It’s Monday, December 28th, 2015…and here’s a memento of a most memorable Christmas morning:

Why did we find ourself wishing, as our friend Stilton Jarlsberg suggested, we’d gone to Taco Bell Christmas Eve?!?

Now, here’s The Gouge!

Though the weekend gave us plenty of time to organize a full post-Christmas column (which we did and will publish come Wednesday), watching the video featured in our Christmas special of the flashmob entertaining the crowd with Ode to Joy…

…we were struck by the contrast the performance highlighted between Islam and Christianity, and decided to run with that.

Thanks to the influence of Christianity (albeit, as a result of mankind’s sinful nature, an all-too-frequently imperfectly practiced faith), the Western World developed the arts, sciences, culture and collective morals we enjoy today, and which:

1. Allowed Beethoven the skills and training to write one of the most memorable pieces of music ever put to paper, along with the instruments to perform it.

2. Provided the innumerable smart phones memorializing the event.

3. Enabled the elderly lady at the 2:35 mark the right to enjoy the impromptu concert without the hindrance of a veil. 

4. Permitted the laughing children at the 3:22 mark the right to avoid future marriages which amount to indentured servitude, not to mention the pain and suffering of enforced clitorectomies.

5. Entitled the assembled crowd to view the festivities without being blown to bloody bits because someone determined the performance not in conformance with Sharia law.

As opposed to Islam, whose:

1. Only discernible enrichment of the arts consists of the adhan, the Muslim call to prayer which is, at least according to one acknowledged expert on the subject, B. Hussein Obama, “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset”.

2. Single advancement in science is more varied and venal forms for executing the innocent.

3. Solitary cultural contribution is the destruction of innumerable ancient artifacts and invaluable works of antiquity.

And which remains the greatest threat to freedom, both religious and political, on the planet.

The fact Islam’s biggest apologist…

…could only offer the Crusades, events which occurred almost 1,000 years ago, as equivalent to the violence currently being visited upon the world by Islamic extremists bespeaks the moral and ideological bankruptcy of those defending the indefensible. 

As Mike Brown notes at Townhall.com…

Of Course Muslims and Christians Don’t Worship the Same God

“…Can there really be any serious debate as to whether Muslims and Christians worship the same God? Someone could argue that both faiths represent human attempts to please and obey the Creator, but what those faiths say explicitly about that Creator is mutually exclusive.

We do not worship the same God, which is why Muslims seek to convert Christians to Islam and Christians seek to convert Muslims to faith in Jesus.

The good news is that Jesus really is Lord and that one day, willingly or unwillingly, every knee will bow to Him and every tongue will make that very confession – “Jesus the Messiah is Lord” – to glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11).“

If, as Rudyard Kipling wrote, “East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”, when it comes to true Christianity and idyllic Islam, they’re in totally different dimensions!

On the Lighter Side…

Finally, Erick Erickson details…

The Glorious Impossible

“…From personal experience, I can tell you that sometimes it is better to not focus on yourself, but to help someone else. Our natural temptation is to bunker down in a well of self-pity and doubt, to tell no one, and to feel overwhelmed. If you are weary and heavy laden this Christmas season, I have been there. I have fallen to a low I never anticipated, only to be lifted right back up again. Wallowing in the misery is neither helpful nor beneficial. There are others out there willing to share the burden and there are others at lower places than you. Turning to help others at Christmas is the best prescription to get out of any funk you may be in.

But there is another too who can share your burden. This Christmas, as commercialism and secularism set in, we should not forget what the holiday is all about. More than two thousand years ago, a baby was born in a manger. The people of the age expected a mighty king who would wear a golden crown and rule with iron fists. Instead, we got an infant born in a stable surrounded by animals. The first witnesses to his birth were shepherds, who were of such a low station in life, their testimony was not even accepted in courts of the day.

That is the glorious impossible to which we should all be amazed. The Christian faith is a faith of miracles and blessings and grace. We worship a child born of a virgin who was tortured and crucified, died, was buried, and then rose again. It is an impossibility, yet we believe by faith it happened. We have the testimony of men and women in ages past who were willing to go to their deaths proclaiming Jesus as their Lord.

The odds are at this Christmas season you are not going to be tortured or beheaded for your faith. While it is happening abroad, we are blessedly exempt here from those horrors right now. But Christ the Lord does reign and was born and does live. Your Christmas burdens can be cast onto him and he will carry your burdens and even carry you.

Christmas is a restoration. In the Garden at the fall, God no longer walked among men. In a manger in Bethlehem at the fulcrum point of history, God walked with us again and will walk with you if you ask. History before Jesus’s birth pointed to him and history now yearns for his return. As you get overwhelmed this season with heavy burdens, there is one who history points to who will share your burden if only you will ask. Merry Christmas.“

And a safe and blessed 2016!

Magoo