Should I Re-post Some of the Yule Pieces I've Done? Nah.

So, another solstice is upon us.  Big whoop.

Am I missing something or has the fashion for people online yowling about how those mean Christians stole the Yule and turned it into Xmas seems to have disappeared?

I can't claim to have been the first to point out what a load of crap that was,  RMJ did it well before I got around to doing it, very well. [Update:  Toltyaso]  When I got around to it I concentrated on what the evidence that the Yule as celebrated by those dear pagans of old included such wonderful things as sacrifice of 9 of each kind of animal, including human beings.  And that included my speculation that with all of that merry old priestly murder, the class of those who were most likely to have been chosen to murder were probably more than a little bit glad to give up paganism for a religion that forbade human sacrifice.  

And, also, too, how post-war neo-pagans adopted some overtly Nazi neo-pagan practices, as part of their cluelessly constructed pseudo-historical religion.   Face it, modern "paganism" has about the same intellectual basis as the "goth" scene which has about the same, uh, intellectual basis as punk or any other ridiculous fashion as lifestyle bullshit.  You'll forgive me but I've been reading about the factual history of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young the past several days and. what with that and seeing the smug puss of Orin Hatch leaving the Senate the other day,  my nice-liberal tolerance of outright lies and bullshit on the basis of being nice and fair is at a very low point just now.  Fairness has nothing to do with it.  I'll save that for the people Hatch has damaged during his putrid career. 

Anyway, I don't think I'll write something new on the topic, either I'm just missing it because I'm spending less time online this year or there's a lot less of that kind of bullshit being spread around among the college-credentialed these days. 

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On Seeing Orin Hatch's Smug Face As He Leaves The Senate

I wonder what would happen if I told the next cute little Mormon boys who knock on my door that Joseph Smith was a well known con-man, liar and pimp - that the Mormon lore about how their two-bit scripture was concocted is a load of lies - and, if anything Brigham Young was worse, as have been the steady stream of leaders in Mormonism.  I wonder if they'd be violent.   I've been reading about the actual history of the beginning of Mormonism from the con jobs of Joseph Smith who was a well-known conman in rural New York.  It's pretty amazing how much UNLIKE the origin of the New Testament it is. 

In that podcast of The Bible for Normal People episode that featured Richard Rohr he pointed out that Protestantism tends to make The Bible into an idol (even as Catholicism tends to turn  The Church into one).  I wonder if Mormonism, sprouting up in a generally Protestant milieu hasn't combined the two forms of idolatry.  There are members of all three streams of religion who aren't hard cases and who aren't damaged by the excesses of them but my impression, I'm talking about general aspects of the religious bodies.   But as a political force in the United States, as a bulwark of oppression of women and a religion that turns its leaders into idols (they believe that they will be gods) my impression that Mormonism is worse.