Actually, THIS is Christmas

I do believe that Christmas has now been defined just about every way it possibly could be. Now that the culture wars have gotten ahold of it, it seems to mean whatever the tyrants on the Right or their rivals for power on the Left happen to say it is. I, personally, believe that Jesus is too big to be successfully hijacked by anybody. And so, too, is the day we celebrate His birth.

My pastor has it right. She sums up the real, enduring meaning of Christmas to us in this world by pointing to today's Gospel: John 1:1-14. In particular, I find pertinent verse 5:

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

God's Spirit will not be silenced. Jesus promised His followers that the Spirit would abide with them 'til the end of human history. And the Spirit will not be silenced. The darkness will never overcome the light.

Many people are asking me why I am making the jump from the Democratic Party to the Libertarian. It's been a long process, so it's a long story. But I can tell you what the last straw proved to be.

I protested against this war. I have been steadfastly and outspokenly against it from the get-go. I still have absolutely no idea whether a democracy can be successfully born and raised among people who can't seem to come to a consensus on whether they want it and have yet to prove they have any idea what to do with it. And I'm not sure we can invade a country, bomb the living snot out of a civilian population (that can fight back only with a nincompoop, Keystone-kop military -- some of whose soldiers have actually been reported to "lie down and curl up into a ball" at the sound of gunfire) and then win them over to the concept of self-determination. How credible can our witness be to them?

Don't even get me started about the chickenhawks who've run it on the American side. If they believed their own rhetoric -- that this is a war for the soul and salvation of civilization -- and they were any sort of men at all, they would be over there fighting, too, instead of just sending poor kids from Bedford-Stuyvesant and Appalachia. World War II was fought even by men well into their forties, who left families, homes and thriving careers behind to give their all for their country.

But the undeniable and inescapable fact remains that WE. ARE. THERE. The carnage and destruction has happened, for the most part, and now we are making a genuine effort to help these people rebuild their country. But what do we hear from the Democrats in Congress? Nothing but sniping about how quickly we supposedly must now get out of Iraq. Pardon me, but perhaps a Republican friend of mine was right when she said that is "so 2002."

The Democratic Party gives little indication that it gives a rat's ass about the Iraqi people. The politicos who lead it are a bunch of rich, arrogant sell-outs hungry for power. They'll fall down and worship the Devil himself, should Lucifer decide to run for office on their ticket, and it would not matter if Jesus was President -- if He were a Republican, they would stop at nothing in their efforts to destroy Him.

Let's all face the facts together, boys and girls. The Democrats will never let a Republican President do his (or her) job, nor would the Republicans let a Democrat function in office. The spoils have become too great, and the temptation to tyrannize has overwhelmed them all. Time to dismantle all but what's most necessary and give the Libertarians a chance.

The only people who want to see freedom and democracy fail in the Middle East are the terrorists and the Democrats. I have no desire to be associated with the terrorists. And I want nothing to do, anymore, with the Democrats, either.

I am not a multi-culturalist. I believe, indeed, that there is truth in every major world religion, but I also believe that the fulness of truth can be found in the Gospel of Christ. If I did NOT believe that, I would simply sleep in every Sunday morning. When I hear about radical Muslim clerics inciting violence against gays and women in Europe, it makes the blood freeze in my veins. The "progressives" in America will do no more to protect us than do their counterparts (and evident role-models) overseas.

9-11 was a wake-up call. Perhaps we shouldn't have needed one, but we did. It's all different, now; our cherry has been popped. No, the Iraqis were not the ones who attacked America on that terrifying day. But Al Quaeda did, and they will not rest until the entire Middle East is theirs. They can't overcome us by military might, but if they can turn us against ourselves, we are in danger of imploding from within.

The libertarians (both small "l" and large) MUST be actively and vociferously involved in the discussion of how to save Western, Judeo-Christian civilization. I have come to believe that yes, it IS in real peril, and that only the libertarian solution will save us. At the risk of sounding like a drama queen, I can write in terms no less emphatic.

I refuse to root against freedom and elected-representative democracy. Refuse to do it, Democrats, do you understand? I don't like how we got into this mess any more than they do, but now that we're here, we must clean up the mess the honorable way. Those who whimper about unconditional withdrawal are a disgrace to this country and to everything it has ever stood for.

What did it for me were those purple fingers, held aloft so hopefully and proudly -- followed by the petty carping and sniping of the Democrats. Shut up, all of you, and for shame! You betrayed every gay and lesbian American in the last Presidential election, you've been doing it ever since, and you're nothing but a treeful of homegrown cheese-eating surrender monkeys. Until and unless you grow backbones and remember your principles, I'll never vote for you again.

The light that shines forth from Jesus has illuminated the world ever since that first Christmas, twenty centuries ago. Pardon my political incorrectness, but now a whole lot of people are trying to snuff it out. But the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it. May those who follow Christ once again be able to worship in peace in the land of His birth without it being a major news story that no blood was shed there. And may the people from which He came dwell once again in security -- both in Israel and in Europe -- without having to suffer through another Holocaust that, this time, the Leftists made no effort to stop.

The light that shines forth from Jesus, far from being a threat from which gay and lesbian Americans must hide, is actually our only real hope for liberation. Let us defend it not only from fundamentalist zealotry in this country, but all over the world, and in whatever form it takes.

Merry Christmas, and Shalom.