{"id":134,"date":"2007-12-10T13:57:36","date_gmt":"2007-12-10T20:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/10\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/"},"modified":"2013-11-29T17:26:08","modified_gmt":"2013-11-30T01:26:08","slug":"my-traditional-christmas-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"My Traditional Christmas Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lonesome<\/a>One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie “Lonesome Dove<\/a>“\"\" with Robert Duvall, Danny Glover, and Tommy Lee Jones. Last night, my wife and I sat down and watched Part 1.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, as we were sitting on the couch, a little depressed from all the people who die, the women who get treated like trash, and the overall view in the movie that life is cheap, my wife said, \u201cOf all the traditional Christmas movies, “Miracle on 34th Street<\/a>,”\"\" “White Christmas<\/a>,”\"\" or “A Christmas Story<\/a>“\"\" why do you watch this movie? It\u2019s so depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked at her and said, \u201cI have no idea. It\u2019s just what I\u2019ve always done.\u201d<\/p>\n

My Christmas Tradition<\/h2>\n

Upon further reflection, this tradition began for me around 15 years ago. I think that the local television station showed this movie on television around the Christmas season for two or three years, and then my mother bought me the tapes for my birthday one summer, and after that, it was just something I did during Christmas. Now I watch the movie at Christmas because it helps me \u201cfeel\u201d the season.<\/p>\n

Church Traditions<\/h2>\n

I think most of what we do in church is the same way. We do what we do because we’ve done it for a long time, and it helps us \u201cfeel\u201d like a Christian. It\u2019s not that what we do is mandated in Scripture, or that it helps us accomplish what Scripture does mandate (e.g., go and make disciples), but we do it because we’ve always done it.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow we\u2019ll look at a way to determine if a tradition is something that should be cut or continued<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What strange Christmas traditions do you practice during the holidays?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie \u201cLonesome Dove.\u201d But it sure is depressing! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1565,1671,19,1509,32],"class_list":{"0":"post-134","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"tag-christmas","8":"tag-church-tradition","9":"tag-discipleship","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-theology-church","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nMy Traditional Christmas Movie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie \u201cLonesome Dove.\u201d But it sure is depressing!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Traditional Christmas Movie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie \u201cLonesome Dove.\u201d But it sure is depressing!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Redeeming God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-10T20:57:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-11-30T01:26:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"275\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"headline\":\"My Traditional Christmas Movie\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-10T20:57:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-30T01:26:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/\"},\"wordCount\":304,\"commentCount\":9,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Christmas\",\"church tradition\",\"Discipleship\",\"movies\",\"Theology of the Church\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/\",\"name\":\"My Traditional Christmas Movie\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-10T20:57:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-11-30T01:26:08+00:00\",\"description\":\"One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie \u201cLonesome Dove.\u201d But it sure is depressing!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg\",\"width\":\"275\",\"height\":\"425\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"My Traditional Christmas Movie\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\",\"name\":\"Redeeming God\",\"description\":\"Liberating you from bad ideas about God\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeremy Myers\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\",\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"My Traditional Christmas Movie","description":"One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie \u201cLonesome Dove.\u201d But it sure is depressing!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"My Traditional Christmas Movie","og_description":"One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie \u201cLonesome Dove.\u201d But it sure is depressing!","og_url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/","og_site_name":"Redeeming God","article_publisher":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_author":"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","article_published_time":"2007-12-10T20:57:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-11-30T01:26:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":275,"height":425,"url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeremy Myers","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@redeeminggod","twitter_site":"@redeeminggod","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeremy Myers","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeremy Myers","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"headline":"My Traditional Christmas Movie","datePublished":"2007-12-10T20:57:36+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-30T01:26:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/"},"wordCount":304,"commentCount":9,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg","keywords":["Christmas","church tradition","Discipleship","movies","Theology of the Church"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/","name":"My Traditional Christmas Movie","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg","datePublished":"2007-12-10T20:57:36+00:00","dateModified":"2013-11-30T01:26:08+00:00","description":"One of my Christmas traditions during the weeks leading up to Christmas is to watch the six hour movie \u201cLonesome Dove.\u201d But it sure is depressing!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/12\/lonesome_dove.jpg","width":"275","height":"425"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/my-traditional-christmas-movie\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"My Traditional Christmas Movie"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/","name":"Redeeming God","description":"Liberating you from bad ideas about God","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c","name":"Jeremy Myers","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeremy Myers"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. He is a popular author and blogger and often gives away free eBooks to his blog subscribers.","sameAs":["https:\/\/redeeminggod.com","http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804","https:\/\/x.com\/redeeminggod"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}