There are sabbath keeping churches who do not celebrate christmas, most notably and notoriously the 7th day adventists, of which I am not. However there are many others, and so you cannot say that celebrating chritmas is the norm. Its only the norm for your church and other churches who share your viewpoint.

Also please dont use language like "us christians"
because you are speaking for people you havent met and who may not agree with you. There are over 1,200 different denominations in the USA, with over 60% of the country claiming to be christians, and many like me do not agree with you and dont appreciate you speaking for us.

What do you mean when you say "religious spirit", how can you tell? I never read these words coming out of the word of GOD, does everyone who disagrees with you have a "religious spirit"?
That sounds more like an accusation then a statement of fact. Someone else could describe you as having a "religious spirit" because you are very religious.

If you dont want to stand up for the truth then thats fine. But I must tell the truth, if you insist on celebrating christmas I really dont care, but you are mixing the pagan with the sacred. 1Timothy 4, vs7 "But reject profane and old wives fables", like christmas.

Thats fine, however this holiday is actually saturnalus, a roman pagan celebration. Your valliant attempt to make something christian out of something pagan is not standing up for the truth. Jesus died telling the truth. Also, this pagan holiday was in existence during the life of Jesus and there is no record of him or anyone else in scripture celebrating this pagan holiday.

scandal, another bad love.

But this is a retelling of the truth. What does Jesus say about his own memorial? At the last supper, Jesus broke bread and had wine with his apostles. "This is my body" and again, "this is my blood. DO THIS IN REMEMBERANCE OF ME". So there is the simple truth as revealed by the word of GOD, christmas is adding to the word of GOD. Also, you completely fail to acknowledge the pagan origins of christmas.

Keepthehope; they are still trying to solve the problem of an empty tomb and a risen savior.

One more thing; its very condescending to tell someone that they have no right to the truth because they are not "born again". What you are really saying is "shut up". If someone tells a lie bear witness to that lie, but if someone tells the truth and you pull this "Im somehow closer to GOD then you are" then you completely shut down intelligent debate and lose any oppurtunity to tell the truth about anything.

Some of you people are tripping, this is to be expected. Many people feel that any truthtelling about the pagan origins of christmas is nothing more then an attack on the church. But how can this be? Isnt GOD a GOD of truth? So lets tell the truth about chritmas; christmas is a pagan holiday complete with its own little seperate but equal belief system, its own little pagan god santa claus, and a complete retelling of the birth of Christ including snow. So let me ask any of you this; the kids suffering from genocide in the sudan, do they care that its christmas? Or does GOD only love your over priveledged behinds enough to give you more stuff that you dont need? And how does all this consumption and this consumer mentality square with the will of GOD?

I dont have all the answers and beware of anyone who does; but my understanding of GOD is that GOD to be GOD has no needs. Not a need to create, so why are we here? Maybe that is the real question, and maybe the answer is different for each person, maybe we are all on a different mission.

I have gotten several attempted scammers on mingle, the things I look for are; 1 not whithin driving distance and 2, less then standard english. These people are not the people in the picture, and they are often not in the USA. Also they will delete their profile right after contact and try to get you to IM or Email directly to them so that they dont get exposed by the mingle community. It sucks, but it can happen to anybody. The words, "honey, baby, sugar" and such are designed to get you to fall in love with a picture, certainly a picture that is not the person writing to you. Dont give up, I met a very attractive lady on mingle, but it took maybe 18months.

I play guitar, bass and drums. I also play basketball and I lift weights. Being a musician and being an athelete are not mutually exclusive, and both can lead to spiritul growth, but very seldom economic success.

republica, ready to go

eurhythmics

When I was in the service some of the soldiers did not come home, it was a crying shame to see someone cut down in the prime of life. The life of an infantry soldier is filled with sorrow. I left tears on the battlezone so that I could move on with civillian life.

Reincarnation is a grown people fantasy for those who for whatever reason cant deal with the realities of life.

The main problem with reincarnation is that the math doesnt work. For example; if you are a rapist you have to return as a victim to work out karma and learn your lesson. But in order to do this, reincarnation must create another rapist so that the original can return as the victim. This is an endless cycle.
Also, what are you saying with reincarnation?
That all the rich people here were poor in past lives and so deserve their riches? That all the victims of genocide in the sudan were murderers in past lives and so deserve to be slaughtered?
Reincarnation is a grown people fantasy for those who for whatever reason are unable to deal with the simple realities of life.

I am a vet, I was an infantryman, I served on the DMZ in Korea in 1985-86. In my opinion we cannot bring home the soldiers, sailors and airmen quickly enough.
Many people arent old enough to remember the war in Vietnam personally, but what we are confronted with is another Vietnam.
How can we win?
Who is the enemy?
What about corporate america, war profiteering, and a political agenda that includes the religious right, all united in their agreement that this war is the right thing to do?
My understanding is that 1.2million Iraqis have paid with their lives for what?
Bring the troops home right now.

Everybody has the right to their own opinion; however it seems to me that you are making it up as you go along.