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Don't Deck the Kingdom Halls
Fri., Dec. 23. 2005 10:17am EST
Want a quick cure for your commercialized Christmas blues? Talk to a Jehovah's Witness at this time of the year, and you'll realize just how good you have it and how much Christmas spirit you still have left. They're not permitted to celebrate Christmas, and they point to the pagan roots of the holiday and the fact that Jesus probably wasn't born on December 25 or even in December.
If you get into deeper discussions with them, you'll discover that they don't believe that Jesus is/was God, that He died on a cross, that He rose from the dead in bodily form, that He can come to live inside of you, or that you (or 99% of the Jehovah's Witnesses alive today, for that matter) are going to ever go to Heaven. And that's just scratching the surface. Talk about taking all the joy out of Christmas!
Before you get into a verbal exchange with them, please remember to pray for wisdom, mercy, and empathy. You probably know what it's like to be rejected or criticized for your religious beliefs; imagine facing that all the time (as they do) and not having Christ inside your heart to comfort you, encourage you and remind you of the assurance of your salvation.
But back to their point about the pagan roots of Christmas. Yes, the holiday is extremely close to the Winter Solstice, and the early church used that fact to its advantage. Let's hope the pagans don't reclaim their holiday. ApologetiX lead singer J. Jackson remembers working in the public relations field and receiving a "Happy Winter Solstice" card from a particularly "progressive" ad agency. Thankfully, we haven't seen any of those since.
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