Operation Christmas Child. A charitable act by a fundamentalist christian group that not only advocates, but encourages commercialism in order to buy their way into the lives of potential new followers.
Hmmm....
Operation Christmas Child run by an organisation called the Samaritan's Purse.
Again... Hmmmm....
Now if you had bothered to READ that thread there is a link to a Guardian Story, which in the course of the article explains the parable of the good Samaritan.
A man is mugged in the Wadi Qelt between Jerusalem and Jericho. Whereas the religious pass by and do nothing, it is the Samaritan who offers care. Those listening to the story would have despised Samaritans. The words "good" and "Samaritan" just didn't go together. Indeed, theirs would have been the General Boykin reaction: that Samaritans worshipped the idol of a false god. Therefore, in casting the Samaritan as the only passer-by with compassion, Jesus is making an all-out assault on the prejudices of his listeners.
If the story was just about helping the needy, whoever they are, it would have been sufficient to cast the Samaritan as the victim and a Jewish layperson as the person who helped. Crucially, however, the hated Samaritan is held up as the moral exemplar. Conclusion: we must overcome religious bigotry.
The story of the good Samaritan, in the hands of Franklin Graham, is conscripted as propaganda for the superiority of Christian compassion to the brutal indifference of other religions - almost the opposite of the purpose of the story.
So to me this means, you can have your version of Christmas and it can mean something in particular to you, but actually you don't have full claim to it, even if it has the word Christ in the title. If you do, you are displaying religious bigotry and being intolerant of the beliefs of others.
And when there are people like Graham using the story in its twisted form, is it any wonder that many people notice and see through the hypocrisy and cynical manipulation of the good and well meant intentions of other and use it for their own agendas that are completely at odds with the teachings that Jesus is supposed to have given.
This is why people can be scathing of Christianity, sometimes very unfairly, because they are in the mistaken belief that these twisted views and intolerance is shared by everyone who follows the faith.
And this is why Christians should challenge other Christians who display views like this. To show that it is a religion that doesn't look down its nose at others who don't believe the same as them.
Christmas is not just a religious festival in the uk now. It is so ingrained into our way of life it is a cultural festival with goes far beyond the religious story in its ideals of morality. It is a time for sharing and giving and thinking of others and that holds universal appeal.
Christmas itself is something that can be shared.