(2-16-07)<\/span><\/div>\nGrubb, one of our resident amiable Protestants, wrote (1-31-07 on my blog; see various other arguments of his on the same long discussion thread):<\/span><\/p>\nSo is the Easter bunny evil? I won\u2019t get into the origins of the Easter bunny which are more than likely pagan, but is telling one\u2019s child there\u2019s an Easter bunny acceptable? Jesus said in Matt 5:37, \u201cSimply let your \u2018Yes\u2019 be \u2018Yes\u2019 and your \u2018No\u2019, \u2018No\u2019; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThe implication is that we should speak the truth so adamantly that we don\u2019t need to swear in order for people to believe us in important matters. But if we tell our kids there\u2019s an Easter bunny that comes around and leaves candy and eggs and stuff, are we damaging their ability to believe us wholeheartedly when they find out the truth? And even if they trust us completely after learning the truth, we\u2019re told not to lie to each other, \u201cDo not lie to each other since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.\u201d (Col 3:9-10).<\/span><\/p>\nYES [he\u2019s evil]! He\u2019s like a little demon; he comes into your home, tempts your kids with goodies so they become selfish gluttons, and get cavities; detracts from the celebration of Jesus\u2019 Resurrection with eggs, silly baskets, etc. I feel the same about that evil tooth fairy (and Santa Claus ain\u2019t far behind: talk about gluttony and materialism!). Away with all these evil demons!<\/span><\/p>\nWe need to get rid of this little furry rascal, the Easter Bunny, immediately, and get our eyes back on Jesus, lest the Christian religion become totally corrupted. How about we set up \u201cbunny traps\u201d every Easter? That would solve two problems: rid the house of this beast and give us a good Easter dinner too!<\/span><\/p>\n* * * * *<\/div>\n
I\u2019m pretty sure the RCC teaches \u201cDon\u2019t lie\u201d right? Paul said, \u201cDo not lie to each other\u2026\u201d (Col 3:9). The church shouldn\u2019t have to put a caveat on every situation: Don\u2019t lie about your wife\u2019s dress making her look fat; you CAN lie about Santa Claus but don\u2019t have to; don\u2019t lie about the Easter Bunny (he\u2019s only a minor icon); do lie about eating the last piece of pie;\u2026<\/span>\u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\nThis is where I think we get caught up in our culture rather than in doing what\u2019s right. It\u2019s easy to say all of America does it, my wife\u2019s family does it, and the church doesn\u2019t condemn it; but I think the church\u00a0<\/span>should<\/b>\u00a0condemn lying, and we should do what we can to always be truth tellers. Jesus said, \u201cSimply let your \u2018Yes\u2019 be \u2018Yes\u2019, and your \u2018No\u2019, \u2018No\u2019. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one.\u201d (Matt 5:34) Could it be that the Easter bunny and Santa Claus come from the Evil One? And King Saul demonstrated that allowing people to do what\u2019s wrong when we\u2019ve been directly commanded to do the right thing has serious consequences (I Sam 15:22-26) Isn\u2019t it a husband\u2019s job to lead the family in ways that are right?<\/span><\/p>\nDave,<\/span><\/p>\nI couldn\u2019t tell if you were having fun and ridiculing my position or having fun and supporting it. I could tell that you were having fun and thought your comments were funny. Maybe you can clarify for me.<\/span><\/p>\n* * * * *<\/div>\n
Since when have heartwarming fairy-tales been considered \u201clies\u201d? I think this is a remarkably imagination-challenged mentality: all this business of anti-Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. That\u2019s why I resorted to humor. I usually do when I think a position is groundless and wrongheaded. Nothing personal against Grubb, of course. He\u2019s a perfect gentleman and a great guy.<\/span><\/p>\n* * * * *<\/div>\n
Children can\u2019t yet fully distinguish between fantasy and reality. Since many fantasies and stories and fairy tales are wonderfully instructive and cultivate the imagination, I don\u2019t see how anyone can say they are lying. They\u2019re examples of fiction.<\/span><\/p>\nYoung children are in a place where they are between fantasy and reality. So stuff like Santa Claus and the Easter bunny are simply means to make them feel that some of the wonderful fantasies actually come true. If the parents control these things so that only good stories of benevolence and caring and love are allowed, then I see no problem with this whatsoever.<\/span><\/p>\nWhat is Santa Claus if not (in one sense) just a small piece of heaven, for the wondrous period of childhood? After all, in heaven many of our deepest longings come true and we are totally fulfilled. So what is wrong about bringing that \u201cworld\u201d to a child in a more tangible way?<\/span><\/p>\nI think to be against that is to have a mind that is \u201cimaginatively stunted\u201d (for lack of a better term). We don\u2019t need to\u00a0stifle\u00a0<\/span>imagination and fantasy; we need to\u00a0cultivate\u00a0<\/span>a healthy Christian sense of them. This is what brought C.S. Lewis to Christianity. He loved fantasy and mythology; then he discovered (with a nudge from Tolkien) that Christianity was the true myth.<\/span><\/p>\nNow, with Santa Claus, of course it isn\u2019t ultimately true in a factual, literal sense, but the truths conveyed are \u201ctrue\u201d in the sense that great mythology is \u201ctrue\u201d. It strikes a chord deep within the soul, of a world where such things can take place. Children are still capable of believing that it is possible. I see this as a little slice of heaven.<\/span><\/p>\nChildren are closer to heaven in a sense because they haven\u2019t been in this world long enough to become jaded or to lose faith.<\/span><\/p>\nIn my opinion, To call this sort of thing a \u201clie\u201d entirely misses the point. I welcome discussion on this as it is a very interesting topic. Nevertheless, I think one either intuitively \u201cgets it\u201d or they do not, and discussion about it is fairly futile, in terms of changing anyone\u2019s opinion.<\/span><\/p>\n* * * * *<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I made further remarks on the topic on Facebook, in November 2013:<\/div>\n
\n
My opinion is that it\u2019s not a \u201clie\u201d to encourage children\u2019s imagination (though I think the \u201ccon\u201d position makes some good points). It\u2019s known that young children blur reality and fantasy to a great extent anyway. For them, most of what they see is quite real. So it\u2019s up to parents to choose to teach positive or negative things.<\/p>\n
Myths (even something like Aesop\u2019s Fables) often teach the deepest truths about life and right and wrong, but they do it in a way that\u2019s different from historical narrative: by using symbols and fictional characters. But what lies behind all that is profound truth and wisdom.<\/p>\n
The Bible itself does this to some extent. Aspects of the Adam and Eve story are likely allegorical. There may not have been an actual tree, or forbidden fruit, etc. It was illustrating the principles of obedience to God and it\u2019s converse: rebellion. But they were real people, the first human beings, and they did indeed fall (original sin). This is what the story is showing, whether every last detail was \u201chistorical fact\u201d or not. The book of Revelation has symbols and allegories (which has made it historically difficult to interpret in many ways).<\/p>\n
We\u2019re sort of in the middle (as so often). We\u2019ve done the Santa Claus thing but at the same time we taught our children about the real St. Nicholas, to ground it in historical fact.<\/p>\n
I would note that Santa Claus (as we know it \/ him) was largely a Protestant phenomenon, because of the antipathy to veneration of the saints; so it became secularized (for better or ill) to what we see today, whereas in the Catholic and Orthodox traditions (and to a lesser extent, Anglican) there was no problem with venerating (honoring) real persons in history, including St. Nicholas.<\/p>\n
See also a clip of a dramatic presentation of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien discussing myths and lies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sinterklaas, as portrayed in the Netherlands, 2007 [Wikimedia Commons \/\u00a0Creative Commons\u00a0Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported\u00a0license] (2-16-07) Grubb, one of our resident amiable Protestants, wrote (1-31-07 on my blog; see various other arguments of his on the same long discussion thread): So is the Easter bunny evil? I won\u2019t get into the origins of the Easter bunny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":5028,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1005],"tags":[1640,2365,1459,1460,1641,1644,1458,1643,1626,1642],"class_list":["post-5026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas","tag-anti-christmas","tag-christmas","tag-fables","tag-fairy-tales","tag-fiction","tag-imagination","tag-legends","tag-mythology","tag-santa-claus","tag-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Debate on Whether the Story of Santa Claus is a Sinful \"Lie\"","description":"Children can't yet fully distinguish between fantasy and reality. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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