Sean’s Christmas Message

Each year the churches in town get out their quills and demonstrate the poor levels of  learning offered by biblical colleges.  This year, as I did last, I wrote a letter.  Unfortunately the local paper does not house its letters on line, so I will summarize the letters that prompted mine.

From the Christian Community Centre

A focus on being good to one another and an invitation to their Christmas service

From the Catholic Church

A focus on family, and remembering the meaning of Christmas whether you attend church or not

From the Lutheren Church

An attack on science, evolution in particular.  Misrepresentation of the content of the bible and Christmas wishes.

From the Lighthouse Pentecostal Fellowship

A masturbatory piece about the return of the God-tyrant Jesus and Christmas wishes

In response the following letter was emailed and printed in full:

I feel compelled to write and congratulate the Christian Community Centre for their open “human focused” messages of compassion, acceptance and family in Tuesday’s advocate.  I would also like to give the local Catholic diocese an honorable mention for extending good will to the community,and not echoing the bigotry of their Pontiff.

The same cannot be said for Pastor Kuss, nor Pastor Haden. I found Pastor Kuss’s attacks on scientific theory and approach ill informed, and ungrateful. I think the Pastor was projecting when he claimed that scientific minds try to bait Christians. Scientific minds are usually “hell” bent on scientific enquiry until they are distracted by Creationist attempts to undermine the teaching of science. What says Pastor Kruss of the great scientists who are Christians and who accept evolution – take Francis Collins – a born again no less and one of the pioneers of the genome project?

Pastor Kuss derisively claims that we are presented with the latest theory of evolution, as if it’s some new fad. Clearly he knows nothing about evolutionary theory – oh, it gets refined, constantly and each time the theory becomes more concrete. I tell you what, why don’t we test some other theories like Gravity or does Pastor Kuss still think we are held to the earth by angels.

I presume too that Pastor Kuss, drives a car/bike, sees a doctor when sick, watches television – all results of science, the scientific method and the science minded.

Then we are on to the bible and where I suspect the good pastor may have missed some Religious Education classes as well as some Science and Maths. Pastor Kuss claims more than 99 % of the bible is dedicated to “gods promise of a Son”. For such a bold and over reaching statement to be true only ½ a book out of the 66 books of the Bible (Good News version) could be dedicated to anything else but Jesus and we don’t have to go past Genesis or Leviticus to blow that proposition out of the water.

I found Pastor Haden plain disturbing with his glee at the coming of Jesus as a ruling tyrant to whom all will bow and serve – a “dreadful yet glorious” day mixed in amongst the Christmas good wishes.

The simple fact of the matter is that we are here, with all our idiosyncrasies, cultures and beliefs – we are all that we have. There is no one to save us, we are entirely responsible for our disasters and triumphs.

If we concentrate not on which god, or which book of ancestral fairy tales is the “true word”, but on helping each other and if we do this not just at Christmas time but each and every time, then the world will be a better place.

I think its important to write letters, to attack idiocy when it presents itself.  Often its easy to just let things slide to think that it’s not worth it.   My sincere hope is that this letter will :

• Embarass the two Pentecostal Preachers
• Cause some in their congregation to question them
• Let other humanists, atheists and agnostics know that they are not alone
• give people the courage to criticise religion when it’s required.

Related posts:

1. A $50,000 Christmas Tree Reported in our local Murdoch owned rag The Centralian Advocate...
2. Creationist smackdown the final draft Below is the completed letter that I sent to the...
3. Sean to incur wrath of Catholic church Above is my letter to the local rag(click on...