Bah-humbug, and all that stuff!

Note to readers: After proofreading this I realize that it is more negative than I generally post and considered deleting it. But then I decided it's my rant and posted it anyway. Feel free to skip today's (or any day's) post.
JH

Christmas is an interesting time of year for a deconstructed evangelical Christian. While I still consider myself to be a follower of Jesus, I tend to view most religious things with the skepticism of a non-believer. Christmas as the celebration of the birth of the Christ-child just doesn't get it for me anymore. If I am being totally honest with myself, the whole "reason for the season" shite is just a saying to cover for the real reason of buying gifts and getting together with family and friends. 
And those are grand reasons to celebrate, I'm just having a difficult time transitioning to the secular Christmas that I struggled with in my Catholic childhood and evangelical adult life.

In my warped head I am thinking that Jesus is probably thinking WTF? as he looks down on a world that doesn't seem to care about glad tidings and has little (if any) goodwill among men.
For quite some time I have wondered what Jesus would say about a religion that celebrates his birth, but does little to actually follow his teachings. Something tells me that he never really wanted people to worship him the way religion has conditioned us to do, but just wants us to be kind and love one another.

Admittedly, there is a lot of good being done by a few churches and faith families. It is kind of sad that it isn't enough to really overcome my anti-church/anti-religion bias. It's probably accurate to say the good is being done by a few people in a few churches, but that may just be my negatively biased observation. 

I am going to go along to get along throughout the season. I am going to enjoy exchanging gifts with family and going to enjoy our time with the kids. I'll (semi) embrace the secular celebration and even give a religious head nod to Jesus, but I'd be lying to say my heart is really in it.
There is an abundance of good energy during the Christmas season. The world needs some good vibes. That's something I can celebrate.

However you choose to observe the season, do it well!
Merry Christmas
Happy Holidays
Whatever

John