There is No Santa Claus

    There is no Santa Claus. There, I said it.  Now let the mob with the  torches and pitchforks come and get me.  Let the hysterical moms rend me limb from limb while calling me a jerk.

  We live in the most insane times where people that ought to know better don’t.  .  People who claim to love the truth will either endorse a lie by their participation or will refuse to rebuke that lie, giving credence to it by their silence.

  There is no Santa Claus. There never was, there never will be. It is as much a lie as any other lie you could tell, except it’s a lie that compels you to prop it up with other lies once that lie is put out there.  This skein of falsehood is done under the pretense of giving children a ‘good childhood’, because after all, a good childhood is determined by  how high your parents can build your false hopes before they pull back the curtain and reveal that they’ve been lying to you all these years.

  It is never right to lie.  Ever.

  A relative of mine, when her kids were well past the age in which she should have stopped lying to them (that age is ‘birth’, since you asked)  perpetuated the  lie with elaborate things like  snowy footprints on the roof ( in south Georgia, where it does not snow) and reindeer tracks. All to keep this elaborate insane seasonal hoax going. It is irrational hatred of your children to do so.  And I, as a minister of the gospel, and one who claims to stand for the truth, will not help you lie.

  I know a married couple where the husband is anti-Claus, and the wife believes it to be harmless fun.  This puts them in an interesting   situation where their kids have their picture taken with a man who they are then told does not exist.  See how complicated you can make things? See how easy it is to have division in your home?  See what sin does?

  If someone told their children that God was a giant asparagus, I would  not participate and respect their family wishes if the topic came up. I cannot possibly know all the weird beliefs that every family has and I have no respect for lies glossed over by ‘that’s just their culture’ or ‘that’s just their belief’ or ‘that’s just their family’.  It’s easier just to tell the truth all the time.  I would tell the truth, and I don’t do this to hurt them, or to undermine you. I do this because I am committed to the truth.  You should be too.

  But in the backwards world we live in, those of us that ever year mock the big red lie are the jerks. We are the ‘Grinches’ somehow. We are ones trying to rob precious children of their innocence.  Us, with our truth not you with your lie.   We are the ones lambasted as  ‘meanies’   It’s insane.