AND NOW…IDIOTS

Saturday, November 28th, 2009 | Uncategorized

Church of England?  You may not be aware of this but one of the many reasons why nobody likes you anymore is that you gave Humphrey Southern a pointy hat:

Wishing people a Happy Christmas could be seen as an “insult” or even an “obscenity” as not everyone is in a position to celebrate, a bishop has warned.

The Right Reverend Humphrey Southern, the Bishop of Repton, said it was a “hollow” greeting to make to those who were suffering.

Writing in the monthly Derby diocese newsletter, he said: “This is the ‘Happy Christmas’ month. Yet to many that greeting will be hollow, coming as an insult, or even an obscenity.”

The bishop, 49, went on to ask: “What can ‘Happy Christmas’ mean in a family whose father has been killed in a military operation in Afghanistan that fewer and fewer people understand (still less support)?

And herrrrrrrrrre comes the leftist politics.

“How do you wish ‘Happy Christmas’ to a community in the Indian Ocean who can probably count on the fingers of a couple of hands the number of Christmases they will see before their home disappears under water, victim to global warming?

No need to sweat that one, Hump.  The SCIENTISTS!! at the Climate Research Unit will just change the data again and those folks in that Indian Ocean community of yours will be dry as a bone forever.

“What could it possibly mean to the victim of bullying, ostracism or racial intimidation in your workplace or neighbourhoods or community?”

So wipe that smile off your face!

While Advent was meant to be a season of preparation and expectation “too often”, he said, “that means things like shopping and decorating: working to create a domestic cocoon in which to be ‘Happy’ with friends and family.”

God forbid anyone should take pleasure in their friends and family.

Those who choose to celebrate Christmas in a cocoon and ignore the plight of others are “like the people who took their ease in the Inn, missing entirely what was happening in the Stable just around the corner,” he concluded.

Yo, Ebenezer.  You mean they should have been all like, “Is that the Son of God who will take away the sins of the world in that stable over there?  Why, yes, I believe it is.  We’d better go over and say hello or something?”

This is so stupid on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to begin.  So if you want to enjoy the holiday with your friends and your family, you don’t care about the less fortunate?

Interesting statement, that, since it implies that as long as there is one person anywhere in the world who is either less fortunate than you or has had a rougher year than you did, it is your Christian duty to be miserable 24/7/365.

Jesus said that the poor would always be with us and I think He meant that in a much broader way than just people who didn’t have sufficient money or resources.  There are always going to be the “less fortunate,” always going to be people who have undergone tragedies or suffered some great loss or other.

Families and friends are a gift from God, a gift meant to be enjoyed.  Merely making yourself feel bad about the less fortunate does not mean that you are concerned about them.  Actually doing something for the less fortunate, big or small, whether it’s opening a food bank or checking up on a grieving friend, does.

But it is the ignorance of human nature that is absolutely breathtaking here.  The period from May, 1990 to October, 1992 was the worst of my life.  I had just gotten my Master’s in Library Science and was getting rejection letter after rejection letter.

I had even interviewed for a reference librarian position at the library where I had worked on and off since high school and was turned down.  So I had no money apart from the occasional temp job and whatever I could get from selling whatever of value I had.

Add to this the fact that I was living with my father, someone with whom, to say the least, I had never been particularly close, and watching my mother die of Alzheimer’s one day at a time.  Suffice it to say that I almost memorized Psalm 88, I read it so often.

Christmas was pretty much all I had back then.  It was a little break, a little whiff of encouragement, a little indication that things would get better, and I grew to love it way more than I did when I was a kid. 

I couldn’t buy anybody much of anything so the background stuff began to matter a lot more.  Christmas Eve services, jumping in with the choir to sing the “Hallelujah Chorus” at the end(if you’ve never tried that, I heartily recommend it), and greeting friends there. 

Going over to my sister’s next morning.  My sister’s egg casserole.  Performing my goofy uncle responsibilites.  You know, the whole “domestic cocoon in which to be ‘Happy’ with friends and family” thing.

What’s your point, Johnson?  The point is that if people hadn’t said ”Merry Christmas” to me during that stretch and then went home to their friends, their families, their houses and their substantial bank accounts, I can’t say for certain whether I’d be alive today.

Thanks to Priscilla.

39 Comments to AND NOW…IDIOTS

Dale Matson
November 28, 2009

The heart of neurosis is false guilt. This is more false guilt that comes from the left. I would add that PETA now is asking teams to use robotic mascots to avoid potential harm to animals. Pleeeze liberals, stop micro managing others.

Smurf Breath
November 28, 2009

So according to Bp Southern, if I wish happy Christmas to a possible non-Christian, he will in all likelihood hear me to be saying, “H***y Ch******s, m*****f****r!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!”

Looks like the liberals sure did a number on this poor guy. He’s 49. I guess the rot started in England earlier than it did here.

FW Ken
November 28, 2009

I have to admit, some days the “Good” in “Good morning” is more than I can bear…

The English, it’s said, like to keep a few dotty bishops around for entertainment value. While it seems to be getting out of hand, I doubt anyone is paying attention to the old scold any more than the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Stephen
November 28, 2009

get the feeling Bishop Southern didn’t get that bike he wanted as a kid?

LaVallette
November 28, 2009

All in the spirit of Scrooge!!!

Bill (not IB)
November 28, 2009

It would appear that the ultimate idea here is for EVERYONE to be miserable. Rather than trying to spread joy, we are to spread gloom and guilt.

Remind me again - what’s the passage in the Gospel that says God wants us to live in misery*, sorrow* and fear*? You know - the one that many of us mistakenly think is talking about finding happiness and joy even in adversity through Christ? I just keep having a problem with my concordance when trying to find the correct (noted “*” above) terms.

Sometimes I think the reason bishop’s shirts/cassocks are purple is to match the color or their faces, since they so frequently either have a fit and hold their breath till they turn blue, or talk themselves blue in the face………

Janjan
November 28, 2009

Well, if you don’t mind, my childhood was spent in a pretty unhappy family, so I’ll damn well cocoon with my husband and children this Christmas, as much as I damn well please!! And dammit it all, wish Happy (or even Merry) Christmas to whomever I want.

And Johnson? If you’re ever near Boston at Christmas, you come and cocoon with us any time!

Don Janousek
November 28, 2009

Janjan: Damn right! This modern day Scrooge can sit alone in his cold room with a candle and his misery. And we can wish anyone we damn well please a “Merry Christmas,” as I am extending to you, damnit. And I damn well want to wish you and yours a damn good New Year today. I’ve always had a thing for feisty women.

Amy P.
November 28, 2009

Remember, folks: Misery loves company. Can’t get any more miserable than the likes of Rev. Southern. He just wants to drag the rest of us into that swamp of despair with him.

Christopher Johnson
November 28, 2009

If I am, I’ll be sure and let you know, Janjan.

:-)

Stephen
November 28, 2009

One other thing: when you say “merry Christmas,” isn’t it generally understood that you’re wishing someone to have one? If someone is in dire straits, isn’t that all the more reason to hope the season brings them some joy?

What is it with liberals wanting to make everyone equally miserable?

Therese Z
November 28, 2009

But they’re NOT miserable, there’s the rub! They put on their Serious Face, try and make everyone feel guilty (and partly succeed, damn them) and then go home and swan around with their unpretentious little red wine and their localvore greens and their sole contribution to charity besides benefit functions, their fair-traded scarves and necklaces, and sigh with self-satisfaction and pious righteousness.

Katherine
November 28, 2009

Didn’t he ever read “A Christmas Carol?” It was the people who had practically nothing who knew what Christmas is about, and the rich guy who was miserable.

If you have income this Christmas, give to your local food bank, buy an extra gift for the toy drive, or make a gift to the energy fund for people short of heat, and then go have a wonderful Christmas. And if you’re on the receiving end of the charity this time around, thank God for what you do have and give when you’re able to again.

This bishop has the soul of a dried prune.

Athanasius Returns
November 28, 2009

So… according to trifle for brains, er Bp. Southern, then, we should wish folks a Horrendous Christmas, or Cruddy Christmas???

After reading his effluence, I need a Glenlivet laddie, rrrrrrrright noooo!

My stuffed Winnie the Pooh (classic, mind ye) would make a better bishop than this waste of episcopacy, and Winnie is a bear of very little brain. Though, Winnie arguably has more brain than the ersatz bishop… Definitely Winnie has more heart.

muerknz
November 28, 2009

For me, the day where I consciously try to remember those who are suffering is the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 Dec.) which commemorates the death of the babies Herod had murdered. For me, this is a day to reflect on those innocent, vulnerable people (especially children) who suffer because of the greed and evil of other people. It is a reminder on how much we need Jesus Christ and the gift of redemption and salvation.

Advent and Christmas are a time of hope and joy - hope because we are suffering and we need God. Joy because he came and died for us. There is sweetness and bitterness in the season, especially when you reflect on this innocent little baby and then shift to the horror of Good Friday.

Duane
November 28, 2009

Even though the good bishop is married, I wonder if they sleep in separate bedrooms. He sounds like a man greatly in need of female companionship.

Priscilla
November 28, 2009

Same goes here, if you are ever in Oregon - any time of year, let us know and we will roll out the red carpet and bake a cake!

Christopher Johnson
November 28, 2009

Gotcha, Priscilla. My other sister lives in Beaverton so that may actuallly happen.

:-)

Kathleen Lundquist
November 28, 2009

Really? Chris, if you come out to see your sister, you guys gotta call me - Beaverton’s just across town from SE Portland, and I’d love to come over and hang out. I’ll bring Voodoo Doughnuts! :)

Duane
November 29, 2009

And the welcome mat is out in Atlanta, should you ever find your way down here.

Janjan
November 29, 2009

Chris!! Road trip!!

Therese Z
November 29, 2009

The man could travel around the country and never spend a cent. The welcome mat’s out in Chicago as well.

The Christopher Johnson Farewell ECUSA Tour!

FW Ken
November 29, 2009

From Atlanta, you can travel east on I20 to Fort Worth, where Peter C and I will be glad to meet your at the Ginger Man. North on I-35W and NW on 287 to Dumas, 87 (I think) to I-25 north to I-90 and west to Seattle…

ooops… Kathleen lives in Portland… make the necessary adjustments, but I-20 from Atlanta to FW is a good road.

Christopher Johnson
November 29, 2009

Folks I really appreciate the invitations. But the chances of my getting out of God’s 19th Century Railroad Town Slash Farm Town Slash Old Suburb With A Historical Society any time soon are not good mainly because of that money doohickey all the kids are into these days.

:-)

Paolo
November 29, 2009

“What can ‘Happy Christmas’ mean in a family whose father has been killed in a military operation in Afghanistan that fewer and fewer people understand (still less support)?”

Not saying ‘Happy Christmas’ would mean that this father is lost forever, that his family’s sorrow has no hope, and his sacrifice no meaning.

midwestnorwegian
November 29, 2009

“Are there no work houses? No treadmills?”

-Ebenezer Scrooge.

The Little Myrmidon
November 29, 2009

Damn, I was going to opt in to show you Boston (as well as select parts of the South Shore and then go careening up to Maine (hitting Cow Hampshire on the way.)

muerknz
November 29, 2009

So I guess you aren’t going to make it to Greymouth, New Zealand then. Now who will I feed roast lamb and pavlova too?

Christopher Johnson
November 29, 2009

muerknz, if I EVER make it down your way, you’re the FIRST person I’ll ask ‘em for.

;-)

Katherine
November 29, 2009

Paolo has the right idea. It’s a Happy or Merry Christmas because of what happened on that first Christmas. God was incarnate of the Virgin and born “for us men and for our salvation.” Without that, we have no hope for better.

Janjan
November 29, 2009

Money? You don’t need no steenkin’ money!! Whatsamatta with your thumb?

Robb
November 30, 2009

Chris
Set up a road trip fund. We might suprise ya!

Therese Z
November 30, 2009

Just think - we could re-establish the salon. Bring Mr. Johnson, serve drinks and dainties, and lean thoughtfully against things while we discuss the world.

Barney
November 30, 2009

and the person spoke to the others as the person locomotived out of perception: A Merry Ramahaunakwanzamass to all thinking caring, and sensitive individuals aand additionally to them all a fairly equal evening.

I came back from Iraq and absolute mess… duh… Christmas and the holiday season restored some normalcy to my life.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY BIRTHDAY (12/30) HAPPY GNU YEAR!

Peyton
November 30, 2009

Barney,

Thanks for your service. and Happy Advent.

Peyton

diane in nc with a small d
November 30, 2009

Slightly off-topic: Here’s another spoilsport spreading his bah-humbug gloom:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231935/Bishop-rubbishes-Christmas-carols-silly-inaccurate-embarrassing.html?ITO=1490

Why can’t these idiots just shut up?

CS Baillie
November 30, 2009

A stable full of horses, camels, donkeys and their generous contributions of body heat, manure and the attendant exothermic process was probably a lot warmer than the fireless bedrooms upstairs.

diane in nc with a small d
November 30, 2009

CS, LOL — just imagine that carbon footprint!

Janjan
November 30, 2009

They don’t shut up because they think they count.

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