{"id":204863,"date":"2015-12-01T02:37:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-01T02:37:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/ben-carson-and-the-war-on-christmas\/"},"modified":"2015-12-01T02:37:18","modified_gmt":"2015-12-01T02:37:18","slug":"ben-carson-and-the-war-on-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/ben-carson-and-the-war-on-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Carson and the \u2018War on Christmas\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"186.65820742262\">\n<p>An absurd but popular complaint on America\u2019s Christian Right is that Christmas is under attack \u2014 despite the nation\u2019s extraordinary month-long birthday party for Jesus. But, ironically, one Christian Right favorite, Ben Carson, may oppose this celebration of Christmas, as Nat Parry notes.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-16454\"\/>By Nat Parry<\/p>\n<p>Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon turned Republican presidential contender, may have a skeleton in his closet that could disqualify him from leading the United States of America in the eyes of millions of his supporters.<\/p>\n<p>No, it\u2019s not the fabrications of significant chunks of his life story that\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/595775\/ben-carson-didnt-fabricate-his-entire-life-story-obama-did\"><u>he\u2019s told<\/u><\/a>, nor his\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2015\/09\/ben-carson-muslim-president\/406339\/\"><u>opposition<\/u><\/a>\u00a0to Muslims being president, nor even his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bencarson.com\/issues\/gitmo\"><u>reprehensible views<\/u><\/a>\u00a0on keeping Guantanamo open into perpetuity. No, it\u2019s something much more serious than that \u2014 at least, more serious as far as the average Fox News-loving Republican voter is concerned.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_15981\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" readability=\"34\"><a href=\"http:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/ben_carson.jpeg?92867d\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15981\" src=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif?92867d\" data-lazy-src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ben_carson-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Ben Carson, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who opposed a Muslim being elected president.\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\"\/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15981\" src=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/ben_carson-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Ben Carson, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who opposed a Muslim being elected president.\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ben Carson, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who opposed a Muslim being elected president.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>As a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, there is a strong possibility that he does not support the month-long birthday party for Jesus known as Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s that, you ask? How could a leading figure in the Republican Party \u2014 one who was\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/polling.reuters.com\/#poll\/TR130\/filters\/DQSTATE:1|4|10|11|18|19|25|34|41|43|47|49,PARTY_ID_:2\/suggested\/1\"><u>pulling ahead<\/u><\/a>\u00a0of frontrunner Donald Trump in support from the key demographic of Christian evangelicals \u2014 possibly be an opponent of the so-called \u201csacred Christian holiday\u201d of Christmas? Well, it turns out that the religious camp of Seventh-day Adventism to which he belongs not only insists on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.adventist.org\/en\/information\/official-statements\/documents\/article\/go\/0\/sabbath-observance\/\"><u>observing the Sabbath<\/u><\/a>\u00a0on Saturday, but also, perhaps more controversially, rejects the celebration of Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>As\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.adventist.org.au\/celebrating-christmas\"><u>explained<\/u><\/a>\u00a0on their website, \u201cSeventh-day Adventists do not celebrate Christmas or other religious festivals throughout the calendar year as holy feasts established by God.\u201d As strict adherents to the teachings contained in the Bible, they correctly point out that the \u201chistorical reason for adapting December 25 as the birthday of Jesus has\u00a0no biblical foundation, but is due to the change of year from darkness to light, which happens in the midst of the winter in the northern hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In fairness, although&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2015\/11\/30\/ben-carson-and-the-war-on-christmas\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An absurd but popular complaint on America\u2019s Christian Right is that Christmas is under attack \u2014 despite the nation\u2019s extraordinary month-long birthday party for Jesus. But, ironically, one Christian Right favorite, Ben Carson, may oppose this celebration of Christmas, as Nat Parry notes. By Nat Parry Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon turned Republican presidential contender, may [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-204863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}