Watching Hannity and Idoit tonight, Hannity talking about Bad Santa said “Could this happen to a part of any other faith than Christianity?” Putting aside that it is not Santa in the movie (just a guy working in a department store), is Santa a part of the Christian faith?
Santa Claus is not part of the Christian faith in any theolgical or doctrinal sense. He’s just a famous Christian 
Actually, a lot of fundie types don’t like Santa because they see him as a secular icon, or even worse as an “idol.”
Sean Hannity is an enormous tool, by the way.
Verily, there arose such a clatter
That I sprang from my manger, to see
What was the matter
And what to my Aramaic eyes should appear?
But a real skinny hippy and…what are those, little bitty camels with anntenae…Are those horns? Oy…
Fwiw, I think Santa does a great job of introducing kids to the concepts of consumption for the sake of consumption and how to manipulate others in order to so do. He’s an excellent device. Kinda like Britney but seasonal.
So, I think he’s part of the dominant US religion (consumerism) and, to an increasing extent, the rest of the capitalist world as well – what would that make him, Saint Santa of Consumerism, maybe ?
Santa Klaus seems very much like the Christian God. Omniscient, Spooky, Giving punishment and Reward to what his paradigm suggests is right or wrong. I don’t know… when I was a kid, the idea of Santa Klaus kind of freaked me out… much like the idea of the Christian God does now. Being raised in a Christian family it was even worse. Not only did I have one very old bastard staring down my neck, I had two… and they were both leering at me. shivers
Sean Hannity is wrong, as usual. About ten years ago, Jerry Seinfeld hosted Saturday Night Live. One sketch consisted of Jerry, as Elijah the Hebrew prophet, dropping in on a family during a Seder. Their door was opened, so why not? The family is of course very surprised, not to mention appalled by Elijah’s vulgar behavior (at one point he offers suggests the daughter join him “on the road.”).
Another sketch, at a different time, featured Jon Lovitz as Chaunnakah Harry, who brings children really crappy presents.
Jewish folks always seem better than Christians when it comes to poking fun at their own religion.
What about Saint Nicholas?
Hannity is an idiot, as usual.
I’ve known some Christians who won’t even put a tree up thinking it a pagan symbol, so the idea of a guy in red climing down the chimney would be positively demonic to them.
Saint Nicholas was a fourth century Bishop of Myra in Turkey, where I believe there are no reindeer.
Also, there were no bunnies at the crucifixion.
Like I said…famous Christian but not an inherent part of the Christian faith.
Did I mention that Hannity is a really, really massive tool?
Is there anyone on Fox who isn’t a massive tool? Remember, we’re talking about the network that wanted to coordinate the arrival of filibustering Republican Senators with the start of Brit Hume’s news broadcast. :rolleyes:
Can we have a new rule that calls for locking down a GD thread that starts out like this? If you want to say FAUX news, or AmeriKKKa (sorry, couldn’t think of any examples from the other side of the spectrum) in the pit, IMHO, or any other forum, go right ahead. [b\]Great Debates** however is supposed to be better than that and you are hardly setting up the foundations for a healthy and civil conversation with such needless and inflammatory commentary.
HYDRO: Just in case nobody has told you, Santa isn’t real, unlike the Tooth Fairy
What about him? St. Nicholas is about as far from Santa Claus as one thing is as from another thing that it is very far from.
The St. Nicholas known in my Church is not the bizarre Westernized version that appeared of him later.
I’ve always told my son santa is not real because before he was born, a couple I knew from church said their daughter asked “Is Santa really real, like Jesus?”
And I resolved never to lie to my son.
So I told him Jesus is real but Santa is made up.
Well, about the time I figured out that I was being sold a bill of goods about Santa, I used the same line of reasoning on Jesus.
So in my heart I became a Unitarian back in the first grade!
My parents were supportive, buy my Calvinist extended family was not.
Everybody here seems to be just as hard on poor old Santa as Hannity. I always liked him (Santa, not Hannity). He’s the only thing attached to the Xtian religion that’s any fun, as far as I can tell. Some would chime in “Easter Bunny,” but that candy was crap. Except Peeps.
the book of Revelation talks about the “anti-peep”
But seriously, Hollow Chocolate Bunnies RULE!
Frankly, if you ask me Santa isn’t Christian at all- he sounds more like a communist to me. He has this whole Big-Brother-like system to monitor people’s behavior; he gets chose who is naughty and nice by his own abitrary methods.
Second of all, he seems to be nice, giving away toys to kids he likes - of course, said toys are made by elves in his Artic Gulag. -What, you think those elves would voluntarily work for free?
Then, there is the way Santa tries to co-opt a major religious holiday, for his own personality cult, just like many other communist leaders.
Finally, he wears a bright ** RED ** suit. Dead give-away that he is a no-good dirty communist scum.
Santa a part of the Christian faith? You mean like “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Jolly Old Elf”? Not the last time I looked, no. Is Saint Nicholas recognized as a saint by most Christian churches? AFAIK, yes. In that sense, Saint Nicholas is a part of the Christian faith. To say that Santa Claus is part of Christianity, though, is rather a stretch. Santa’s currrent incarnation is, after all, based on St. Nick only in the very loosest way.
To then somehow take a movie about a guy who wears a Santa suit as part of his job and twist it into an attack on Christianity…well, that’s just paranoid.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by DreadCthulhu *
**Frankly, if you ask me Santa isn’t Christian at all- he sounds more like a communist to me. He has this whole Big-Brother-like system to monitor people’s behavior; he gets chose who is naughty and nice by his own abitrary methods.
Second of all, he seems to be nice, giving away toys to kids he likes - of course, said toys are made by elves in his Artic Gulag. -What, you think those elves would voluntarily work for free?
Then, there is the way Santa tries to co-opt a major religious holiday, for his own personality cult, just like many other communist leaders.
Finally, he wears a bright ** RED ** suit. Dead give-away that he is a no-good dirty communist scum. **[/QUOTE
Ho ho Ho Chi Minn!