For the past five years people have fussed at Best Buy for removing “Merry Christmas” from their advertising campaigns. Their spokeswoman, Dawn Bryant, claimed that they would continue to use the term “Holiday” because “Merry Christmas” was considered to be disrespectful to those who don’t observe that holiday. Guess what, boys and girls! They brought it back… but not alone. They love their Muslim friends so much, and see an open opportunity to treat the Muslim religion with as much commercialism and westernized care that they’ve been cashing in on with Christians for decades… so it’s Happy Eid Al-Adha! Oh, and since it would cause too much of an uproar if we didn’t also mention, even if only as a side note, merry christmas, happy hannukah and kickin’ kwanza too.

*sigh*

It’s a pretty nasty slap in the face of America overall, and even to Muslims who slobber all over the advertisement because of the recognition it claims to give. Any time commercialism grabs a holiday, no matter what the religion, the occasion becomes bastardized in an onslaught of commercials and advertisements. In this case Muslims are just another flock to fleece. I could only imagine how long it will be before we have an “It’s Eid Al-Adha time, Jareer Brown” or “How the Grinch stole Ramadan” special sponsored by seasonal Hajj flavored Coca~Cola with the slogan “Tastes like you were there!”

As to political correctness, I wish Best Buy kept it “Happy Holidays”. At least that way each person can leave it up to their own imagination what holiday is implied. That’s the way people want it in schools. Let the parents raise the children in the traditional way and make public education stick with the basic “R”s. As it currently stands, children are being indoctrinated about the Quran and Muslim faith while the Bible and Christianity are constantly under attack and there’s very little mention of Torah and Judaism in the schools because that might bring up a dirty Natzi past that, if discussed openly, could embarrass a few German exchange students.

BAH HUMBUG TO IT ALL! (Scrooge is both a hero and anti-hero; commendable for his disdain towards self-indulgent waste while reprehensible for his disregard towards humanity.)

The government should get out of the business of religion, stop promoting it and stop attacking it. The strict morals that coincide with the Muslim, Judaic and Christian faiths are similar enough that consensus could be made without compromise. I doubt any Muslim would argue against the 10 commandments even if they don’t accept them as word from God. Their precepts are reiterated throughout their scripture. If only they could stop executing jihad on every non-Muslim and nay-sayer we would get along muuuuuch better.

References
Snopes on Best Buy and Christmas
Snopes on Best Buy and Eid Al-Adha
Best Buy Bans Merry Christmas But Wishes Customers a Happy Eid Al-Adha in a National Advertisement
Best Buy Stands By Message Of Happy Eid Al-Adha Ad
Thanks, Best Buy for 2010 “Happy Eid Al-Adha” Wishes

Quran’s Message For Muslims Regarding Other Religions:
2:191 And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.

2:193 And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah.

2:216 Warfare is ordained for you, though it is hateful unto you; but it may happen that ye hate a thing which is good for you, and it may happen that ye love a thing which is bad for you. Allah knoweth, ye know not.

2:244 Fight in the way of Allah, and know that Allah is Hearer, Knower.

5:33 The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. Such will be their degradation in the world, and in the Hereafter theirs will be an awful doom.

Becoming Jewish from the stronghold of Christianity requires a continual examination of thought and a questioning of beliefs. I don’t see this as bad, but I need to be careful about what beliefs I allow into the picture. In that context, I see the need to retract some of my statements about Judaism and even Christ in my previous posts. Most of the retraction comes from semantics.

In baseball there’s a term called “sacrifice”. A batter deliberately hits the ball in a direction that will likely get caught, but far enough away from the other basemen that members of his team can advance to the next base. There’s also a religious term “sacrifice” which could involve killing an animal or human to pour that blood over something to appease a deity.

Since God forbids human sacrifice, and Jesus constantly referred to himself as the Son of Man (not Son of God), could it be that Jesus was giving us a message throughout his teachings that his death wasn’t for atonement or as a human sacrifice, but rather to advance people to God? Would I be at this point today, seeking out what God wants if it weren’t for someone hanging up for execution nearly 2000 years ago?

So what is spiritual success? For a teacher it’s leading people to God and enlightenment of the truth and a better life. For the individual it’s to live out the truth, to live a better life now and have an even better eternal life later.

How does anyone get spiritual success? John Macarthur Jr. said “Spiritual success requires commitment to others.” but the scriptures indicate it has to do with commitment towards God. People were committed towards the priests during Jesus’ day, but Jesus didn’t condone the acts of those people and even condemned the acts of the priests. Commitment towards the wrong person isn’t a path to success. So that brings me back to my search for God. The key to spiritual success is finding Him and being obedient to what He has to say. More often than not what I hear is theology and philosophy that people taught over the years directing towards self-inflicted suffering, which doesn’t equate to denying one sense to accentuate another. Fasting, for example, for the sake of suffering through it doesn’t get anyone anywhere but hungry. Fasting to deny that physical element of comfort that can impede on our search for the spiritual can make people more observant of the spiritual world around them.

I still have more searching to do… On a final note, is it possible to prosthelytize myself?

When I was a boy, growing up in the Southern Bible Belt, it was common to come across Jack Chick tracts. He’s about as legalistic as they come with condemnation, hellfire and a gratis of little devils coming after anyone who has a good time, and even acts of kindness are chalked off as excuses to pitchfork the cartoon character into a pit of brimstone. His point, at it’s bare roots, is Christian enough and I suspect he has more good intent than ill will towards his fellow man: Nobody is good enough to make it to heaven on their own. Everyone does wrong. The sentence for doing wrong is death – eternal death. Normally each person is responsible to pay the price for his or her own sin. But there’s a caveat clause – an exception that if a perfectly innocent person could die in your place and you accepted it as your own punishment then the blood has been paid and you’re free from the death penalty.

There are some issues with this that Jews have. First, God forbids human sacrifice of any kind so – why would He go against His own law and sacrifice someone? Second, there are plenty of blood sacrifices that aren’t for sin atonement but merely for thanksgiving. Third, there are plenty of atonement “sacrifices” that don’t involve blood or killing an animal. Consider Abram giving his tithe to Melchizedek. Consider the laws of a peace offering in Leviticus 3. Also consider the offering of the first fruits. The point I’m making is that there is more than one type of sacrifice. Some require blood and others don’t. What we need to look at are the different types of atonement.

• Kippur (כִּפּוּר) as in Yom Kippur (יוֹם כִּפּוּר) (http://www.ulpan.net/yom-kippur) represents an atonement with God that involves making your heart right with others.
• Kapparah (כַּפָּרָה) represents certain types of sin atoned through animal sacrifices – usually birds (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10735.html).
• chet’ (חֵטְא) [rhymes with "hate"] (http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H2399&t=kjv) represents more of harsher need for atonement: sin that we are guilty of. This type of atonement can also be translated as “punishment”.

Kippur is a root for other words such as frost or washbasins (כְּפוֹר), asphalt or village (כּוֹפֶר). These are all things that cover. In that similar fashion, atonement means to cover. Frost covers and destroys the plant in doing so. Asphalt and villages cover the harsh landscape making them habitable. There are different meanings and purposes. Sometimes that atonement comes in forgiveness and sometimes it comes in discipline which can range from paying for damages to death.

I’ve read some Jewish sites that claim blood has never been a requirement for atonement, but that there are other ways to get the atonement without involving an animal sacrifice. Depending on your definition of atonement, that’s true, and in Biblical standings there’s more than one type of atonement. The King James translation often uses the phrases “sin offering for/of atonement”, “atonement money” and “[a levite does something to] make an atonement for them/him”. Atonement may be achieved through repentance, animal sacrifices, money sacrifices (for census), confession, restitution, Yom Kippur, tribulations (suffering), corporal or capital punishment sentenced and executed by a court system, and death. The type of atonement is based on the need. Atonement and sanctification are intended to bring the people back to God and to keep order amongst the people. Noxiae poena par esto – Cicero (let the punishment fit the crime).

Jesus took the laws one step further and made it a matter of the heart. When we think about sin we’re guilty of it. If you hate your brother, you’re a murderer. If you eye down a woman, you’re an adulterer. When you imagine taking something that isn’t yours, you’re a thief. Not just that, you’re guilty of sin if you don’t do your duty. If you don’t base yourself to help those in need, if you don’t seek out the widows and orphans to provide for them, and if you don’t plan ahead to take care of your parents in their old age you’ve committed a crime. Suddenly everyone is guilty according to Jesus.

Having some lower-class bastard from the ghettos telling people that schoolteachers, government officials and the judges in the courts are all wicked wouldn’t make a good impression in any society at any time yet that’s exactly who Jesus was known as. Strangely, through his execution He proved himself right. The priests of His time performed the role of teachers, government officials and judges. Having banded together for His execution, they only proved Him right. So then the question is – was Jesus simply stirring up the hornets nest to prove a point, or was he really sacrificed by the hand of God, unbeknown to those involved and acting out predestined roles?

One born a Jew can become a Wiccan, Buddhist, Athiest, and any other imaginable religious zealot other than Christian and still be considered a Jew; yet any Jew who believes in Jesus as the Christ and Messiah is no longer considered a Jew – he dies to his Jewish heritage according to recent man-made ordinances and laws. But there’s another twist. Christians who come to understand more of God’s intent in all of us following His laws, and start following them are shunned by other Christians. Those who were born Jew get to still consider themselves Jews even if the world denies it. The Christians who live out Judaism, on the other hand, are a sort of amalgamate nobody. Jews won’t allow them to become Jewish. Christians consider them to have “left the faith”. Either way you look, both the Jews and the Christians who move towards Messianic Judaism are screwing themselves socially. It becomes a continual sacrifice and the atonement of tribulation is always nearby.

You can read more about Jewish atonement here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atonement_in_Judaism