Christmas Materialism

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I was raised as an Episcopalian/Anglican even though I am not gay. I was confirmed in the church, and I even wore the long black dress and helped the priest out in the service on Sunday mornings.
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Nowdays after living more than half a century I absolutely do not believe in the tooth fairy. Or that Santa can fit his fat ass down a chimney. I would worry about any political candidate who said he really believed in the Easter bunny, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, that tin men can rust, or that throwing water on witches would cause them to melt down.
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I feel the same way about the fairy tales regarding this unwed chick having a little baby while she was still a virgin. Yea right, I've heard that stuff before. Even the little sister of Britney Spears is smart enough not to try that story.
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And it would be nice to be able to walk on/levitate over water, or transmute water to wine, but these are clearly just fairy tales.
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But I have to say that the Christians do have a lot of beliefs that I agree with. I think that the Christmas gift giving concept has turned into mass hysteria, and that it has become a form of extortion. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger who is now the Pope of the Catholic church in the Vatican had this to say about modern Christmas celebrations:
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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Sunday urged Catholics to rediscover the religious significance of Christmas, saying the holiday should not be dominated by materialism.
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The Pope's words at his Sunday blessing to crowds in a rainy St Peter's Square marked the second consecutive day that the Pontiff warned of consumerism just as the Christmas shopping season kicked off in Italy.
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"Too often, unfortunately, today's manner of living and perceiving Christmas suffers from a materialistic mentality," he said.
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On Saturday, when Roman Catholics marked the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the leader of the 1.1 billion member Church said adults were only deceiving children by introducing them at ever younger ages into a life of unbridled materialism.
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Too many children were growing up in a world saturated with "false models of happiness" and being lured by unscrupulous adults into what he called the "dead-end street of consumerism," he said on Saturday.
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-------------------------------------------- Right on Bro!
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