While driving to work early this morning I heard the news that Christmas carolers were asked to leave a Post Office in Maryland this week. JP Duffy writes regarding the incident he along with his wife and daughter Audrey experienced personally, “The three of us stood in line along with dozens of other customers at the U.S. Post Office located in the Aspen Hill Shopping Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. We were preparing our packages when Audrey tugged on my sleeve, saying, “Daddy, Daddy, look.” I turned to see a bright smile on her face as she pointed to a trio of Christmas carolers entering the post office who looked like they had stepped off the theatre stage of “A Christmas Carol.” The gentleman of the group wore a top hat and the ladies were arrayed with shawls and bonnets. Dickens would be proud. Everyone turned their attention to the carolers in anticipation of that annual tradition that we’ve all experienced. They were only a few notes into their carol when suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw a scowling postal manager rushing to confront the carolers. He angrily told them that they had to leave immediately because they were “violating the post office’s policy against solicitation.” Here we go again!
Tis the season once again for the “War on Christmas”. I thought of entitling this column, “HO HO HUMBUG!” or even “OH LITTLE TOWN OF BEDLAHM” but I found myself quickly averting to the obvious title YOU JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP! Along with the previously mentioned episode this past week has brought to my attention an elementary school principal in Stockton, CA, who has banned Santa Claus and poinsettias from the classroom. When a local reporter asked why, a district official explained, "Teachers are encouraged to be respectful." Respectful of what? Poinsettias are now considered religious symbols that will offend non-Christians? Other schools in the Stockton area are also making sure there is a separation of church and state at holiday-themed school functions. At Pittman Charter School, there will be a Winter Ball instead of a Christmas Ball. “I think we have to be respectful to the Jewish kids, Muslims, all the different religions. Tom Uslan, the superintendent of the Lincoln Unified School District, said “there is a myriad of religious affiliations (in the community) … we don’t want a pervasive theme of a class to be representing one religious affiliation.” I do so wish for the sake of our nation’s future that these and other principles alike were aware that education in this nation began by not only including the Bible in classrooms and teaching the letters of the alphabet with scripture references and instructing our children to pray and memorize scripture. And as to the separation of church and state, I would suggest a clear understanding of Thomas Jefferson’s Danbury letter would help to clear up the unbelievable rhetoric and policy that permeates our culture today. Ah Well, enough of that. I don’t want to damper your Christmas spirit completely. The fact is this war on Christmas is neither new nor is it hopelessly lost.
Again this year as we wade into the CHRISTMAS season. Remember, this is just a front on a battle that has been waged from the beginning of time as we know it. The influences of our day are the result of the longstanding battle between good and evil, between God and Satan. You see there is a great truth about ones conversion to Christianity that we sometimes forget. When we are saved, Jesus longtime enemy now becomes our enemy. So know that the battle against Christmas today is a result of hatred by Satan of the Messiah who has come to us. Secondly, remember that this is a longstanding conflict. It began in Genesis chapter three with promise of a child that would be born and continues to this day with the battle to remove all traces of that birth from the public’s view. You see Satan failed; he couldn’t stop the plan, which leads me to another wonderfully thought and that is this. The message of Christ’s birth can never be stopped! Regardless of who opposes it, regardless of who protests it, and regardless of who fights it or who mocks it! “That includes certain news networks by the way!” Jesus was born of a virgin in a little town called Bethlehem and the world has never been the same since. I have always loved this recitation which came from an essay that was adapted from a sermon by Dr James Allan Francis in 1926. “Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never owned a home. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put His foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place He was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but Himself... While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. While He was dying His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth – His coat. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen long centuries have come and gone, and today He is a centerpiece of the human race and leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever built; all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life.” It’s true isn’t it? Nothing can stop this message, and nothing ever will. So with all that in mind allow me to wish you a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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