Q - Kung wala pong biblical basis ang Santa Claus, reindeers, snow men, Christmas Trees ---at may associations pa nga with unChristian practices, bakit po ginagamit pang symbols or decorations sa Pasko?
A - Those symbols are used by most, if not all, NOT for their religious associations but for their EMOTIONAL associations. Kung paano man o para saan man ginamit yun ng mga sinaunang tao sa malayo nang panahon ---religious man o hindi--- hindi yun ang dahilan sa paggamit ngayon. Nagdedecorate ang mga tao to evoke memories of their happy chilhood and family life associated with past Christmases colored and defined by those symbols/decorations. Nagdedecorate ang mga magulang para ituloy ang masasayang alaala ng kanilang kamusmusan at ipasa/ipamana/ipadama sa mga bagong bata at musmos sa pamilya ang ganoong damdamin. Hindi para mag-glorify ng pagan symbols.
And what's wrong with the idea of a gift-giving Santa Claus based on a real-life person who ministered to countless people with his generosity?
What could be so wrong with a snow man? Or with puto bumbong or Christmas lights, especially the Philippine parol that reminds us of the Bethlehem star?
To ask recently born-again Christians or those who have just shifted to evangelical or biblical Christianity in their midlife to stop such practices is to cut them off from their innocent and harmless but enriching and empowering emotional heritage.
To deny the new generation of biblical/evangelical Christians these colorful and enlivening practices is to make them grow up in a cultureless, heritage-less, vaccum-like iconoclastic bubble. And for what? Nagiging mas banal, mas malinis at mas maka-Diyos ba talaga ang mga hindi nagpapalamuti ng mga ito?
- Ed Lapiz
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