Who cares what Monk thinks about anything? Why even in places like thailand, a deeply buddhist country, with no Christian traditions per se, Christmas is becoming an important time for celebration, feasting and gift giving!

Let those who want to celebrate the festive season; and peace and goodwill to all men as they may?

I think fewer and fewer of us as swallowing the fairy tale that God came to earth as a mere mortal man.

The supposed reason we celebrate Christmas if at all, with its many pagan inclusions and impositions, making a mockery of the original reason for celebrating anything?

And a far as it goes for most Christians, I believe, all about control by the so called Church, given those many pagan inclusions?
Rhrosty.

The end of the book is very clear. Yep the deniers will fight to erase Christ from every place that reminds them of their need of salvation. Despite fighting tooth and nail against the One they claim not to believe in you can be sure that His church will be built and the gates of hell what prevail against it. The puny fist waving is pathetic at its best. Meanwhile they will be apologist for Islam and every other evil on the planet.

I read Paul's essay on the day it was published.I found it to be spot on re the almost universal celebration re the archetypal religious and cultural significance of Light - in terms of both the winter solstice, and the significance of Light as a Spiritual archetype altogether.
I also read Rowan's pathetic letter to the editor the day after.
That having been said this reference confirms the gist of Paul's essay.
http://global.adidam.org/books/danavira-mela/3

And of course Saint Jesus of Galilee, who was never ever in any sense a Christian, did not found or create an empire. In fact he specifically eschewed such an impulse via his teaching and lived demonstration of what he was teaching and his calling for his disciples to incarnate or duplicate.
Nor did he create the religion about him (aka Christian-ISM), every minute fragment of which was created by others, NONE of whom ever met Jesus up close and personal in a living-breathing-feeling body form.
This essay explains the origins and institutional political purposes of the "New" Testament. http://www.dabase.org/up-5-1.htm

You really have to laugh out loud when anyone talks about an "empire of love".
ALL empires, without exception are created by the use of massive systematic violence. They are also sustained by massive violence, or the threat of massive violence to those who inevitably try to resist the imperatives of the empire. Such was the case with the British (christian) empire. See Britain's Empire by Richard Gott.
And of course all empires inevitably fall apart for one reason or another.

Gawd,the Bible is made up by who we are not sure maybe Dave Singer, the Gospels cant ever agree on JCs Birth year its bunkum somewhere between 6 BC and 5 AD the present historians say.
If people want to celebrate it Good luck to em but leave the BS out

We make a great deal of multiculturalism in this country. And we make a great deal on the Left of the religious liberties and dignity of Muslims. And fair enough! That is well and good. We also affirm the need to respect cultural groupings including minorities, and specifically including religious minorities. Let's not have double standards, therefore, when it comes to respecting the rights of Christians. And let's not just run roughshod over past traditions without considering what may be lost in the process.

All that said - who can deny that religion has been used as a means of disciplining and maintaining communities to be exploited in geo-political struggles? So respect peoples' rights - and engage enough to understand. Do not just ridicule and dismiss on the basis of 'straw men' and caricature. But be aware that religion, like nationality, culture and ideology - can be exploited for the very worst of motives. Even the best of Christians can find themselves being exploited and manipulated by the very worst of people - and for the very worst of reasons.

But that being the case consider the possibility that Jesus Christ would have wanted nothing to do with any of this. And deserves better than caricature.