By: Tom Wright

The predominant winter holidays are a time of celebration. If you celebrate Christmas, it is the annual celebration of the birth of Christ, who would become the Christian propitiation for sin. If you are Jewish, Hanukkah is a remembrance of rededicating the Holy Land’s second Temple, reclaimed from the Syrian-Greek invaders of the second century BCE, the temple being the place of sacrifice granting forgiveness. Regardless of one’s faith, the Western world celebrates holidays during December and gives gifts.

From the orthodox Christian world, we attained the character of Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas, or Nicholas of Myra, was an Orthodox bishop who dedicated his life to serving the poor and was known for giving gifts. He was born in 270 in Patara (present day Turkey). While the Protestant Christian world does not venerate saints, the likeness and gift-giving of Saint Nicholas provided the model for our legendary character Santa Claus. Santa always wants to know who has been naughty or nice.

If you have been naughty, no presents. However, most everyone likes to be forgiven for their past transgressions. Forgiveness is the nature of most religions. Politics, which I consider a false religion despite those who worship it and its saints, also grants its patron saints the power of forgiveness. President Biden has certainly been playing the part of the benevolent old saint, forgiving a lot of transgressors with presidential pardons and commutations.

Pardons and commutations are a presidential and gubernatorial right, intended for those who have shown remorse. It is God’s nature to forgive those who admit their misbehaviors and seek forgiveness. Sometimes, pardons are bestowed on family and friends who have continually denied their transgressions.

Deserved forgiveness is a good thing from a benevolent political leader, especially in the eyes of the public. Undeserved – that’s another story. It kind of keeps company with untruths, and untruths are deleterious to trusting the goodness of the benevolent deity.

Our nation has been through a season of ambiguity and distrust brought on by the false gods of politics and their choir, the legacy media. Trump’s first campaign gave us the hoax of the Russian Dossier, secretly paid for by the Clinton campaign. Special counsel John Durham took four years to expose the truth, saying the FBI should never have launched an investigation into alleged Russian collusion with Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Next campaign – 2020. Fifty-one former and current intelligence officials claimed the furor over Hunter Biden’s laptop “appeared to be” Russian disinformation, but the FBI knew better and remained silent. Citing Trump’s lawsuits and criminal trials, the media choir sang loudly about guilt.

The public did not buy the songs, despite the solo performances by the judges, and in 2024 Donald Trump was again elected president.

Why distrust? Remember the Chinese spy balloon that the Biden administration ignored until it traversed our country before being shot down in the Atlantic?

“The border is secure,” we are told by the Seraphim protecting the throne of him that sits. The government experts told us inflation was transitory and the Wuhan virus didn’t come from the Wuhan lab.

Today we have UAOs – unidentified aerial objects, formerly known as UFOs – covering the skies in 13 states. Are they drones, manned aircraft, or figments of the imagination? No one in government can give a definitive explanation of what they are and wherefore they come. Are they a government secret project? We are told by the FBI and DHS they pose no threat and there is no evidence they are of a foreign source. The military says it is not the source.

All of this and more has caused a sinking of the public trust in our valued institutions. This must be reversed and government credibility restored.

The incoming administration is making a lot of big promises, including: “We will reduce spending by $2 trillion.” So far, not a lie. But for some, that is a lot to believe. Honest Abe Lincoln told us: “With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.” Time will tell how we respond to the incoming administration. Forgiveness does wonders. Let us believe in and pray for a miracle – that our government’s integrity be restored.

In 167 BCE, the Jewish priest Judas Maccabeus led a small, poorly armed army and defeated the mighty Seleucid Empire to recapture the Holy Land and the Holy Temple. It was a miracle of God. The Temple was again sanctified and Hanukkah is celebrated today.

We are told to pray for our political leaders, but if you are looking for a messiah, look to the heavens, not to Washington, D.C. Whether Christ or the Holy Temple, both represent a provision for atonement. It is in God we trust and we rely on Him to grant our forgiveness that we may forgive.

Tom Wright is a Santa Fe columnist and El Rito Media investor.