Well, folks, I've been blogged out this week. Vanity, and striving after wind, and now I have my second. (Was that a zuegma?)

Oh, boy, The Passion of the Christ comes out on my birthday. I will NOT be likely to see it this week, though.
I have been ruminating on the debacle in the media, and have realised a horrific fact. We True Believers have NOT done our job well.
At all.
Period.

Pundits, wags and whiners are weighing in on this Jesus business, and to a man seem to be shocked and amazed by the idea that He had something to do with the Jews. Hmmmmm, born in Bethlehem...bar mitzvah-ed in Jerusalem...best friends in Bethany...crucified in Jerusalem...YEP, the Gypsies done 'im in!

Now, evangelicals, to a man, defend the baptised paganism we wrap in Holly and Ivy and call Christmas, defend it as a jolly tool for evangelism, a time when the most jaded heathen can look up and unabashedly shed a tear at the Little Baby Jesus. (No Scrooge, I, as I ADORE the Christmas Season with all its trappings. It's just that Scripturally speaking, Christmas isn't exactly kosher.) Back to the Jews.

Jesus was a Jew. He claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God- and proved it with a life that fulfilled SO MANY prophecies about Himself that NASA computers get puffed figuring the odds. This after the Jewish political and "spiritual" leaders had declared it a capital crime to make such a claim. The Roman Occupation had outlawed the locals' death penalty. Only the Empire could execute criminals. Ah, the Judeo-Roman connection!

All this, and Jesus died for our sins, too! Shed His blood and everything. For us.

Why don't they know the story?

Why don't they know about Jesus?

All the World REALLY knows about Jesus is that His followers are a whiny, politically ineffective lot. (What Issue have we truly won on in recent memory?) Sounds like we've done a GREAT job, guys!

Thank God for Latinate Mass-loving Mel Gibson. Very CATHOLIC Mel Gibson. He's takin' the heat for the rest of us.

THANKS, MEL!