I started this blog just a few days ago when I had an opinion that I just couldn't keep to myself. If felt so good to get it out. I emailed all my friends when my blog address-along with a disclaimer

You see, I am a conservative Christian.
A dreadlocked Black girl with the guts to say that the biggest problem facing Black people is other Black people and that the body of Christ needs to go back to the Bible.

This is part of the disclaimer I sent out to all my friencds and family as I invited them to read The Soapbox Digest. I didn't want to offend anyone. I just want to be able to voice what I think.

The next day I decided I would blog everyday. A tall order, but journalists do it everyday, why not me? After all, I am a budding novelist.

Those who know me know I have no shortaage of ideas and opinions, though I am on the quiet side, but when I treid to write, my subject got stuck. No matter how I tried to complete it, I kept gong in circles. Why? Because I wasn't sure how to say what I wanted in a way that leaves God out unless absolutely neccesary. You see, the word Christian and God are so charged in our society that people hear that before anything else, if anything else at all, and I want people to actually hear what I have to say before deciding it is a Christian thought or not. Yet, the Christian in me is in everything I do because that is what being a true Christian is about. It's not about preaching and condeming everyone, it is about allowing Christ to become woven throughout your being.

So, I extend my disclaimer to you because I've got to be true to myself and write what is on my heart and if my faith comes out, well, this is a free country isn't it? I hope you won't be offended, but if you are, just skip over this keep going. Better yet, think why it offended you and tell me. I welcome comments.

Another execution has taken place in our country.

The facts of the case are lost amongst the emotions elicited but this remains true : when a person intentionally takes the life of another out of murderous desire, it is just and right that his punishment be the loss of his own life. Capitol punishment has a place in civilized society. The absence of it shows that a society has cheapened the value of life.

All sorts of arguments have been put forth in the last 24 hours. News programs have brought in families of murder victims not even related to this case to share their opinions. A special favorite are those who are now opposed to execution because it didn't bring closure in their own circumstance.

But the death penalty is not about closure.

Remember the 1999 movie, 'The Mummy'? The trouble centered around a curse so powerful that it was revered and used only on the worse of people as a testament to their earthly judgment and eternal punishment. Of course this is fantasy, but in reality when ranking crimes with their respective punishments, there has to be one that is reserved for the most heinous offenses. Something that makes us shudder when we revert to it.

A man kills in cold blood.
It is premeditated. It is malicious. It is violent.
We judge the case by the evidence and find him guilty. If this same man was convicted of, say, embezzling a million dollars and then twenty years later he comes back with a change of heart and returns the money plus interest, one could determine that the debt to society has been paid. He can still go to jail, but retribution has been made. What can be given in exchange for a life taken? Of course an executed murderer cannot bring his victim back, but it is the only retribution. Mercy would mean exile, but justice demands his life.

One can never find closure to death. The death of a loved one is not something that you get over; it is a loss you learn to live with. The loss of an aged grandparent who passes away peacefully in their sleep cannot find closure, how then does one expect to find closure when a loved on is brutally murdered in their youth or prime? This is a futile search. Abolishing the death penalty won't work either. The criminal cannot become the victim and no amount of good he does can change the fact of what happened. So what must we do?

When the death sentence is passed, it is not time to rejoice in the streets, but a time to mourn that there is still an element in our society that demands justice. When a criminal is executed, we must mourn because there is a hole left the human family that can never be repaired. A rip that started with the life of an innocent and is torn with the sentence of the guilty. And this tattered fabric must be worn in rememberance.

I am a Christian.

I agree with Pat Robertson and others about not supporting stores which bar employees from saying 'Merry Christmas' in favor of 'Season's Greetings' and 'Happy Holidays'. It makes no sense to shop at retailers that are hostile to you or your beliefs. This is no different from the 'don't shop where you can't work' campaigns during the Civil Rights Movement.

But I agree in theory not principle.

Why is this? Because I am one of the few Christians that does not celebrate Christmas. There are no Christmas trees and no nativity scenes in my home. Don't gasp and don't think that I am part of a strange cult. And please don't pity me or my future children for I will tell you why 'Merry Xmas' doesn't bother me.

A few years ago, I found that the closer my walk with Christ became the more I wanted to please Him and as the Christmas season grew near, the blatant commercialism repulsed me. How can people hostile to God get excited about the celebration of the birth of Jesus. I wanted to celebrate the reason for the season. So, instead of a Christmas tree, I did a nativity and placed the gifts around it. It was such a spiritual high and well received in the family that once Mary, Joseph and the wise men were packed away, I began an indepth study on the origins of Christmas so that the next year I could make it even better.

I started with the Bible and ironically found nothing. Yes, the birth of Christ is recorded but there wasn't any mention of where the evergreen trees and holly came from. There wasn't even a date. And the only thing Jesus told us to do in rememberance of him was the bread and wine at Passover.

I was stumped. Perhaps I just didn't know where to look so I tried reference materials that might point me to the correct verses of scriptures. What I found was the history of the Church of Rome ( the Catholic Church) strategically grafting religious ceremony over the pagan practices of the Rome. This tactic spread to each territory acquired within the churches reach to make forced conversion more user friendly.

Silver bells, evergreen trees, holly and mistletoe. Each of these and many more of the things we associate with the season have a direct tie to the non-Christian religion of ancient Rome. Uniformity of these pagan practices are scattered all over the globe because the religious system of the world began at Babylon and spread abroad. The ancient Sumerian and Chaldean religion of goddess worship with the iconolgy of mother and child are well represented in Ishtar and Tammuz and the Egytpian Isis and Horis leading easily to worship the Madonna and Child.

All of our rituals surrounding Christmas, including the date of December 25th comes from pagan Rome in Christian covering. In the sixth century, Pope Gregory wrote to the English bishop Augustine : " Do not destroy their pagan temples, but make them into Christian churches named after the saints. Out of custom the people will continue coming and will venerate their new God. The animal sacrifices should be maintained but changed; instead of being sacrifices, they will supply a Christian meal in honor of God."

This is vastly different from the biblical account of a council taken in Jerusalem on what parts of the law new gentile converts were to uphold. There it was decided that among other things, they were to abstain from meats offered to idols ( Acts 15:29).

Pope Gregory's decision also flies in the face of two old testament decrees from God.

Leviticus 18:3 states: "After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances."

When the children of Israel left Egypt they were walking away from pagan practices to follow the true and living God. When they went to possess the land of Canaan they were going amongst those that were practicing the same things that they left behind. God told them not to copy what they saw.

Later in Deuteronomy 12:30-32, he repeated the same thing: "Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. What thing soever I command you,, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto nor dominish from it."

Early Christian leaders, Tertulian for example, urged people not to go back to the pagan rituals they left when they came to Christ: "Let them kindle lamps, they who have no light; let them fix on doorposts laurels which shall afterwards be burnt, they for whom the fire is close at hand; meet for them are testimonies of darkness and auguries of punishment. But thou art a light of the world and a tree that is ever green; if thou hast renounced temples, make not a temple of thy own housedoor.'

The Puritan settlers of the New England states repudiated the holiday because it was marked with drunkenness and rioting.

Some say what difference does the origins make, it is now a celebration of the birth of Christ. To them I say when will we stop trying to serve God our way and worship him in spirit and in truth. If God is eternal, and he is the same yesterday, today and forever then who are we really worshipping when he has told us twice in his word what he does and does not want?

Today we arrive a a retailers season more than anything else. Before the Jack-o-lanterns are stored away and Halloween candy consumed, the stores are in full swing vying for your Christmas dollar. Now they want to take Christ out of Christmas. But was he there in the first place?

I often stand with my conservative brothers and sisters, but on this issue, I wish there was something more worthy to stand for.