The Ghost of Christmas Present is dead – a letter to the editor
I was watching ‘A Christmas Carol’ the other night (the ’84 George Scott version). The ghost of Christmas present shuttles Ebeneezer into the Cratchit home for the holiday dinner and Scrooge is uncomfortably struck by the plight of Tiny Tim. What pricked my ears up was this bit of dialogue:
Ghost of Christmas Present: If these shadows remain unaltered by the future, none other of my species will find him here. But if he is to die, then let him die…! “AND DECREASE THE SURPLUS POPULATION!”
Ebenezer Scrooge: You use my own words against me?
Ghost of Christmas Present: Yes! So perhaps, in the future, you will hold your tongue until you have discovered where the surplus population is, and WHO it is. It may well be that, in the sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live than MILLIONS like this poor man’s child.
It struck me that an overwhelming number of Americans, in this present, share Scrooge’s opinion of the poor or those on welfare – blindly spouting opinion formed out of hearsay. They support the cherished American belief that “if you work hard, you will succeed. And if you fail, it must be your fault. The U.S. is the greatest country on Earth, so there can’t possibly be another explanation”. The poor are lazy and dumb and they failed. Shame on them!
Where is the ghost of Christmas present now? I think if he were among us, he would grab these self-righteous citizens by their collar and rub their noses in the pile of excrement they’ve adopted as truth and reality. These church-going citizens so confident in their Patriotism. This ‘Ayn Rand for Dummies’ idea of every man for himself and survival of the fittest nonsense is a cancer that is eating up, ironically, the Christian idea of charity and caring for one’s brother.
But I guess that ghost is dead. He’s lying next to altruism and brotherhood and community and sacrifice.
Merry Christmas to everyone.
Scott Werne
In my opinion, most of these "church going citizens" are not promoting the idea of servival of the fitest. Being raised in church all my life I can say I have never heard a message like this put forth by ministers or even heard this poglamated by the patrons of any church I ever attended. However, it is a sin against our society to say anything against the theory of evolution that is preached in our schools and one of the cornerstones of this religion is "survival of the fittest".
So perhaps it is old pastor Charles Darwin that is undermining our Christian values and killing the ghost of Christmas Present".
To add to Art's statement along a different path, you state the Christians don't want welfare? Then why do churchs give SO much to help people. You confuse the State/Government getting involved in welfare versus the church. You state the two must go together and small government people say it should be separate.
I say, the church could fill the role of government welfare if the tax money taken from us were returned.