest of us he hates. Anyone from gays to Muslims to feminists to commies to astrophysicists and biologists to you, me, Arianna, Susan Sarandon, George Clooney and especially Jimmy Carter. The fundo Christ will arriving here any day now, to butcher all of us by the billion. A Christ of vigilante justice, vengeance and prejudice: a Christ dedicated to the shedding of blood, oceans of it, the more barbarically the better. In short a non-Christ, a pseudo-Christ, an anti-Christ.

The Christ the fundos want to put back in Christmas.

...Here's the uncomfortable truth, one Christians have spent seas of ink and forests of paper, trying to get around: there is no way that someone who calls herself or himself a Christian, who believes in Christ's words and emulates his life and actions, can fight in a war, support a war, carry a weapon, pack heat, shoot back, or take revenge.

That's why Christmas - the birth of the man who preached this intensely radical idea - is called a time of peace. And why Jesus is often called the Prince of Peace. (Not a title I like much since all the Princes I know are blithering inbred twits, but I can live with it for now).

But that doesn't mean peace is over, once Christmas is. Or that the other 364 days of the year Jesus is the Prince of War. For real Christians peace is non-negotiable.