From your obedient servant, sitting comfortably in his festive garland-garnished, tinsel-trimmed, ornately-ornamented porch chair, we offer Season’s Greetings and a Merry Christmas wish to all.
Of course we want to remember why we celebrate this special time, and here’s hoping more will understand there’s more to Christmas than receiving gifts. Join us in remembering the Gift that continues to give, and the love and mercy He unwraps daily.
Christmas is, for the great majority of us, a time of joy, love, family and sharing. For most of us. Sadly, there’s a Grinchority of PO-types (no Virginia, it’s Perpetually Offended, not the other one) in the land who are only filled with holiday happiness when they dish up darkness on the holiday light.
We read recently that a nativity scene in Toledo, Ohio was removed after complaints from an atheist group based on the Constitution’s First Amendment Establishment Clause. As you legal types know, that’s the part that prohibits government from establishing a religion. But, the definition of “establish” is a little vague.
To continue: the scene was allowed to return, per a ruling from a Court of Appeals, but only if a secular figure was added. Guess who got the honor. Santa, of course.
Your humble observer is as big a Santa fan as anyone, but there’s a limit even to his status. It’s a little sad the appellate court saw fit to order a Santa clause be inserted into the Establishment Clause of our First Amendment in order for anyone to commemorate the most special event in history. That establishes even more confusion to “establish.”
To this undereducated person, there’s something a little curious about an appellate court ruling the necessity of bringing secularity into serenity. In 2021, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled that a nativity scene at a courthouse was constitutional under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. Nothing secular required.
Earlier than that, in 1984 our U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of a seasonal holiday display that included a manger scene on government property, finding it was not in violation of the (guess what?) Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. No secular addition necessary.
Legal and legislative times are changing, perhaps at a pace more rapid than we out here in the sticks may realize. What also seems to be changing is how interpretation of the law, and our Constitution, seems to change from court to court, day by day.
Bet ol’ Thomas J. is tickled to know his classic canon can be such a confounding document, even for the most courtly Jurist Doctors.
Anti-Christmas sentiment among the few, however, does nothing to thwart the spirit of the season for your favorite Rocker. We sorta have sympathy for folks who don’t have enough joy in their souls to fill a Forelius’ fannypack. Our hope is that so many of us will exude happiness that moroseons will find our perspectives contagious.
As a Boomer, nostalgia is as much a part of this time of year as mistletoe and music. There will forever be the urge to hit the floor before sunrise to see what magic has appeared beneath a forest-retrieved, heavily decorated tree. That’s what Mother and Daddy did.
Even after Rocker had moved from home, that loving couple would be pounding on the door around veryearly:30, bearing gifts and demanding to see their grandchildren’s prizes. And, be assured, Miss Rose was standing beside them holding a skillet of ready-for-the-oven biscuits and a bucket of bacon.
The Christ child. Memories of Christmas past. The best gifts money can’t buy. May you and yours know the blessings of the season.
– Pat Culverhouse