A Better Christmas

Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast. To hear the entire 3 hours of my radio show commercial-free every single day, become a member of PragerTopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at pragertopia.com. Season of all, with those holiday greetings and gay happy meetings when friends come to call. Well, hello y'all! Happiest season of all, is it? It should be, it should be. That's correct. There's a piece in the— Dennis Prager here, by the way— in the American Spectator, Christmas in a Better America. A fond look back at the 1970s. Hmm, those of us who remember the 1970s agree with this. Yeah, in today's America, that of the depraved 2020s, corporate America doesn't dare utter the word Christmas. Where was it? The, the— some university in England actually announced that saying Merry Christmas is exclusionary. But it's at least 25 years ago that I had a professor from some law school in Indiana on my show. She was against the Christmas tree at her law school because it wasn't inclusive. I said, who doesn't it include? She said Jews, for example. Not knowing that she was speaking to a committed Jew. And I said, I'm a Jew. I don't understand your argument. Why is it not inclusive? It's a national holiday. Are you opposed to it being a national holiday? Not everyone in the nation celebrates Christmas. I'm not even sure Jehovah's Witnesses celebrate Christmas, not just Jews. Agnostics. Well, it's not true. Every— everybody can. That's the point, in some way, because you can— you can celebrate it as your religious holiday, as a believing Christian does, or you could celebrate it as a national holiday, as others do. Not inclusive. You have to understand, this is a basic principle of the contemporary world. People on the left have empty lives as a general rule. I'm not talking about liberals, I'm talking about leftists. Liberals simply go along with the left and they will answer to God for that. And I do believe that. This is not just a throwaway line. The left is destroying Western civilization and liberals vote for them. But this is not what liberals do. But the, the left have to fill their emptiness with a cause. So they make up causes like Christmas is not inclusive, so you have to say happy holidays, you have to say holiday party, because the person not celebrating Christmas as his religious holiday might be offended. If you're offended because your business has a Christmas party and you're not Christian, there's something wrong with you, not the business. Oh God, that was— it was so cathartic just to say that. But if there's anything people on the left cannot say, is there's something wrong with me. It's not America. It's me. The day you say that, you have left the left. It is so interesting that the man writing this, who's a major thinker, Paul Kangor— I've had him on the show, he's a very serious thinker— that he looks back to the 1970s as a glory day, as a glory period in America. I mean, that was the time of some serious, uh, the early '70s, serious anti-war demonstrations, sometimes riots, school buildings taking, taken over by left-wing students, and a whole host of tensions in the country. And yet he looks back at it, and he's right. I'm not just I'm not differing with him, just noting that you don't have to even go back to the 1950s to think, uh, what a happy, happiest time of the year. People used to walk around singing Christmas carols. Are you offended by that if you're not a Christian? Unbelievable. Yep, in America today, that of the depraved 2020s, corporate America doesn't dare utter the word Christmas. In December, I, I take it upon me to say Merry Christmas to any public person. Like, I was at the airport 2 days ago and just said Merry Christmas to people, like the one who checked in my bag at American Airlines. American Airlines couldn't find a pilot for my flight to Phoenix. I ended up in bed 4 AM. That's the reason I wasn't on on Friday. They actually could not find the co-pilot. To the pilot's credit, he actually was ticked off at his airline. It is so relieving to, to people when a person in authority levels with you. He was annoyed and did not hesitate to say so. He didn't know whether the co-pilot got the message that this was his flight, or American never sent the message. There were two disparate claims, man. He noted that. Anyway, I checked it in. I said, Merry Christmas. Sometimes people will say back Merry Christmas. Sometimes they'll just say nothing. Sometimes— usually they won't say nothing. That's not true. They'll say happy holiday. Or happy holidays. I always have fun saying, what holidays did you have in mind? Season's greetings. That's right, because we celebrate the season. The winter solstice, man, it's coming up in a couple of days. Nothing like the winter solstice. If there's any— that's the hap— Happiest time of the year. That's right. How's your winter solstice been? You with the kids for winter solstice? People who celebrate winter solstice tend not to have kids. Yes, let's see. Corporate America doesn't dare utter the word Christmas in December but spends the entire month of June jeweling about Gay Pride, our cultural— that's true. That's— now, why is that inclusive since 97% of the country isn't gay? That's a very— it's a good point that he makes. 80% of the country celebrates Christmas. I'm just throwing out a statistic, maybe more. But if you say Merry Christmas, it's not inclusive. But Gay Pride for your company, ah, that's inclusive. Of whom? Our cultural revolutionaries resist calling a Christmas tree a Christmas tree. In my native Pittsburgh, it's the grotesquely offensive Unity Tree. Oh, I don't believe that. Sean, you ever hear of a Unity Tree? Did you put up a unity tree this year? You didn't? Oh my God. Pittsburgh unity tree goes up. He has a link. This is mind-blowing. This is from CBS News in Pittsburgh. Highmark unity tree goes up in downtown Pittsburgh. Oh, okay. That's what you're going to do. Pittsburgh. Oh my God, we put all of Pittsburgh in the punishment room. We have a lot of punishers. So here it is from KDKA, one of the, uh, most famous stations in America. That's why there's a K even though it's, it's east of the Mississippi. KBKA, one of the oldest. Anyway, uh, so this is from 2 years ago, actually 3 years ago. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in downtown Pittsburgh. A sure sign the holiday is near when workers start putting up the Highmark Unity Tree on the Old Horns Building. The tree is being assembled just in time for Light Up Night. On November 22. I mean, there's no irony, there's no explanation in the article. What is a unity tree? I, I don't even understand what it is. Well, yes. Well, we will continue. 1-800-PRAGER-776, 877-243-7776. Somebody put up a video with my voice uttering expletives. If you can now Photoshop voices, we're, uh, we're in for quite a ride. Look, you did the tough thing during COVID You paid your people and pulled your business through the pandemic, or really the lockdown. And now doing the tough thing could qualify you for up to $26,000 per employee at COVIDTaxRelief.org. Government funds are available to reward companies with 2 or more employees who stayed open during COVID This is not a loan and you don't have to pay it back. The program is complicated, but nobody knows more about it than the CPAs and tax experts at COVIDTaxRelief.org. You pay nothing up front. They do all the work and share a percentage of the cash they get you. 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Wow.

I'm quiet because I'm thinking about that period, that horrible period, living lies and destruction from health authorities, like all authorities. You know, the left used to have as its motto, "Question authority." Oh, like everything else, they didn't mean it. They meant question conservative authority, like religion. But not question authority. Nobody is obedient to authority and more pro-authority than the left. Yeah, the experts say— that's all you need to hear. How do you know the experts are wise? Because they're experts. It's somewhat of a tautology. They're experts. What about the experts who don't agree? They're They're engaging in misinformation. So you choose your expert, don't you? World's death in the COVID era, 2020 to 2022, excess deaths. Sweden least, 6.7. Norway, Denmark, New Zealand, Iceland, Finland, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg. Really something. And it doesn't matter. This won't— you think this will be reported in the New York Times, that Sweden had the least excess death rate in the last 2 years? It's a rhetorical question. You know not. Paul Kangor writes in The Spectator so correctly how the world was so different Yep, they fly rainbow flags for a full month every, every summer. He's talking about big businesses in America. They won't say Christmas party, but they'll put out LGBT flags because the national— according to the left, really, the national holiday is LGBTQ Month, Indigenous Peoples Day, No more Columbus Day, right? No more America as it was known until a few years ago. That's basically what the left is about. There's no room for Christ at the inn, but drag queens are welcomed at the local library. Bullied and blackmailed by LGBTQ fanatics. Even NASCAR touts gay pride logos. and the NFL launched an absurd "Football is Gay" TV ad campaign. The NFL promotes Black Lives Matter literally across its end zones, but this year disrespects Christmas Day and Christmas Eve by running a full spate of football games. Christmas is out, LGBTQ is in. The contrast is clear not only during Gay Pride Month, A reader a few weeks ago sent me a company email issued by the 20-something HR hack informing employees that in November, quote, "We recognize," unquote, "Intersex Day of Remembrance, November 8th, Transgender Awareness Week, November 13th to 19th, and Transgender Day of Remembrance, November 20th." That was an official mailing of the— of a company. The reader observed that in a few weeks it would be December. Would HR be sending out a special email noting that that month the company recognizes Christmas? Of course not. The lunatics, ladies and gentlemen, have taken over the asylum. The cultural barbarians are inside the gates. The left's long march through the institutions is complete. Welcome to the new America where the assault on Christmas continues by the discontented disciples of diversity. It was not long ago, not that long ago, when truly everything was different at Christmastime. Readers over the age of 50 could think of numerous examples of how the bygone America they grew up with was not so blatantly pagan. Personally, I could go on and on with examples, but one era consistently strikes me every year: Christmas in the 1970s. When I was a kid in the 1970s, television programming was thoroughly dominated by Christmas specials. That programming both reflected the culture and influenced the culture. Of course, this was true for the decades prior as well, but I'll stick with the '70s. In those days, the TV didn't offer hundreds of channels of vacuous claptrap and woke streams of political correctness, especially in nearly every nauseating commercial. Obviously, there was no YouTube or Netflix or Amazon. There was, in effect, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS. That was it. But my point, in those days, every evening from about Thanksgiving until December 25th, Christmas shows were broadcast. You can find an old TV guide and see for yourself. Major celebrities had annual Christmas shows. Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Andy Williams, Perry Como, Jimmy Durante and the Lennon Sisters, Johnny Cash, John Denver, Wayne Newton, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Lawrence Welkin, and whoever else had a popular variety show. Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie, the Osmonds, the Carpenters, the Muppets, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, Crystal Gayle, you name it. Some of the scenes in these annual celebrations became iconic, such as Crosby and weirdo David Bowie coming together, the old generation and the new, to touchingly sing The Little Drummer Boy. Sitcoms did special Christmas episodes. Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, All in the Family, The Brady Bunch, Laverne and Shirley, The Jeffersons, you name it. Of course, there were also the cartoons. How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and so much more. We continue. MyPillow is excited to bring you their biggest bedding sale ever, and just in time for Christmas. For a limited time, get the Giza Dream bed sheets for as low as $29.98, a set of pillowcases for only $9.98, and rejuvenate your bed with a MyPillow mattress topper for as low as $99.99. They also have blankets in a variety of sizes, colors, and styles. They even have blankets for your pets. Get duvets, quilts, down comforters, body pillows, bolster pillows, and so much more, all with the biggest discounts of the year happening now. They're also extending their money-back guarantee for Christmas until March 1st, 2023, making them the perfect gifts for your friends, your family, and everyone you know. So go to mypillow.com and use the promo code Prager, or call 800-761-6302. You'll get huge discounts on all MyPillow bedding products, including the Giza Dream bedsheets, for as low as $29.98. And get all your shopping done now while quantities last. I got a real, uh, doozy for you. Randy Weingarten, one of the, one of the most destructive human beings in America. A woman who has basically only done bad in her professional life. If there was a list of the 10 most destructive forces in America, she would be on it. I don't know what number she would be. American Federation of Teachers president. What she has done to the teaching profession has made it a farce. Worse than a farce. Actually an injurious force. Anyway, she has a tweet out. Happy Hanukkah to all those beginning their celebration tonight. Wishing you love. Ah, the rape of the word love by the left. Oh God, like all other words that once had meaning. Wishing you love. Woman who is so hate-filled but is wishing you love. Anyway, it doesn't matter. What I want to comment on is the way she spelled their. The head of the American Federation of Teachers doesn't know the difference between T-H-E-R-E and T-H-E-I-R. Happy Hanukkah to all those beginning their T-H-E-R-E celebration tonight. It's so fitting. I can't tell you that the head of the American Federation of Teachers misspells their. Before you put up a tweet, of about 20 words. Let's see, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 words. You should read it. Maybe she did. Oh yes, it's quite something. What did Mike Pompeo say? She's the worst person in America. That was gutsy. That's a tough— that's a tough one because there are many worsts. And she hasn't murdered anybody. She is committing homicide on the country and on the teaching profession, but that's not the same as murder. All right, let's see. We have a call from Pittsburgh. I'm curious. Anthony in Pittsburgh, hello.

Dennis, you need to move here, run for mayor, and save our city from turning into San Francisco East.

Ironically, if I were to move Pittsburgh would be on my shortlist. I love Pittsburgh.

Oh, great, great restaurants. So many ethnic restaurants. But the government has been taken over by the DSA, and, uh, the last mayor, Peduto, covered up our Columbus statue. He removed the Stephen Foster Memorial, and he was behind, um—

wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He— what did he do to the Stephen Foster Memorial?

Had it removed.

On what grounds?

Well, the statue had a— it was Stephen Foster there with a notepad writing songs, and there was a Black man part of the statue playing a banjo. And you know, that just drove them nuts because they deemed it racist, offensive, and everything else. Yeah, so Stephen Foster's been erased.

So I know it's— I know that this may not be easy for you to answer because you, you might feel sensitive about it, but I, I don't— I, if you feel okay to answer, why do people vote Democrat in Pittsburgh?

Half of them are the union people and the minorities in the, you know, inner city who just pull the D lever every year, and the other half are from the university. You know, we've got two big universities here are the young university people who've been, you know, brainwashed by their leftist socialist professors.

Wow. So the union member one is the saddest. These people tend to love America, the blue-collar worker, and they vote for people who loathe it.

Yes, mostly the older union guys. The young— some of the younger ones, they're They're not all in, you know, on the Democrats. But, uh, um, hey, go on. Since you love the symphony, had you ever come to Pittsburgh to, um, the Pittsburgh Symphony when André Previn was conducting?

No, but believe it or not, I don't even know if this will resonate with you, I saw the Pittsburgh Symphony, one of the greatest orchestras in the world by the way, uh, I saw them perform at Carnegie Hall when I was in high school and William Steinberg conducted Oh my goodness. Yes, that's the word. Oh my goodness, folks, you could hear William Steinberg and the Pittsburgh Symphony, uh, on, on the internet. The performances are mind-blowing. I'll, I'll mention something about that later. Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ Hi everybody, I'm Dennis Prager. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas. You should see the comments. On my column this week on the subject I raised yesterday at this hour. People who— whose kids won't come over or have them, or even let them see the grandchildren because the parents are Republican or conservative or voted for Donald Trump. I hope you read the article. I hope you send it to everyone you know. The greatest hate in this country is left-wing hate. There is nothing comparable in terms of amount. The religious kids hate their parents who were not religious. The conservative kids hate their parents who voted for Biden. The greatest amount of hate in this country is from the left, not from liberals. Liberals just vote for the haters. But I always distinguish between left and liberal because if your child is liberal, they're going to see you for Christmas. The child who doesn't see a parent for Christmas because of politics is a leftist. The left has always been a source of viciousness. You become a worse human being when you become a leftist. Every one of us who is not a leftist knows that. Nobody becomes kinder, finer, sweeter when they become a leftist. A lot of people become kinder, finer, sweeter when they become a religious Jew or Christian. Not all, but most. Wow. Here's an interesting one for you to give you real life. And I pick on this group because it's sort of an outlier within the Christian world, and some Christians don't even consider them in the Christian world, but it's not a judgment I make. I believe they're in the Christian world. They don't have the same theology as other Christians in every arena, I know. Anyway, Mormons. So let's say you're a secular person. You're a secular conservative and you really think religion is silly. Would you rather your kid convert to LDS, Latter-day Saints, Mormon, or become a leftist? Which, which do you think would produce a kinder human being? Or for that matter, Catholic, Protestant, Jew? Whew. Gotta read these comments on my column. It's up at DennisPrager.com. The comments are up at Town Hall. Anyway, it's my annual visit to the Santa Claus show. All of my broadcast career, I have made the case for people who celebrate Christmas to include Santa Claus for their kids. As a general rule, I believe it is very important to make religion fun as well as serious for kids. It's important to appeal to their emotions as well as their intellect, their conscience, their faculty of reason. All of them are important. With regard— not regards, by the way. Regards is send my regards to Broadway. If you see my mother, give her my regards. Well, you should give her my love, actually. But anyway, that's what regards are, and this is with regard. So with regard to those who are celebrating Christmas, Why would you not have Santa Claus? Why would you not offer your kids the opportunity to have that fun? Because they'll grow up and think you lied to them? With all respect, and I mean it with all respect, it's not throwing it out as a line, because there are some people worthy of respect who hold this Nevertheless, there's something wrong with the person who says, my parents told me about Santa Claus, and when I grew up and realized that Santa Claus doesn't actually exist, I realized that the whole religious claim was false. Or, I thought my— I came to realize my parents lied to me. Anybody who draws either of those conclusions is a fool. You must have had a really great upbringing if you're angry at your parents for Santa Claus. You really had to stretch to find something to be annoyed with— annoyed at them with regard to. Regard. So, uh, Mr. Smith, uh, what, uh, what brings you to, uh, my psychotherapeutic practice here? Well, trouble with my parents. Really? And what was that, Ms. Smith? They lied to me. Really? Your parents lied to you? What was this? Uh, was this a regular practice? Every single year your parents lied to you? Every year? Wow, it's a good thing you made an appointment with me. You might need— you might even need shock therapy. And what did they say every year? They played along with Santa Claus. Oh, you must have PTSD. Post-traumatic Santa syndrome. Yeah. Sean almost choked on his vape. Post-traumatic Santa disorder. That's what it really is. That was the original PTSD. You got really great parents if you're ticked off at them over Santa Claus. So to the parents, may I say, if your child gets angry at you later on for telling them there's a Santa Claus. You got one unhappy puppy for a kid. Your kid will make only one person happy in his or her life— his or her therapist— because they're going to be there a while. And most therapists will agree you were lied to. I could— I understand why you're in my office. So in case you didn't pick up on it, I mock the idea that you're lying to your children if you give them Santa Claus. 1-800-Prager-776-877-243-7776. 877-243-7776.

Yahoo!

8-7-7-2-5-3-7-7-6. That was great. Who did that for us? Yeah, that's, that's really special. Cote, man named Cote. Cote, thank you. A society where the educated tell their children men give birth is really ticked off at people telling their kids there's a Santa Claus. It's all upside down. It's chaos. We live in the realm of chaos. No, no, you shouldn't tell your child there's a Santa Claus. That's not true. Men give birth. That, that's men menstruate. That's true. There's no such thing as binary sexual identity. That's made up. Yeah, follow the science. I actually agree with follow the science. The left doesn't. They follow the woke. Woke and science are mutually exclusive. It's a, it's a fun addition. Shouldn't be the only thing, of course, that constitutes Christmas, but it is a fun thing that adds love and joy and fun to your child's experience of the holiday. You have an issue with it? I'll be very respectful if you do. 1-800-PRAGER-776. The annual Case for Santa show. The Dennis Prager Show.

Your recipe. 4 potatoes, peel and grate. Shredding onion, tears streaming down your face. Then salt and pepper to your taste. Add a tablespoon of flour, a pinch of baking powder. Then add 2 eggs.

It's my annual Santa hour, dedicated to those with post-traumatic Santa disorder. The poor folks who think their parents lied to them because they told them about Santa Claus. You must have had great parents if that's your big, big problem. But some of you, uh, hold that position, and I'm going to take your call and be very respectful. You don't lie to your children.

Hmm.

Oh, we have a— it was Ed Gately, the Yeehaw jingle. So how did you blow it on the first one? Ed Gately deserves the, the praise, and you deserve the condemnation. No, no, let's be— let's be— this is a taut ship, the Prager Show. All righty, everybody. Okay, we're only taking calls on Santa this hour, so forgive me if I let you go. They're interesting calls, but forgive me, I'm clearing up lines to take your calls on the Santa issue. All right, Kevin. Highland California, or Highlands of California, whatever that means. Hi.

Hey, good afternoon, Dennis.

Oh, it's very hard to hear you. You're— I could tell you're driving.

Yeah, I'm a commercial truck driver. Give me, uh, give me just a second to pull over here.

Thank you, thank you. All right, all right, I'll put you on hold there and, uh, we'll take you in a moment. So I'm raising the question of, are you lying to your child? And of course my answer is you're not. Are you lying to your child? Well, I'll, I'll ask these questions to Kevin. Let's see if he's back. Are you okay now, Kevin?

Yeah, I'm pulled over, Dennis. How are you?

All right, thanks for calling. Fine.

Yeah, um, as I told the call screener, my, my father was death on this. But there's a little bit of a background story. Uh, in 1930, uh, he was, uh, he was of that generation. They buried his father on Christmas Eve, so that just tainted him forever on Christmas. Just, it just did. And, you know, and that's understandable. You have a— you have his mother left with 12 children in middle Tennessee at the start of the Depression. So Christmas, just as all of us celebrate, you know, or don't celebrate the birth of Christ, whatever you do, his was always a remembrance of burying his father on that day, on Christmas Eve. So I think that had a lot to do with his idea of No Santa Claus. You don't lie to your kids. You don't tell them that. And he was death on it. I mean, he was very, very staunch because his attitude was, if your child was to lie to you about anything, don't care what it is, would you punish them? Well, of course people say yes. And he said, you're a hypocrite. That was his attitude. You're a hypocrite. You know, you could not move him off that. I don't blame him for it. I understand that. I think that anybody who would bury a family member on Christmas Eve would be a little sour on Christmas. And that was, that was his attitude.

Well, thank you. Okay, I— there's nothing I could say because he had an emotional reaction to what was for him a trauma. And there's, there's really nothing that, that one could say to him or could have said to him, obviously, that would have changed. My mother died on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In fact, I, I found out about it while I was conducting services, as I do every year, Rosh Hashanah and Kippur, for 350, 400 people. It, uh, it has not had any negative impact on my celebration of Rosh Hashanah. It's actually added some degree of seriousness to it. I'm not saying that his reaction is wrong. There's no such thing as a wrong emotion. There's only such thing as wrong behavior. But I, I would think that you could turn it around, that if he was a believing Christian, he could almost say, my dad was such a holy man, he died on the day Christ was born. You could turn it around completely and, and say, look, look at what it says. About your dad. The, the only freedom we have in life is how we react to what happens to us. We don't have freedom to choose what happens to us. We have freedom to react to what happens to us. And he chose to lament Christmas because his dad was buried Christmas Eve. He could have turned it into a holiday of remembrance of his beloved dad. He, he chose not to. I would better understand if somebody lost a child and was buried on Christmas Eve than somebody lost a parent. There are, after all, levels of trauma in life. Like there are levels of sin, levels of goodness. Anyway, I'm lying to the children. Do parents who tell their kids that the tooth fairy is going to leave them a dollar bill, or whatever they now leave, $100 bills I guess in some cases, for their tooth, are they lying to the child? Have we lost an ability to rationally use words? We return. Hi everybody, I'm making the case for Santa Claus. If you have Christmas in your home, why you should have Santa. You're not lying to your children and you are making a richer experience for them. It's fun. You're protecting their innocence, which is an extremely good thing to do. Now if they out and out ask you, especially if they're older, well, is Santa real? You can have all sorts of answers. And, you know, if they're 15 and they ask you, is Santa real? You can tell them what you would like to tell them. Of course, what Santa expresses is real, and you don't want to out-and-out try to fool them. That's not the point of it. But to enjoy it, it just adds to the holiday. With regard to the pagan issue, as I was saying, what religion— good religion fills old bottles with new wine so that you take ideas that humanity had, but you monotheize them. You render them monotheistic to the, to the one true God, as Judaism and Christianity believe. And that, that's what you do. That you would use ancient vessels to pour in the new wine makes sense because that's what people are used to. They might as well argue that the entire sacrificial system in the Torah is pagan because every single pagan nation had sacrifices. And, and so why would Christians believe in the ultimate sacrifice, that of Jesus, if sacrificial— the whole sacrificial idea was pagan? But it's what you do with the vessel that matters. It doesn't render Christianity pagan. It doesn't render Judaism pagan. People need to think these things through. All right, here we go. Next, Sharon, between— what does it say? Between New York and New York. Oh, but I can't, I can't, I can't do any punishing today. Not to the lady who— it's not bread, it's challah. Hey, you said ho very well. That's impressive. Sharon, between New York and New Jersey. What are you on, in the Holland Tunnel, Lincoln Tunnel, Washington Bridge?

No, I'm actually in Rockland County right now, so close to New Jersey. I often make that trip back for doctors and whatnot. And I heard what you were talking about, and it's been an issue for me for decades. With my friends and family. And I'm, I'm curious as to why you're looking at it from the aspect of a child who's traumatized. And that's not the point. I don't know any children who were traumatized.

No, no, no. The, the, the, the mockery— and, and I was mocking— was the people who have called me over the course of years to say when they realized there was no Santa, they realized there was no God, they were traumatized and finding out that there was no Santa. That's what I was referring to.

I see. However, um, I do want to make a couple of points. Um, when my friends would say, well, why would you deprive your child of that fantasy? And I say, it's not a fantasy for them, it's a reality, because that's what I told them. It's a fantasy for me because I'm in on the, on the joke, I'm in on the lie. And when my kids, who happen to be smart kids, you know, would ask questions, you know, and I never did Santa with the kids, these are the other children that I was involved with, people would actually create a further lie. Well, how come Santa can go from house to house and down a chimney? And how does he do this? Doesn't make any sense because they're smart kids. And a parent would create a new lie to say, oh well, he he can use this, and he has the elves. And it's not just the parents, Dennis, it's the whole— it's the media, it's magazines, it's TV shows.

Yeah, but why do you think it does harm?

Because when, let's say, an older child then comes and asks the parent, is Santa really real? And you say, well, no, honey, but, but don't tell your little brother. So now that child has to be co-conspirator and lie to his little brother and make believe there's a Santa. I mean, it goes on and on. Grandparents, right?

So you're right, it doesn't go— you're right, it does go on and on. I'd still like to know what the harm is.

The harm is there. I believe that there's a little chink in the armor of trust that is— you can't see it.

Were you right? Were you raised with Santa Claus?

Uh, at a very young age, yes.

And did you— was it a chink in your trust in your parents when you realized that he didn't really exist?

Um, I had a lot of thoughts about it.

No, no, just please tell me that. That was the claim you made, so I simply want to know if you trusted your parents less the rest of your life because of Santa Claus.

I did not trust media, and I did not trust that my parents were involved in it. Yeah, that they were swayed. By media.

So, so it was a flaw— you feel it was a flaw in your parents raising you with Santa?

No, they didn't have a flaw. They were immigrants here. They went along with the narrative.

Okay, so they were sheep. They knew that there was no Santa. They were sheep. That's what you're saying?

Yeah, but let me point out the other side of it. The gifts that all the children look forward to at this time My parents didn't say they came from Santa, which is another big thing that the people buy into. They say, oh, if you're not good, you're not going to get any presents.

What's wrong with that? I think that's great. I love it. No matter whether you're good or bad, you're going to get the same presents is a pretty stupid message in my opinion. I'm not saying you're stupid, God forbid. But it's a stupid message. Santa doesn't give a damn how you behave.

Hmm.

Back in a moment.

Bells are ringing, children singing, all is merry and bright. So hang your stockings and say your prayers, 'cause Santa Claus comes tonight. Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane. He's got a bag that's filled with toys for boys and girls again. Hear those sleigh bells jingling.

Now what's wrong with that?

Okay, what a beautiful sight.

That was a very interesting call, and I thank you for calling. I'm talking about Santa Claus, my annual hour defending Santa Claus for those of you who celebrate Christmas. So that was another interesting objection. I didn't remember that one. Maybe I got it in the past. The idea that Santa will only give you gifts if you've been acting good. I love it. As I've said on many occasions, to the consternation of about half of you, I know that, and I still love you, and I hope you still have have fond feelings towards me, but I think unconditional love is a terrible idea because it detaches love from morality. No matter how vile you are, I'm going to keep loving you. First of all, I don't believe that God has that, and I don't believe that I have that or should have that. I don't want God to have it. If God loves the Stalin as much as his victims, I'm an atheist. Okay, by the way, it's okay if you believe otherwise. God loves Stalin as much as he loves his victims, then I, uh, I, I have, I have no problem with you. I have a problem with the idea. I, I know that I, I don't agree with everyone on everything. It's not possible. The only person you agree with entirely is you. So it's okay if we differ, but I think it's an awful idea. I think people should earn love by being decent. Think a wife should love an abuser? You think she should love her boyfriend who abuses the children? I don't. In fact, that's the cause of terrible problems— women who love abusive men, either to them or to, to the children that she brings in usually to the relationship. Mark, Steve, Gary, Judy, Stacy, Emma, Mark, and Susan. Two Marks, one in Orlando and one in Plano. You guys should get together. Anyway, I'm even okay with the Tooth Fairy. It's ironic that a society that tells people men give birth finds it hard to tell kids about Santa Claus. We continue. Portions of The Dennis Prager Show are brought to you by Sierra Pacific Mortgage. Hi everybody, the Ultimate Issues Hour, third hour every Tuesday. And what would be more appropriate than a religious theme given the season we are currently in? Holy for Jews and Christians and should be holy in some sense even for atheists. No reason why you can't partake of the spirit of the time, and you should. So, hi everybody, Dennis Prager, Ultimate Issues Hour. So I have a very broad question. I have throughout my broadcast career raised this. I don't know the last time I did, however. What stops you from being religious? Simple as that. Like to hear what stops you. Increasingly more and more Americans are not, and it is the tragedy of our age. And let me make my, uh, my singular argument that I have been making only of recent. Who is more likely to say men give birth? Religious Americans or secular Americans? The great lie of our time, the great absurdity of our time, is said almost only by secular people. That alone should make you religious. I'm dead serious. I'm 100% serious. If only members of one group can believe a gigantic fraud—gigantic, humongous, destructive lie—then it says something about that group, not as people, but as an ideology. In other words, it leads you to absurdity. Can you think of one religious Christian One religious Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Mormon who says men give birth? I don't know one. And anyone who claims to be religious and says it has simply adopted non-religious values in the guise of religiosity. But it's not produced in the religious world. It's not. Not every secular person says men give birth, but everyone who says it, virtually everyone, is secular. That should be sort of what they call in legal life dispositive. That alone should breed contempt for what secularism leads to— the absurd. And it does. There are a lot of wonderful secular people, by the way. Not every religious person is wonderful. I get that. I say it. I've always said it. People lie about me constantly because they can't handle my arguments. So they say, Prager says you can't be a good person if you're an atheist. I've never said it in my life. I've never hinted it. I've never thought it. Things that are made up about me on the internet, you could write a book of things made up that I've never said. That's one of them. However, I do say atheism leads to absurdity, just as Charles Krauthammer, who was, who was not a religious man, but he acknowledged it. A lot of non-religious people understand the absurdity of atheism. But I'm not talking about atheism now. I'm talking about secularism, the non-religious world, which includes atheists but is not exclusively atheistic. So what stops you? And why, if you are If something does prevent you from being religious, and by religious I mean not, not just belief in God and the Bible, but being a member of, an active member of a religion, if you are one of those, why doesn't my argument that religious people don't buy the lies of our time nearly as much as non-religious people do, why doesn't that move you at all to start taking religion seriously? Maybe if you take the Bible seriously, you're inoculated against gigantic lies. Who were more likely— who were the least likely people to believe in the worthiness of lockdowns? Now, most priests, ministers, and rabbis were sheep on this issue. I'm sorry to say, a lot of them nice people, but it's irrelevant. Nice and truth-seeking are not synonymous, and certainly nice and courageous are not synonymous. Nevertheless, I think if there were another lockdown, you would get more pushback from the religious community than last time, and certainly more than from the secular community, among other things secularism breeds. Conformity. Secularism does not breed courage. Religion should, but doesn't always, by any means. So what prevents you from being religious? That's my question. Maybe I could answer you in a way that provokes you to think. 1-800-PRAEGER, 776-877-243-7776. If you have children who have rejected religion, what is, what is their argument? I assume they're either, I just can't believe in God, but they can believe men give birth. That's what you should challenge them with. So you left college without belief in God, but you did leave college with belief that men menstruate. Or my favorite new one, men can be lesbians. That's really a corker. Woman in Norway who happens to be lesbian is on trial. She may go to prison for 3 years for hate speech because she said men cannot be lesbians. So it's the Ultimate Issues Hour. What prevents you or people you know from being religious? Religious. I have grappled with the issue all of my life, so I might have at least thought-provoking responses. I'm not here so much to convince you as I am to challenge you. You know that in Genesis, the patriarch Jacob— Abraham, Isaac, Jacob— Jacob was renamed by God Israel. That's how we get the name Israel for the Jews. And it actually says that there's a meaning to the word Israel, Israel, to struggle with God. So that's an amazing thing. The chosen people are, are really literally the struggle with God people. And we should all struggle with God. It makes God real. You struggle with everyone else in your life in some way. Why not with God? There's no intimacy with God if there's no struggle. I do all the time. I have been preoccupied with good and evil all of my life. And I do struggle with the issue of how much evil there is in the world and how much natural suffering there is in the world and how unfair this world is. But atheists should struggle with God too. That's the point that I'm making. Secular people should struggle with God. This is not just a statement about the believer. It is a statement about the non-believer. I was invited once by the largest atheist group in America. I think it was Atheists United, but I'm not— or American Atheists. That's it. I think it was American Atheists. To their credit, they invited me to their annual convention. It is to their credit. Leftists never invite me. And the atheists invited me to debate the head of their group, and it was a fine day. At one point I looked at the audience— I don't know, maybe 400 or 500 people, all presumably atheists— and I said, would you raise your hand if you ever struggle with your atheism? Like, if you see a baby born, do you think, wow, that's really miraculous, maybe there is a God? Raise your hand if you've ever struggled with your atheism. And I don't think any hands went up. And then I said to them, it's interesting, when I ask religious audiences, raise your hand if you ever struggle with God, almost every hand goes up. So contrary to the popular notion that the secular challenge themselves and pursue truth. At least in this regard, I find it much more prevalent among the believers. They struggle in their pursuit of truth. So what stops you or someone you love from being religious? That's the theme of this Ultimate Issues Hour on The Dennis Prager Show. A reminder by Friends, we have a beautiful campaign here for kids who have a parent in prison. Get them a gift for Christmas, give them some religious literature, try to give them usually a father, a father on earth and a father in heaven. Um, that's what my words, not theirs. Anyway, it's a beautiful thing. $25 takes care of a kid with the gift Hopefully a note from the parent. What, what percentage have I, uh, have I filled my, my promise there about raising? I think I'm in the 90s, 90-something percent. Remind these children that they are never forgotten. Go to the Angel Tree banner at DennisPrager.com. And, uh, look at that. Adventures in the Bible. Really good stuff. Oh, I'm at 111%. Of course there's no reason to stop. That's why I'm continuing to ask. We should go to 200%. The Angel Tree banner at presents are a testimony of God's love for the incarcerated parent. Okay. AngelTreeBanner@DennisPrager.com. I'm Dennis Prager. The subject of the Ultimate Issues Hour this week, fittingly given it's Hanukkah and Christmas, is what prevents you from being religious, especially since it is almost only non-religious people who believe the lies of our time like men give birth. This should be a turning point for those of you who are secular and who love truth. The religious are much less likely to believe in frauds. That's, that's a big deal. That is really a big deal. Okay, we've got a 16-year-old, if that's correct, Amelia in Minneapolis. Hello. Hi. Hello. Hi there.

Um, the reason I'm not religious is because, um, I have— I feel I have a relationship with God rather than a religion, the same as I would have a relationship with my father instead of having a religion, if that makes sense. And so James 1:26 says, if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. And then Matthew 15:9 says, but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. So I find that the Jesus is most— most of his adversaries were actually the most religious people, but the people who were closest to him were people who truly loved him with their heart and didn't really work that necessarily super religious. So that's, that's my two cents.

So I have a number of reactions to challenge you. I'm delighted that you— that I'm delighted you called. So number one, the only reason you know about Jesus is because of a religion. Called Christianity. If there were no Christianity, you wouldn't know who Jesus was, right? So if you, uh, opt out of religion, you, you will not have a conduit for your deepest belief, which is Jesus. You need to know that religion is the conduit. It's the, it's the train, it's the ship, it's the airplane the truck that carries these values and beliefs to the next generation. It's like saying, I believe in cargo, but I don't believe in cars. But you don't get cargo anywhere without the car. So that, that's my, my first one. Secondly, you don't— if, if your whole thing is your relationship with Jesus, you won't have a community. If it's just you and Jesus or you and God, there's no— where are you going to find your community if, if one's religion is entirely one's relationship with God? And third, the God that you believe in was handed down through the Bible. The Bible was handed down by people who had a religion— what, first Judaism and then Christianity. Right. So I just— just, it's important for you to realize that. All otherwise, in, in effect, one is inventing one's own religion. Now, some people do that and then they're successful, but unless you are— you're starting Amelia-ism, I, I think you should give, give religion a try. Give religion a chance. Well, yeah, I totally hear you.

And religion is the, you know, the belief in the worship of superhuman powers, especially God.

Well, it's the same belief as you have. Where do you— and where do you and Christianity differ?

Well, I—

where I differ is like, I, I believe like so many Christians are just so religious in their act.

No, no, no, I didn't ask where you differ from other Christians. We all differ from many other people in our religion? Where do you differ from Christianity?

Um, like, like, can you define what you mean by that?

Yeah, do you believe in a triune God— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost? Yeah. Okay, you got that from Christianity. That's the basic Christian doctrine, right? You believe that, that God gave his only Son to, to save mankind? Yes. Okay, this is the— so you have the same beliefs as normative Christianity. This is a rye. This is a Jew telling you you should be a Christian, but I, I'm intellectually honest. You, you're, you're, your beliefs, as I said, they won't, they won't be carried on if you don't have a religious community to carry it on with. And anyway, I don't know why you're opting out of normative Christianity since you can't name one belief that you differ with Christianity. Yeah. All right, bless your soul. I'm gonna let you go. Thank you. Merry Christmas, on the assumption that you're celebrating, uh, Christmas. Okay, let's see here. Let's take a Jew. Let's take a Jew. Uh, okay, I assume it is by the nature of the call. Dean in Northvale, New Jersey.

Hello. Actually, Dennis, I'm not Jewish, but that— I, I'm not religious.

Wait a minute. Oh, so wait, it says not religious but follows the Torah? No. Okay, all right, fair enough. I— at least you understand why I assumed you were Jewish.

Oh, absolutely. Here's, here's even more understanding. The only reason why I know about the Torah is because of your 3 books that you put out, and it's freaking me out. I, you know, I, I realize how important religion is to a human being, and, uh, I, I— the reason why I'm not religious is because I have trouble believing that there's a God. However, I also have a huge problem with not believing there's a God. And being extremely rational, uh, you know, reading your rational Bible, I am convinced that the only way that you can survive in a society like we have is through either the Torah or actually the Torah and the rules. And yes, so hold on, you're a thoughtful man.

And let me just say to all of you, it'll— it's true, it will freak you out. My Rational Bible series, these 3 volumes that are out, they make a great Hanukkah or Christmas gift. The Rational Bible. Dennis Prager here. Thanks for listening to the Daily Dennis Prager Podcast. To hear the entire 3 hours of my radio show commercial-free every single day, become a member of Pragertopia. You'll also get access to 15 years' worth of archives as well as the daily show prep. Subscribe at pragertopia.com.