There is no war!

The War on Christmas

Already the Christmas War has begun and it...is...NOT....EVEN...HALLOWEEN.

There is NO WAR on Christmas.

There IS a WAR on YOUR WALLET.

You lost that war last year, let's try to win it this year.

This year's first volley was Facebook taking down a picture of the stable scene. If you were to take a really good look at the picture, you would discover it is a painting and you would also discover it is copyrighted. In other words, this painting belongs to the artist and it was stolen from their website. There are only three reasons Facebook takes a picture down and Number 1 is the image is stolen and belongs to someone.

Has it occurred to you yet that this particular image is famous and was chosen because it would be taken down....?? Of course not because they have you by the non-reasoning part of your 'I must fit in brain'.

So let me dispel a few lies for you. The War on Christmas is BIG BUSINESS. Yes, it is a real money maker. First off, you have the bumper stickers and if you don't have one on all your vehicles you are obviously a devil worshiping I don't know what. The wholesale price of a bumper sticker is between fifty cents and a dollar depending on the quantity you have printed. They have thousands printed. The price can go down into the pennies in great quantities. Now...how much did you pay for that bumper sticker?

Then there are the magnetic ones that won't ruin your car finish sold at twice or three times the price of the glue on ones. Yes, they cost a little over twice the price of the glue on ones to make. Just go out to any printing site and price the products. Those are prices for one. When you move it into the thousands, the price drops like a rock.

Now let me show you some math. Get five people to give you a dollar and you have $5.00. Get a hundred to give you a dollar and you have $100.00. Get a thousand to give you a dollar and you have $1,000.00. Keep in mind they are making at least $2.00 profit so you can double that amount.

AND THAT IS JUST BUMPER STICKERS.

It's not even Halloween and you are already being set up for a con that can't fail because as a good Christian you have to have a sign proclaiming you are a good Christian. Oddly enough, even the Pope says you will known by your good works and somehow, I just don't think plastering your home page and your car with the War on Christmas is what anyone had in mind as good works, except the guy selling you those things and collecting to fight the good fight in his easy chair having a nice cognac and cigar.

But that is only the tip of a very nasty iceberg. By declaring certain stores unfriendly to Christians, they succeed in both directing traffic to a specific store and black mailing (yes, it's a nasty word but if the shoe fits...) the other store. A friend of mine fired a woman for theft and I mean tens of thousands of dollars worth of theft. It cost him another $600.00 twenty years ago to join the “Christian Business Man's Association” to get taken off the black list of businesses to avoid. Yes, you read that right and today that would be like a couple of grand. Now, if that isn't black mail, what is?

The holiday season is when businesses make close to 50% of their entire year's profit. So, they will pay and do anything not to be blacklisted. You will pay anything not to be blacklisted and that is what not buying that bumper sticker would get you.

But it gets worse. I know, you didn't think that was possible. This is the only time of year you are going to get the sermon on giving and how to be thankful for the little you have left. There will be people on every street corner ringing bells. Hands are out everywhere for money and always, new toys.

Let's get real. People only get hungry on the holidays and kids only need toys on the holidays. That didn't fly, did it? So why is there someone with their hand out for your hard earned money on every street corner. The word is GUILT and if you want to start over at the beginning, let's go to the sermons on how much you have to be thankful for and how you need to be generous. Do you make more money at the holidays? Do you find an extra twenty in your paycheck? Heck no! So why are you being hit up now and not February 15^th? People are going to be just as hungry today as tomorrow. Why do you have to donate NEW toys? Wouldn't your children's toys they no longer use be just as good? All year you donate them to the thrift shop and sale and suddenly, they aren't any good??? It's just another way to separate you from your money at a time you need it most.

There is nothing “religious” going on here. It is straight profit and loss and Churches like stores make up 50% of their budget during the holiday season starting with that fictitious War on Christmas. You see, you need an enemy to rally the troops and to get them to lay down their wallets on your altar.

A very famous 'minister' once let it slip that through the 'plate' passing and various scams like bumper stickers, jewelry, inflated clothes prices, and getting donations of art work, cars, etc...he made way more money than through the tithes because you don't notice being nickeled and dimed to death.

I was at a Spiritualist Church one evening with a friend and he ran out of money around the 4^th time the plate went around and on the fifth time it was pennies for something. They cleaned you out of pennies because that was all you had left. But it didn't stop there. If you were anyone, you had to go to the restaurant and you had to donate a couple dollars more pay for the 'poor' minister's dinner. A couple of dollars times around 35 people is $70.00. How much do you think this man was eating in a cheap restaurant where the average tab was under $15.00? That's at least $55.00 he stuck in his pocket.

Instead of thinking you can spare a buck, take a look at how many people are sparing a buck and how many get sucked into the one-up-manship of putting a fiver in that plate pretending to be better off or giving more until it hurts.

There is no War on Christmas. There IS a war on your wallet and you are losing, big time. Wake up and refuse to play the game. There are plenty of soup kitchens. Call them up and ask them what they need or give them the money. They will at least actually feed people. Keep in mind that you have no real idea how much money is raised during these War on events. You have no idea how much is actually making its way to needy people and how much is expenses to the pastor's friends and relatives. Cash is a wonderful thing. It gets lost easily into someone wallet and there is no record for the IRS. Do you keep track of how much you drop in the various plates and buckets? Do you think they do?

Stop letting people play your guilt strings and do something that really will help people who need it rather creating a publicity event for some 'religious' person to get their picture taken. As one man said, “I can tell who is the biggest crook by the number of pictures on the wall with famous people or at charity events”. In fact, this is so pervasive that I had a woman walk out of my shop because I didn't have any pictures of me with 'famous' people and thus I must be no good. Actually, I have the pictures, I just respect people's privacy unless they specifically give me permission to use their picture and even then, I usually have them in a back room on the wall where I see them.

Please try to know when you are being played. That really will help people.

By the way, am I the only one who noticed the “War of Christmas” arrived at the same time the GOP started demonizing the poor and disabled as lazy grifters and worshiping Ayn Rand? Convenient timing if you ask me. We can't ask you to support these lazy welfare queens but we can ask you to support our efforts in the war on OUR faith. Being cynical saves me a lot of money.