A thought on Christmas

Garrison Keillor recently posted some of his thoughts on Christmas.

The part that caught my attention was here:

Unitarians listen to the Inner Voice and so they have no creed that they all stand up and recite in unison, and that's their perfect right, but it is wrong, wrong, wrong to rewrite "Silent Night." If you don't believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn "Silent Night" and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism and we Christians have stood for it long enough.

First off, we do have a creed that we recite in unison.*  Way to do the research, there.

Second off, I don't want to be unreasonable here, so I tell you what.  I will reject the results of spiritual piracy if you will.  I'll keep my filthy mitts off "Silent Night" if you let go of pagan Christmas customs: what do you say?  Think it over carefully, Garrison--that would mean no Christmas presents for you; those are from Saturnalia.  That would mean no Christmas tree for you: that's from Yule.  That would mean no Chrismas dinner (nothing special anyway) and no Christmas candy--those are from Saturnalia.  No wreath or yule log either.   No lights...

But if you can give those pagan things up, Garrison, that means you can have Silent Night unmolested.  I have it by the throat, Garrison; you don't want to see what I can do to Silent Night if you annoy me with hypocrisy.

So, what do you say?

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"Love is the spirit of this church, and service is its law:
To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another,
This is our great covenant."