In the competition for worst Christmas ever, it is a tie this year between Robert Schoff who got stuck in his sepic tank or Roger Goswell who put his dead wife under his Christmas tree or Shawn Johnson who paid for opening his present early by being stabbed by his wife.
Robert Schoff, 77, was merely trying to unblock his septic tank on Christmas Eve when he got stuck upside down in the opening of his septic tank with his head inside and his feet kicking in the air. In the understatement of a lifetime, Schoff compalined that “it was the worst Christmas Eve I’ve ever had.”
He was eventually saved by his wife. For retired businessman, Roger Goswell, it was his wife that was the apparent problem. Goswell beat his wife, Susan Goswell, 63, a retired teacher, to death with a golf club and then placed her neatly under their Christmas tree. He then ran Smart car into a tree, killing himself.
Then again there is Christmas at the Johnsons. In Wyo., Misty Johnson, 34, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and battery, a felony, and misdemeanor domestic battery. Shawn Johnson told police that his wife started arguing with him over his opening a Christmas present. For that story, click here
For the septic tank story, click here
For the English story, click here
I should add that I am aware of Christians in the middle east; I have a friend whose mother is a Christian from Lebanon and my niece is acquainted with a nun from Iraq–I am aware of their stories and that the US is not particularly open to their problems. I do not know why people are dumb [both ways] to the issue. I think that a lot of us have be raised to believe that there are no Christians at all there. The area in fact was Christian long before the Crusades, and has ever been subjected to invaion and civil war.
Well, Vincent Caminiti, that’s very well and good. So what about Lenin? How many died for religion under his rule? Do we even know? Can we ever know? And Stalin? Remember Stalin? Communist governments, which are always atheist, are credited with 62 million. Oh, and Mao Tse-tung , who tops them all with 35 million. And then there’s Mexico, whose persecution of priests was immortalized by Graham Greene in “The Power and the Glory.” And then, of course, there’s Cuba. . . . The atheists in the last hundred years have murdered more people – and for religion – than any Grand Inquisitor. It’s not about religion. It’s about power. The Romans did it, too—Christians refused to honor the Emperor as a god. If you don’t go to the King’s Church, then you’re apt to hear some upstart ideas—Baptists and anabaptists came from all countries, as with Quakers, because they believed that there should be no nobility. As for the Inquisition, I suggest you check out England’s Penal Laws established against the Catholics, and read up on some of the English martyrs. They are listed in the history books as hung for treason, but Parliament declared Mass as an act of treason and that was that. By the early 17th century, they had easily executed at least as many Catholics—Irish and English—as Bloody Mary has executed Protestants. You might look it up. And you surely should read “The Power and the Glory” for a good story about religious persecution today.
It’s unusual to see a post on your site with this type of content – and considering you are the host, I politely want to thank you for the rarity of such posts. But mostly, an expression of unbridled enthusiasm for the great forum you provide for many of us. You haven’t been dislodged from logic or your training by the celebrity status you have gained. Your answers are never self-serving – however it’s your questions that I have come to cherish.
Now, if you’ll permit me, I would like to talk about the real worst Christmases, and I want to be clear, I’m not speaking about anything from a personal religious perspective; but rather, from the exhaustion of utter bewilderment.
Our Nation’s roots are routinely likened to the ‘Christian Values’ of the founding fathers. Despite the offended posture many assume, facts support that religion did have a great deal of influence, both offense and defense. In the past decade we’ve watched many proclaim their Christian faith vociferously, and Churches working diligently to encourage particular political candidates while performing a Dance of the Seven Veils on a tight rope with their tax exempt status.
Christ’s name is invoked in staccato from Coast to Coast. As much as I would like to drift off into satirical rhetoric, I will resist out of respect for the precious blog real estate you’ve bestowed upon us.
However, I will point out, that with very very little exception, none of the major Christian denominations nor the Roman Catholic Church has even remotely acknowledged the number of Christians that have been subjected to torture, genocide, kidnapping/ransoms and protection money in Iraq. Most of these Christians are Catholics (Eastern Rite) and they are bewildered at the silence from the mouths of the American Christians who seem very happy to openly show contempt for Islam – but absolutely no mention of their Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq that have been essentially neutered by the plethora of Islamic extremist groups that have been holding Iraq hostage since shortly after our President declared Mission accomplished.
So … when you think of those worst Christmases … please don’t forget about those terribly distressed families in Iraq that have had what was once, a life safe from radical Islamic Theocrats. Now homeless wanderers, that have fled as a direct result of our reckless actions as a Nation and our feckless Congress who need to shoulder the blame and pay for it. Because it has also been paid for with Christian lives that American Christians would rather not mention because it screws up their political causes and their entanglement with the neo-conservative right.