"Churches should be in the business of encouraging belief in Jesus, not micromanaging ... bits of folklore"
If it’s ok to lie to our kids about Santa, on what grounds do we teach them the biblical importance of telling the truth? Scripture does not come with loopholes that allow us to ignore its commands whenever we feel like it.
Why is it that my voice always seems to be loudest when I am saying the dumbest things?
Chris,
You definitely don’t qualify for hearing the Christmas bell ring (Polar Express).
To quote Les Ollila; “He’s an overweight man who has been good to me for many years”.
Pastor Mike Harding
Sometimes I think folks get to overthinking this. Why is there any need for “the church” to “micromanage” anything?
But there is no need to either (1) lie to kids or (2) remove any of the sense of adventure and wonder from their lives. What we did with ours: we told them right off the santa thing was “a fun story” and then we went ahead and had fun with the story.
Kids have no difficulty at all with enjoying a story just as if it were real. Once in a while the level of passion would reach a point where I wondered if they’d forgotten it was “make believe.” So I’d do a “You do know it’s just a story, right?” and got a “Of course, Dad!”
It’s just a kids game.
Having grown up this way myself (and my parents before me and theirs before them going back who knows how long) it’s pretty hard for me to get alarmed about any of it.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
Kevin Bauder has a great way of handling this issue over at “In the Nick of Time”. I recommend it if you haven’t read it yet. It’s at centralseminary.info. Just my two cents worth
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