Santa: harmless fun/dangerous illusion/pernicious cult? (fwd)

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Forwarded with permission...

From:     Mark Harrison <marknear@COIL.COM>
Date:     Thu, 7 Dec 1995 09:37:52 -0500
Subject:  Santa: harmless fun/dangerous illusion/pernicious cult?

Santa: harmless Christmas fun, dangerous childhood illusion, or
pernicious cult?

For many children believing in Santa is seemingly harmless Christmas fun.
They suffer no ill effects and grow up to be perfectly well adjusted
adults, who "pretend" with their kids. Many in my family and church are
like this. To them, believing in Santa is just a magic part of Childhood.
Please don't take that away from the kids. After all, Christmas is for
kids!

I believe that parents are 100% wrong for encouraging their children to
believe in Santa Claus. Some statements and then my story.

1) What is a Christian's standard of truth? I can tell my children
truthfully that I have never lied to them. Truth is the standard in our
house. No white lies. I always told the kids "You can't have any more
candy." I've never said "All gone!", when there was more candy left. Our
standard of truth is God's standard. "And you shall know the truth ..."
When my (12 year old) daughter told a lie last summer, she was devastated
for having told it. She knew she could not keep it up. It ate at her, and
she finally blurted out, "I lied! I lied!" and wept in repentance.

2) The shady gray land between truth and fiction encourages adults to
give shady gray answers to children. Adults learn to answer questions
that are not being asked, and children learn to accept answers like,
"Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus", and "Santa is the spirit of
Christmas", when what they really want to know is if a fat man in a red
suit really comes into the house at night.

3) Being taught a lie sets a child up to distrust his parents. The
illuminati at school love to tell younger kids "There ain't no Santa".
The parents say, "Yes there is. He is the spirit of Christmas".
Eventually the parents are shown to be liars. Whom should the kid trust
for information on truth, purity, safe sex, religion, morals, and
political philosophy? Not those parents. They lie.

4) Disillusionment is an initiation into the priestly side of the myth,
and is inevitable. "Now that you have attained enlightenment, my son,
never tell your younger brothers." How many people really figure the
truth out on their own? Is this a celebration of childhood innocence, or
a cruel hoax, where parents, teachers, and older children can feel
superior to the young and innocent?

5) Why did Santa bring the rich kid an electric train, and bring me a
colorforms crash dummies play set? Well, I must be a little good, and the
rich kid is very good. Wealth equals moral value. This is why people
fought over Cabbage Patch dolls in 1981 and will answer an ad and pay
$150 for a 1995 holiday Barbie.

6) To Santa Claus are ascribed certain aspects of deity, and Santa is
therefore a false god. "He knows when you are sleeping. He knows when
you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good..." He seemingly owns
the Barbies on a thousand hills. Since he can go everywhere to every
child in one 24 hour period, he is close to omnipresent. He is old, but
never dies, being immortal. He can make himself invisible according to
some. "Be anxious for no Christmas gift, but tell Santa all the gifts you
want. And the peace of Santa, which surpasses all comprehension ..." But
then, I see idols everywhere. When our kids were little, we were
concerned that the Santa thing had gotten out of proportion, and we
wanted to be different, so we taught them to believe that Count Chocula
brought their gifts. :) Why don't Christians teach their children that
the pythoness at Delphi brings their gifts?

7) Children are afraid to admit to their parents that they have stopped
believing, because they fear the ending of presents. Life's lesson? Lie
for loot.

8) Parents use the lie to force a vague code of ethics on children. Be
good. Santa is watching.

9) The Santa cult (Santalogy) includes a proven informal conspiracy
including merchants, parents, schools, the plaything-industrial complex,
government, and the weathermen. (The TV kind, not the 60's bunch.)

10) The Santalogy cult is a cargo cult that encourages kids to wait and
not to work. My kids have always gotten gifts which said "From Mom and
Dad", and they know that we bought them with money we earned.

11) Why should we help the poor? Let Santa and government do it. Just
don't cut my share of the goodies.

12) Christians waste so much energy in maintaining this cult and the
trappings thereof. Christians who would be embarrassed to say "Praise
God" or "Amen, brother" in public will loudly ask your and my children
"What is Santa going to bring you?" Men who pray little at home and could
never lead prayer in a public worship service take their kid to see Santa
at the mall, and ask them to pray to Santa for what they want. (I'm using
the old (and true) meaning of the word "pray".) When a commercial implies
that Santa killed himself people are outraged. When I point out the folly
of the cult of Santalogy, the assembly shouts me down with "great is
Santa of the Americans" (read ACTS if you missed this one), and  I am
afraid that some zealot will put a poisonous candy cane in my fake snow
covered mailbox. :)

When I was in first grade, I played Santa is our school Christmas play.
In second grade, a kid at school told me that there was no Santa. I went
home and asked my Mom if Santa was real. She said "Santa Claus is the
spirit of Christmas." The translation in my mind was "Santa is real." In
third grade we performed a play called "The good dwarf of Christmas". My
teacher was discussing costumes with the class, and said "Does anybody
here still believe in Santa Claus, whose father would have a Santa
suit?"  I felt the blush start at my ears and fill my face. I felt like I
was going to burst into tears, but I managed to hold it in and maintain a
blase look on my face. If I had looked at other of the students, I might
have seen the same in them, but I couldn't risk my secret being
discovered, and so I just looked at my desk. I was hurt, and to protect
my feelings I vowed not to be fooled again. Years later, I made the next
step. Tooth fairy, Santa, God. If my mom could manipulate me using Santa,
maybe society was doing the same thing with God. I became an atheistic
agnostic. Since my school had taught me to believe in evolution and I
knew that was true, God and Santa were two I did not need. Later after I
quit the evolution cult, I was able to come to a real faith in the real
God. Why would I then teach my children to believe in Santa? I have
always respected other people's rights to teach their kids about Santa,
but I am changing my mind about that. I still believe in a parent's right
to instruct their children, but believe that if they don't take a stand
for truth, they are short-changing their children.

marknear@bronze.coil.com