For many, 2008 has been a terrible year. It’s hard to watch the news and not become depressed. Thousands of American soldiers will spend another season over seas. The economy is hurting and many have lost jobs or economic security. The ability to afford health care is out of reach for many. Schools are failing to accomplish their mission like never before but how quick some schools are to worry about things like who might be offended should a teacher display Christmas cards on his or her desk or God forbid any “holiday” song that mentions Christmas might be deemed inappropriate for fear someone might be offended. Many advertisers seem to treat mentioning the word Christmas in their barrage of advertising during the peak retail season more controversial than using one of those seven words George Carlin once cautioned could never be said on radio.
In Washington, the governor issued an edict that a placard harshly critical of traditional religion has every right to be displayed right next to a traditional Christmas display in the State House leading to a barrage of other attempts of seeking expression for off-the-wall beliefs and other expressions all mocking an event that the overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate. Christmas has been a Federal holiday since the Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant as our society’s values are founded as much in the teachings of the Bible as they are in any legal scholar’s work. The very essence of what entitled the people of America to declare their independence from the British crown was the belief stated in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed with certain inalienable rights by our creator.
It is from that recognition that our freedoms in the Bill of Rights derive their authority and provides the moral and ethical foundation for our sense of human rights. Yet some in our government use the First Amendment as the basis to ban reasonable religious expression from the public square interpreting that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” in ways never intended by the philosophical genius of our founding fathers. What is being forced upon us by judical activists, those representing the radical secular humanism of the extreme left in our society, the embrace of an extreme concept of separation of church and state that many such proponents use to mandate that all forms of religious expression be curtailed in any form in any government sponsored activity where when analyzed how it has been forced upon us essentially makes only those who have no religious beliefs what-so-ever empowered while others are coerced to carefully take care to say nothing referring to traditional customs such a small minority insists upon. In the world of the secular humanists, the extreme left, and paranoid corporate lackies and HR directors fearing legal action is the notion that the 1st amendment guarantees little more than freedom from religion.
Sure Christmas has become grotesquely commercialized over the years, but even most atheists exchange Christmas presents. The many messages of Christmas including giving to the less fortunate ring as true today as they ever have. If there was ever a time for Christians and all those who partake in Christmas traditions to band together and reflect on the transcendent messages the birth of Christ symbolizes, that time has come today. We must maintain our highest moral values while we cannot ignore we are engaged in a war we did not initiate against the forces of pure evil who would kill us for our freedom, our faith, our values, and our rights guaranteed to all citizens. When radical Islam which pretends to be a religion of the Children of Abraham stirs up mad fervor in the name of Jihad where the most extreme would kill themselves in the act of killing many more of us for those beliefs we hold dearest, we must stand united, embrace and celebrate the goodness and virtue of what our society aspires to be while never failing to be diligent against those blind servants of false prophets and their doctrine of hatred and death.
These are difficult times, but as we awake on Christmas morning, most Americans have slept in a comfortable bed, live in a secure home warm enough to combat the cold of winter, and have plenty of food to eat. While some might feel depressed and angry some of the lavish trappings of holidays gone by in years gone by might be out of reach this year, we can be thankful we live in a culture that still values our basic goodness and provides living conditions that even for those living the most modest life styles among us would be the envy of the vast majority of the overall population of the world.
In 2008, Christmas is a time to celebrate what we have and not dwell on what we don’t have. Economic conditions and the threat of war can never restrict the love and devotion we feel for others around us. We can collectively join together to provide for better times for all in the very near future.
In Washington, the governor issued an edict that a placard harshly critical of traditional religion has every right to be displayed right next to a traditional Christmas display in the State House leading to a barrage of other attempts of seeking expression for off-the-wall beliefs and other expressions all mocking an event that the overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate. Christmas has been a Federal holiday since the Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant as our society’s values are founded as much in the teachings of the Bible as they are in any legal scholar’s work. The very essence of what entitled the people of America to declare their independence from the British crown was the belief stated in the Declaration of Independence that we are endowed with certain inalienable rights by our creator.
It is from that recognition that our freedoms in the Bill of Rights derive their authority and provides the moral and ethical foundation for our sense of human rights. Yet some in our government use the First Amendment as the basis to ban reasonable religious expression from the public square interpreting that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” in ways never intended by the philosophical genius of our founding fathers. What is being forced upon us by judical activists, those representing the radical secular humanism of the extreme left in our society, the embrace of an extreme concept of separation of church and state that many such proponents use to mandate that all forms of religious expression be curtailed in any form in any government sponsored activity where when analyzed how it has been forced upon us essentially makes only those who have no religious beliefs what-so-ever empowered while others are coerced to carefully take care to say nothing referring to traditional customs such a small minority insists upon. In the world of the secular humanists, the extreme left, and paranoid corporate lackies and HR directors fearing legal action is the notion that the 1st amendment guarantees little more than freedom from religion.
Sure Christmas has become grotesquely commercialized over the years, but even most atheists exchange Christmas presents. The many messages of Christmas including giving to the less fortunate ring as true today as they ever have. If there was ever a time for Christians and all those who partake in Christmas traditions to band together and reflect on the transcendent messages the birth of Christ symbolizes, that time has come today. We must maintain our highest moral values while we cannot ignore we are engaged in a war we did not initiate against the forces of pure evil who would kill us for our freedom, our faith, our values, and our rights guaranteed to all citizens. When radical Islam which pretends to be a religion of the Children of Abraham stirs up mad fervor in the name of Jihad where the most extreme would kill themselves in the act of killing many more of us for those beliefs we hold dearest, we must stand united, embrace and celebrate the goodness and virtue of what our society aspires to be while never failing to be diligent against those blind servants of false prophets and their doctrine of hatred and death.
These are difficult times, but as we awake on Christmas morning, most Americans have slept in a comfortable bed, live in a secure home warm enough to combat the cold of winter, and have plenty of food to eat. While some might feel depressed and angry some of the lavish trappings of holidays gone by in years gone by might be out of reach this year, we can be thankful we live in a culture that still values our basic goodness and provides living conditions that even for those living the most modest life styles among us would be the envy of the vast majority of the overall population of the world.
In 2008, Christmas is a time to celebrate what we have and not dwell on what we don’t have. Economic conditions and the threat of war can never restrict the love and devotion we feel for others around us. We can collectively join together to provide for better times for all in the very near future.
