 Customize your News Headlines
- My News - Add News Feed
- Archives
Monday, December 19, 2005
The battle against Christmas
Christmas has become a treasured and beloved American icon. At this time of the year, how many of you fondly think back to your childhood and recall many precious memories of those times? I know I do. I still look forward to it: the true meaning of Christmas, the decorations, the aroma of Christmas cookies, the presents, the delicious feast, and the getting together with family--some of whom we may have argued with in the past, but at this time of the year, we seem to put it all behind us. We even become friendlier with strangers, don't we? It's a wondrous time of year.
Not for some. For a handful, like the ACLU (arguably the Against Christmas Liberties Union), it's positively the most offensive time of the year. It is a battle against Christmas. They're trying to take "Christ" out of Christmas. I believe it is a battle against you and your children.
A week before Christmas in 1834, Charles Dickens published "A Christmas Carol" and sold it at Macy's, but now Macy's Department Store and many others prohibit all references to "Christmas" (in some cases, even Santa Claus). Why not outlaw Captain America while we're at it? They're not alone in this un-American attack on Christmas. Since John Gibson expertly exposes the attack on Christmas in his new book The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought, beyond a few paragraphs of my own about the removal of Christmas terms and symbols from public life, I will leave the fuller exposé to John. His book is excellent, and it will shock you much like Persecution by David Limbaugh did me.
But most importantly, I will tell you what you can effectively do to reverse this war on Christmas. Gibson calls this attack on Christmas a "plot," and I have to agree, and as most plots go, only a tiny disaffected minority is involved. But they're loud and they are determined to remove all vestiges of Christmas and Christianity from public life. Mike Johnson, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney in Louisiana who pushes the pro-Christmas cause, said, "It's a sad day in America when you have to retain an attorney to say Merry Christmas." Yes, it is a very sad day indeed.
Offending stores
Following the ACLU's lead, a growing number of major stores have declared war on Christmas. Among stores that are officially banning "Christmas" celebrations, terms, and symbols in their stores, on store property, and in their advertising are:
Target, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Kmart, Sears, Costco, Kohl's, Barnes & Noble, Toys 'R' Us, KB Toys, BJ's Wholesale Club, Kroger, OfficeMax, Walgreens, Staples, J.C. Penney, Dell, Filene's, Lord & Taylor, Marshall Field's, Federated Stores, May, Macy's, and Lowe's. (May and Federated Stores are umbrella companies for many of the other anti-Christian and Christmas-hostile store chains.)
Sam's Club also makes my list because they're weakly trying to be in the middle by only allowing the Salvation Army access to their property three days a week. How can any American store ban or severely restrict such a great charitable institution with a nearly impeccable record of public service and assistance since 1878? It's despicable.
(I'm sure that there are other stores that ban Christmas. If you know of any, email me with a verifiable Internet link, and I'll update my advisory to include it. Also, if you know of any people or stores that have changed their mind and now allow Christmas symbols, etc., let me know and we'll list them.)
You can't say you're a pro-Christian and pro-American company if you turn around and ban the important symbols of the Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Christ--when 90% of Americans profess to be Christians. Manuel Zamorano, founder of the Committee to Save Merry Christmas, says that "Christmas is a nationally declared federal holiday that has been observed from the inception of our nation."
Know this: The ACLU is most assuredly behind the attack on Christmas, and the organization's anti-Christian campaign is hurtful to America and American culture. It's hurtful to you. Whenever a minority wields the power to force their views on the majority, as the ACLU has done, it infringes on your rights as a citizen of a democracy. I'm surprised that the ACLU hasn't already attempted to sue the Red Cross because its internationally-known symbol of hope, rescue, and charity is a CROSS. Just as they were successful in getting a cross removed from the L.A. County Seal, and as they're now trying to have "In God We Trust" removed from our money, I'm sure that such an attack on the Red Cross is coming. Nothing is sacred to them.
Columnist Chris Adamo says that "while these situations are indeed cause for concern, a far greater double standard, and therefore a far greater danger, exists. At the heart of this controversy is the organization known as the 'American Civil Liberties Union,' or ACLU.... Since every conceivable action holds the potential to 'offend' somebody, a decision must be made as to which actions do and don't constitute legitimate cases of 'offense.' Of course, the ACLU presumes itself to be the absolute arbiter of this role.... The real danger to America's future does not emanate from a display of the Christ Child on the courthouse lawn anymore than from the verses of a Christmas carol. Rather, it is present in any governing entity that presumes the authority to control thought."
We must stand up to this. Who says I can't say "Merry Christmas," shop for a "Christmas tree," or sing "O Holy Night"? Learn more...
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Baptisms on the rise as church experiences revival
VIRDEN, Ill. (BP)--Revival has swept into a small church in rural Illinois as more than 60 people have professed Jesus as Lord within the past two years, and the pastor says it’s because the congregation decided that God’s plans for the church are more important than their own.
Grace Southern Baptist Church in Virden, Ill., a town of 3,500 people about 20 miles south of Springfield, was striving to have 100 people for a Sunday service two years ago, but now they easily surpass 200 each week.
“It’s amazing over the last two years what God has done,” Brent Williams, pastor of Grace, told Baptist Press. “I’m originally from Arkansas and grew up in church in the Bible Belt, and what I’ve found out over the last two years of being here is that people are so receptive to the Gospel, that their ears and their minds are open to hear about the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
In early November, five people accepted Christ during a service, and the next week the altar was filled with people praying and five more came forward for salvation, including a 70-year-old woman.
“We were about to close the service. No one had come on the last time we were going to sing, and then all of a sudden I looked out of the corner of my eye and up walks this little girl onto the stage where I was standing, and she pulled on my coattail and she asked me, ‘Pastor, can I be saved?’” Williams recounted.
“Of course it just hit me, after witnessing a 70-year-old woman who by statistics wasn’t likely to come to know Christ at that age and then to look into the eyes of a 6-year-old child and see that God is in the business of saving someone at the age of 6 and someone at the age of 70. It was a beautiful picture,” he said.
The following Wednesday night, the 70-year-old woman’s 74-year-old sister approached Williams in his office at the church and wanted to be saved. Williams had ministered to her husband when he was terminally ill with cancer and the couple didn’t have a church home.
“About once a week during the last month of his life I visited with him and got to know him and ended up doing his funeral,” the pastor said. Learn more...
|
Customize your News Headlines
- My News - Add News Feed
- Archives
|
| Other News |  | |
|
