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The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, Sunday, 12/18/05.

Herewith at this happy time of year, a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?

I don''t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise''s wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are.

If this is what it means to be no longer young. It''s not so bad.

Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don''t feel threatened. I don''t feel discriminated against. That''s what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn''t bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don''t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn''t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it''s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don''t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don''t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can''t find it in the Constitution, and I don''t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren''t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that''s a sign that I''m getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it''s not funny, it''s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham''s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?" (regarding Katrina)

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we''ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O''Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn''t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school . the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn''t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock''s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he''s talking about. And we said OK.

Now we''re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don''t know right from wrong, and why it doesn''t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world''s going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send ''jokes'' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you''re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don''t sit back and complain about what's bad.

That's very interesting, and I think a lot of it is very true.

Well, a lot of non-christians celebrate christmas too, but only for santa and gifts. So, some of the people saying merry christmas to you might not even be christians.

Yeah, but that's not Christmas, it's like commercial-mas that has nothing to do with CHRIST.
But some people don't get that there's Christ in Christmas.

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That is one of the things that bugs me the most--I mean, they are Christmas trees. Christmas trees, not "Holiday trees" or whatever they call them. It is part of the Christian religion...so yeah...that's all.

I also heard somewhere that the pine tree and the date are actually from a Wiccan holiday. (Since I'm sure everyone knows by now that Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th)

Well duh it didn't start the first Christmas, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a Christmas Tree. I mean, it's not like it was some other religion's symbol and Christians stole/borrowed it. It originated for Christmas.

Ooh, I really don't like this chick.
Consider: In the continent of Africa alone, there are 200,000 child soldiers. Less than 1 in 10 Africans in need of treatment for AIDS received it by end of 2005. 19,000 African children die daily from easily curable diseases.
Watch the movie Blood Diamond.
Ponder. Why are we worrying so bloody much about laws and regulations and legalism when all of this is happening around the world? What are we doing about any of it?
I understand that helping people within our own country is important. But why aren't we helping the needy [I've worked with city relief organizations, there are plenty of them in our own country] instead of alienating every non-Christian out there by being legalistic and preachy?
Ugh.
It drives me crazy.

Sorry I'm so grumpy. I'm not trying to start an argument. I've been struggling with this a lot lately [it's one reason why I no longer profess myself a Christian] and I want so much to bring the passion that I see in many Christians to a better outlet.