CHRISTMAS – beautiful, wonderful part of the year that softens the hearts of hardened soldiers and emboldens the courage of the meek. It is the time when God breathes His spirit through us and reminds us of His son, born in a manger, held by a young, flawlessly humble and pure maiden, and guarded by a carpenter whose loving care sheltered both wife and child.
CHRISTMAS – celebrated and honored in the West for thousands of years – despite efforts to put out its light. When darkness fell – the light defeated the dark.
CHRISTMAS – the advent wreath – five candles – three purple, one pink and the center one white. Each Sunday before Christmas the candles are lit and Bible verses are read, and ancient carols are sung – in the faithful churches – and in the homes of adoring families.
CHRISTMAS – Nativities, the Star of Bethlehem, stable, Mary, Joseph, shepherds, farm animals, camels and Wise Men.
CHRISTMAS – ancient carols sung in the night on the streets in neighborhoods, in
churches and in homes.
CHRISTMAS – the story of the baby born in a manger read from the Bible – complete with Herod’s soldiers murdering babies up to two years old to try to kill the Son of David – but an Angel of the Lord warns Joseph and the dear, courageous father escapes to Egypt to save the Son of God.
CHRISTMAS – Trees and lights and hearts of joy shopping happily for loved ones. Little ones wait for Santa – but the true magic of the soul leaps to the manger – to the Son of God made man through the Holy Spirit.
A wonderful little documentary exists that details the history of Christmas in America.
—The name of it is Christmas Unwrapped.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSQYX-OB1Rs)
In this film I learned how the carols sung in Catholic churches in the old days on Christmas Eve inspired Christians of all denominations to do the same – to ring in the joy of Christ’s birth with songs while holding candles – defeating the dark with small, flickering flames. Despite the efforts of tyrants big and small to erase or transform Christmas –sometimes it took centuries – but the Light always defeated the Dark.
And THAT my friends, I want to encourage you as you see a lack of Christmas and
Nativities and all the true meanings of Christmas in our public square today – I want to encourage you NOT TO DESPAIR.
I despaired. I wanted to go to battle and fight the anti-God monsters.
But one day, in mass, I heard a voice behind me. That voice sang an ancient song,
humble, clear, with such love that the tiny voice rose above all the adults packed in the church. I turned to see this little boy who sang a very complicated ancient song in such innocense, such humble adoration, that surely the angels themselves were accompanying him.
This kind of love cements in a young heart the kind of devotion that rises the courage of a warrior in a future grown man. It fills a young girl with the soul of Joan of Arc.
This, my friends, is why tyrants work so hard to squash the teaching of God in the souls of children.
This is why Christmas is airbrushed very carefully out of our country.
Look around this Christmas. How many nativities do you see?
On the other hand – we see blue lights, penguins, snow, holiday trees, and Santas with the message of “Merry” and “Happy” and “Joy” and “Peace” – minus a key word – Christmas.
There are bravehearts out there fighting hard to bring back Christmas to its true meaning. I have a friend who teaches dance and she is trying to introduce her little dancers to “Away in the Manger”, “Silent Night,” and other traditional songs. The little girls never heard of them – yet
they know “Let it Snow!”
A small town in New Mexico is fighting against the Freedom From Religion Foundation to keep their permanent nativity. In fact, the whole town put up nativities on their lawns last year as away of letting the FFRF to take a hike .(http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/believe-in-belen-campaign-begins-with-rally-for-city-s/article_0bffa722-8708-507e-8958-a0aa599f05b8.html)
Texas placed a nativity on its capital grounds and tells the legal bullies to go pound holly.(http://tpr.org/post/first-ever-nativity-scene-goes-state-capitol-little-fuss#stream/0) The Lone Star State also passed the Merry Christmas Law (http://www.merrychristmasbill.com/).
But Christmas is a long fight ahead of us.
I have been battling it out for years. I have felt discouraged so many times – not because of ourn enemies – but because of the apathy of fellow Christians! The shrugs of “Well, what are you going to do?”
That little voice behind me sent a lightning bolt to my soul that day. I realized that the war will be won only with the help of God, Himself. This is a war for the hearts of children young and not yet born. This is a quiet war that will have to be waged with quietly planting seeds.
Before I lay out my ideas for “planting season”, let me give you a quote from a book that I have been reading. Erwin W. Lutzer wrote a book I hope everyone reading this article will buy andread and study – that book is When a Nation Forgets God, 7 Lessons We Must Learn from NaziGermany. You see, that kind of love coming from the tyke in church behind me, born and allowed to grow in a child’s heart, is a love that will not flee at the sight of tyranny, at the threat of torture, at the
bullying of a lawyer. And that, dear friends, is why so many work so hard to destroy all remnants of Christmas – the true, traditional beauty of celebrating Christmas, as a town, as a nation, as a people.
Hitler understood it (which is so well illustrated by Lutzer in his book I mentioned above):
“So, right from the beginning Hitler sought to marginalize the church to guarantee
that no Christian influence would be allowed to inform government policy. Worship would have to be a private matter between a man and his God; at all costs the official state policy would have to be based on humanistic principles to give Hitler the freedom to do what was “best” for Germany. He said that the churches must be “forbidden from interfering with temporal matters.” The state would have to be scrubbed clean of all Christian convictions
and values.”
When a Nation Forgets God, 7 Lessons We Must Learn from Nazi Germany,
by Erwin W. Lutzer, p. 16
The first item on the to do list of Hitler in order to realize his strategy of removing God from Germany was to remove Christmas. He did not start by telling the Germans and Austrians that they had to give up their love for God, Jesus, Joseph and Mary — no, no, no – it was a slow, subtle transformation.
Again, from Lutzer’s book, When a Nation Forgets God:
“Since Germans had for centuries celebrated Christmas and Easter, Hitler had to
reinterpret their meaning. Christmas was turned into a totally pagan festival; in fact, at least for the SS troops, its date was changed to December 21, the date of the winter solstice. School prayers were banned and carols and Nativity plays were forbidden in the schools; and in 1938 even the name Christmas was changed to Yuletide. Crucifixes were eliminated from classrooms. Easter was turned into a holiday that heralded the arrival of spring. If religion was tolerated, it had to be secularized so that it would be compatible with the state’s commitment to the greater good of a revived Germany. Most of the churches bowed to the
cultural currents and endorsed the “Positive Christianity” that was in line with government policies.” p. 16
Lutzer further explains and details how the churches for the most part thought they would be left alone if they just did not bother with going public with their teachings from the Bible. But that only worked until Hitler had full power, then the real tyranny followed.
“These pious Christians thought that if they left Hitler alone, he would leave them
alone. But they discovered that was not possible. Hitler also put pressure on them to have their children indoctrinated in the state schools and, thanks to the cultural pressure, their churches were not equipping members to stand against the abuses that were developing around them. In the end, he wanted to transform the church so thoroughly that every vestige of Christianity would be smashed. There was not enough room in the churches for both the cross and the swastika. As he himself mused, ‘One god must dominate another.’ “ (Lutzer, pp. 18 -19)
There is a lie about “Separation of Church and State.” It was never intended to mean churches were to stay out of the public square.
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In his January, 2001 article at his website, Wallbuilders, David Barton picks apart the fraud of “wall of separation” – (http://wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=123)
“Jefferson believed that the government was to be powerless to interfere with religious expressions for a very simple reason: he had long witnessed the unhealthy tendency of government to encroach upon the free exercise of religion. . . . Since this was Jefferson’s view concerning religious expression, in his short and polite reply to the Danbury Baptists on January 1, 1802, he assured them that they need not fear; that the free exercise of religion would never be interfered with by the federal government.” Please, go to the link above to learn more.
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You see, the “wall of separation” was to forbid the Federal Government from interfering with public religious celebrations – not the other way around!
But back to Germany – here is but one example of tyrannies that tried so hard to erase God – Nazi Germany regulated the churches to death.
“Hitler responded to the opposition of the church in the same way all hostile
governments respond to those who would disagree with them; He created a flurry of new laws and then accused pastors and church leaders of breaking them. In one way or another God had to be separated from government policies and ejected from the public square. The voice of courageous Christians had to be silenced. God had to be removed to make way for the National Socialist policies.” (Lutzer, p. 23)
Let’s return to penguins and blue lights for the “holidays.” Has anyone noticed that
Halloween (a religious holy day celebrating the night before All Saints Day) has morphed into “Fall Celebrations,” Easter is now “Spring Fest,” and Thanksgiving is a holiday to consider what we are thankful FOR not whom we are thankful TO and WHY (GOD)?
Let’s return to Lutzer’s book:
“Hitler always said that the best way to conquer your enemies is to divide them. He
encouraged a movement simply called, “God Believers” (he was willing to use the word God as long as it was emptied of all essential meaning), a policy designed to persuade individuals to withdraw from the churches. The sales pitch was that there was an alternative to the church; the state could have a ceremony to dedicate infants; the state could have its own holidays without the need to celebrate the Christian ones. Marriages, for those who wished, could also be performed by the state. The blessings of Mother Earth and Father Sky were frequently invoked upon the couple until their destiny was fulfilled. In the same way same-sex
marriage proponents say today that marriage can take place without the blessings of a religious body; it can be a purely secular act separate from religious overtones.” – (Lutzer, pp.23-24).
But the problem is not the enemies of God – the problem is within us.
This Christmas, watch the old 1940’s movie, The Bishop’s Wife. The final scene in the movie, the bishop reads the sermon that he thought he had written but was really authored by an angel. The point of the sermon pointed to a fact we must face, everyone is remembered in our Christmas celebrations – but the little baby in the manger. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzRUZYI8XdU)
Another movie – Charlie Brown’s Christmas, Linus turns his blanket into a shepherd’s cover and recite’s from the Bible the Nativity story
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxaG0ZrwJ5k):
Charles Schultz insisted on putting the scene of Linus quoting from the Bible.
Charlie Brown arrives at the rehearsals, but he is unable to control the situation as the uncooperative kids are more interested in modernizing the play with dancing and lively music, mainly Schroeder’s rendition of “Linus and Lucy.” Thinking the play requires “the proper mood,” Charlie Brown decides they need a Christmas tree. Lucy takes over the crowd and dispatches Charlie Brown to get a “big, shiny aluminum tree.” With Linus in tow, Charlie Brown sets off on his quest, as an “O Tannenbaum” instrumental plays in the background.
When they get to the tree market, filled with numerous trees fitting Lucy’s description, Charlie
Brown zeroes in on the only real tree on the lot—a tiny sapling. Linus is reluctant about Charlie Brown’s choice, but Charlie Brown is convinced that after decorating it, it will be just right for the play. They return to the auditorium with the tree, at which point the children (particularly the girls and Snoopy) ridicule, then laugh at Charlie Brown before walking away. In desperation, Charlie Brown loudly asks if anybody really knows what Christmas is all about. Linus, standing alone on the stage, states he can tell him, and recites the annunciation to the shepherds scene from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verses 8 through 14, as translated by the Authorized King James Version: “8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. 12And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men.” “…That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”[2]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas)
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Wikepedia sheds light on the background of the scene and how it could have been left on the cutting room floor:
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Schulz’s main goal for a Peanuts-based Christmas special was to focus on the true meaning of Christmas.[8] He desired to juxtapose this theme with interspersed shots of snow and ice-skating, perhaps inspired by his own childhood growing up in St. Paul, Minnesota.[8] He also created the idea for the school play, and mixing jazz with traditional Christmas carols.[8] Schulz was adamant about Linus’ reading of the Bible, despite Mendelson and Melendez’s concerns that religion was a controversial topic, especially on television.[10] Melendez recalled Schulz turned to him and remarked “If we don’t do it, who will?”.[3] Schulz’s estimation proved accurate, and in the 1960s, less than 9 percent of television Christmas episodes contained a substantive reference to religion, according to university researcher
Stephen Lind.[11] It could also be worth noting that the Linus’s recitation of Scripture was incorporated in such a way that it forms the climax of the film, thus making it impossible to successfully edit out.
Schulz’s faith in the Bible stemmed from his Midwest background and religious and historical studies;[10] as such, aspects of religion would be a topic of study throughout his life.[12] According to a 2015 “spiritual biography”, Schulz’s religion was personal and complex, and would be integrated in a number of his programs. [13] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Charlie_Brown_Christmas)
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So, what are we to do, we who mourn for the warmth of the season in its true light?
Spread seeds! Get together with those who love Christmas and make it your passion to bring it back. You can start a caroling group in and out of church. You can sponsor Christmas pageants in your town. You can offer to read the Christmas stories at shelters, and other places.
You can sponsor Christmas movie showings at your local libraries and town squares. Be sure to include The Little Drummer Boy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRbTrensuiY) and The Nativity Story (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqu2r7qj7Fs)!
God gave each of you your individual talents – USE THEM and the Light will Defeat the Dark. Much is already being done on our behalf. For example, Liberty Counsel has a campaing which they will take on any entity that tries to squash open religious expression
(http://www.lc.org/newsroom/details/111616-liberty-counsel-launches-annual-christmas-campaign)
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Believe it or not, many legal organizations jump at the chance to take on the grinches.
This helpful list is at Wallbuilders (http://wallbuilders.com/links.asp#legal):
Legal Organizations
Back to top
Alliance Defending Freedom
http://www.alliancedefendingfreedom.org/
American Center for Law and Justice
http://www.aclj.org
Christian Law Association
http://www.christianlaw.org
First Liberty
http://firstliberty.org/
Liberty Counsel
http://www.lc.org
The National Legal Foundation
http://www.nlf.net
Pacific Justice Institute
Religious Organization Legal Defense Association
http://www.sharpefirm.com/rolda/index.html
The Rutherford Institute
https://www.rutherford.org/
Thomas More Law Center
Thomas More Law Center | The Sword and Shield for People of Faith
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But more can be done and done by you!
1. Start a group of like minded friends in and out of your church to take on
Christmas and the other religious holidays.
2. Seek out states that are making “Merry Christmas” laws and encourage (push)
your legislators in your state to do the same.
3. Gather about you local dance schools, singing instructors, and other organizations that would pool their talents and passion for Christmas and start truly BEAUTIFUL CHRISTMAS PAGEANTS!
4. Organize Christmas readings at hospitals, youth shelters and the local abuse
shelters as well as schools and pre-schools. Remember the little boy with the angelic voice – the real way to win this war is to find ways to lead the little ones back to Christ.
Independent Examiner 