Mitchell here.
Readers of my regular
blog are used to my screeds around this time of the year regarding the secularization, if not outright distain, of Christmas. (See
here,
here and
here, for starters.) So I'm happy to pass along the following press release from my friend John Sondag over at the "other" (and better) Catholic paper
The Catholic Servant. As I've been saying over and over, we can't just sit here and take it - we have to fight back. Here's one way to do it, quietly but forcefully.
*****
Contact: John Sondag
612-729-7321
Cell: 612-275-0431
CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR?
(MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. November 11, 2006) The Catholic Servant, a monthly publication for evangelization, catechesis and apologetics published out of the Twin Cities, is selling "I Celebrate Christmas" buttons to remind people why we celebrate this holiday and to rebut the increasing secularism of the feast day.
"It's a positive reminder that we can't lose sight of the religious dimensions of our holidays. This is worth celebrating, just as any event which connects God to man," said John Sondag, editor and publisher of The Catholic Servant. "Our Judeo-Christian culture has for centuries expressed these events on public feast days through public prayers and these expressions have spilled over into the "culture" of these believers. Culture indeed is an extension of the deeply-held beliefs of a people in their songs, food, drama, and art. To take away the Divine is to suffocate the spirit that is expressing the joy of encountering this supernatural reality."
"The buttons were created by Mike Rumpza, a resident of St. Paul, Minn., and parishioner at Nativity of Our Lord Catholic Church, who was tired of being wished "Happy Holidays" even at Thanksgiving. He hopes the buttons will help create a personal dialog with people about the significance of Christmas, and give people permission to wish each other a "Merry Christmas."
Sondag said that most holidays in the United States have a religious origin: Easter, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and secularists want to ignore that fact. Abraham Lincoln, in establishing Thanksgiving wrote, "I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."
"Josef Pieper wrote about feasts in traditional societies in
Leisure the Basis of Culture, "There is no such thing as a feast 'without gods' whether it be a carnival or a marriage. That is not a demand, or a requirement; it does not mean that that is how things ought to be. Rather, it is meant as a simple statement of fact: however dim the recollection of the association may have become in men's minds, a feast 'without gods,' and unrelated to worship, is quite simply unknown."
The buttons can be purchased through Rumpza's website,
http://www.pcbuttons.com/, or at Leaflet Missal Co., 976 W. Minnehaha Ave., St. Paul, Minn., 55104.
Non-profit religious groups, schools, churches and individuals can purchase the buttons in bulk at reduced costs, and sell them for profit to raise money for charity, another significant reason to celebrate
Christmas.
2 comments:
Since we at Leaflet Missal have partnered with John to promote and distribute these buttons - do visit our blog on the subject at http://www.leafletonline.com/blog/node/31 and order lots of 'flair' for your holiday entertaining!
Hello
To whom should I ask permission to use this: Labels-Categories button?
I will be using this at my blog: www.multifaith.blogspot.com
Please send me an email: mt2222@yahoo.com
Best wishes for 2007.
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