HAPPY NEW YEAR

Ben Witherington points out that most Evangelicals celebrate the pagan New Year, that handed to us by the Romans. They do not celebrate the traditional Christian New Year, Advent. In SBC life, I'm sure that is a throw back to the denomination's avoidance of all things "high church", especially Catholic.

Some folks buy the Advent calendars now, but that is mostly to give little gifts to the kids and to build excitement for Christmas, one of the Catholic things we are willing to keep. However, the beginning of Advent is to look forward to the Second Coming of Christ.

It's a shame, but most of us Baptists are so ignorant of history we don't know what is sacred and what is secular. In the desire to avoid high church practices, we have thrown out the baby with the bath and embraced secular culture, then complaining when society doesn't treat it as religious. Read Ben's post.