re: #175 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Yes, it teaches us that the only way we can instill self-reliance and initiative to poor people is to deny them any access to any form of government assistance.

If you read A Christmas Carol as a theological critique, it’s clear Dickens was condemning Scrooge’s ultra-Calvinism for a more charitable kind of Christianity. The three spirits are part of Scrooge’s “road to Damascus.”

Nowhere in the text does he refer to Jesus by name. Bob Cratchit, in retelling Tiny Tim’s remarks about going to church, only obliquely refers to Jesus’ miracles. The Ghost of Christmas Present refers to his 1,800 or so brothers who came before him.

Modern day Christian writers would have hammered Jesus’ name home on every single page.