LaShawn Barber: Kwanzaa is "a made up anti-Christian observance"

She is unmerciful in her critique:

For decades, the media have given credence to many a self-appointed black “leader,” no matter how outrageous. Now they’re doing the same with a pagan ritual called Kwanzaa, a so-called African-American holiday.

A made-up, anti-Christian observance, Kwanzaa is celebrated by blacks who profess Christ. In our politically correct climate, even President George Bush, a believer in Christ, feels obligated to praise this ritual.

[All holidays are made up! True. But in this context, here is what I meant: Kwanzaa is a jumble of political ideology, pseudo-cultural, and spiritualized “African” rituals. Unlike Christmas, the Christian observance of the birth of the Savior, Kwanzaa isn’t a deep-rooted, historical, or true observance of anything African. An ex-convict created a faux African Christmas replacement for black folks.]

Kwanzaa was invented in 1966 by Dr. Maulana “Ron” Karenga, a former black militant, Marxist and convicted felon. Claiming to have the unity of black people in mind, Karenga committed most of his crimes against blacks.

Just five years after his invention, he was convicted of torturing two black women by stripping them naked, beating them with electrical cords, placing a hot iron into the mouth of one and mangling the toe of the other in a vice. During the ordeal, he forced them to drink detergent.

[Hey, we all have a past, including me. I just thought this information was important to note.]

But I digress.

Observed from December 26 to January 1, this “alternative” to Christmas is based on a mixture of East African harvest rituals called first fruits — according to Karenga — and 1960s radicalism, although most ancestors of black Americans were from West Africa.

[I cringe when I read news stories that assert Kwanzaa is a “celebration of black culture.” ]

Participants acknowledge their African roots and promote seven, harmless-sounding principles — unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

While they sound commendable, the guiding principle behind Kwanzaa is based on race, not on faith in the one true living God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Paganism is a “religion of nature.” Those who practice it and other New Age fallacies see the divine in the created — humans, sun, moon, stars, trees — instead of the Creator. Christians who worship created beings are acting like pagans. It’s that simple.

I suggest reading it all.  It will surely rile many.