Welcome to Politics by Faith. I am Mike Slater. Thank you for being here. The point of this

podcast is we take the news of the day, break it down, lament the brokenness in it that is causing us all anxiety,

then provide some historical perspective and biblical truth

that makes that anxiety go away so we can go to sleep and we can wake up as happy warriors,

bright-eyed, ready to take on the day. Today's a little different because the story of the day

today is Christmas. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, and I wanted to present this podcast

two weeks before Christmas, giving you the time to reflect

on what we talk about here as we approach the big day.

No use doing this podcast on Christmas Eve.

It's too late.

Coming up, I'll also explain why there is no Santa Claus in the Slater House.

And then everyone gets mad at me and I get 100 emails

and I got to respond to everyone. But we're going to do it anyway. Here's my main issue. This is

the story of the day. I lament the secularization and cheapening of our holidays.

This is a theme that has smacked me over the face this year.

You may be way ahead of me.

I'm catching up to you just how secular and lame and meaningless our holidays have become,

especially when you compare them to what they were and what they could be.

Halloween felt especially meaningless this year, and I was struggling with why, and then I finally had the obvious realization. It is meaningless. It used to be all hallows Eve. Hallowed, meaning sacred and set apart.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed, be thy name. It was the day before All Saints Day, which is the day

where we celebrated the Christian martyrs who came

before us. Just imagine how society would be different if all the Christians in America knew

...