Dear Friends,
It was a few years ago that we first saw the store on Main Street in Ventura at Christmas. All the windows were painted red and in huge white letters: JOHN 3:16 and THE TRUE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS IS JESUS. Every year since, we always look forward to seeing what will be on the display windows, and this year they had painted: CHRISTMAS STARTS WITH CHRIST. There is a black and white painted portrait of Jesus and then the words: IT IS SIMPLY BLACK AND WHITE... This store owner is not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I wish that every Christian retailer in America was as bold as this person is!
If I lived in Ventura, I’d be sending everyone I know to American Mattress! We need to show our appreciation for retailers who actively support Christmas. Lowe’s, Sears and Wal-Mart do an exceptional job at celebrating and promoting Christmas. Other companies who support Christmas are Costco, Rite-Aid, Macy’s, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Hallmark, Kohl’s, Nordstrom, Michaels, Target, Amazon.com, Office Max and Sam’s Club.
But some retailers actively against Christmas are Barnes&Noble, PetSmart, Office Depot, Staples, Foot Locker, and Victoria’s Secret. Radio Shack, for example, refuses to use the word “Christmas” in its advertising and prohibits its employees from saying the word in the stores.*
Powered by progressive liberals and atheists, a forceful and deadly tsunami of political correctness is sweeping over Christmas in an attempt to completely secularize this holy day (holiday) and strip it of any religious meaning. “No way that’s going to happen!” we scoff. But are we certain of that?
Remember that for the first few hundred years in our country, Thanksgiving was a uniquely Protestant Evangelical Christian holy day. [See last week’s AMEN Corner]. Now secularized and sanitized of its original meaning, Thanksgiving is about eating a meal and watching a football game.
The President’s Educational Reform requires that states adopt Common Core standards before they can receive federal funding. This new approved curriculum for teaching children about Thanksgiving has removed any reference to the original intent by Christians to express gratitude and thankfulness to God. Children are now being taught that thanksgiving was always practiced by the American Indians to thank the spirits for their harvest. This politically correct version of our American history portrays the Pilgrims as a group of foolish and unprepared settlers and shows how they were saved by the Indians. The new Common Core approved curriculum now presents a fictitious spin on thanksgiving that removes the original Christian meaning and focuses primarily on the culture and customs of the Wampanoag Indians.
The President’s Educational Reform requires that states adopt Common Core standards before they can receive federal funding. This new approved curriculum for teaching children about Thanksgiving has removed any reference to the original intent by Christians to express gratitude and thankfulness to God. Children are now being taught that thanksgiving was always practiced by the American Indians to thank the spirits for their harvest. This politically correct version of our American history portrays the Pilgrims as a group of foolish and unprepared settlers and shows how they were saved by the Indians. The new Common Core approved curriculum now presents a fictitious spin on thanksgiving that removes the original Christian meaning and focuses primarily on the culture and customs of the Wampanoag Indians.
Could secularization really happen to Christmas? In British society, atheists have made significant headway in removing Christ from Christmas. In a recent poll, conducted by Christianity Today, only half of British adults believe that the birth of Jesus has any connection to Christmas. That means that half of their entire adult population sincerely believes that Jesus has nothing to do with the holiday they call Christmas!
Every year in America, Christmas is becoming more secularized and the 80% of us who are Christians quietly complain as we shrug our shoulders in apathy. We need to put Jesus back into Christmas with the same passionate fervor and intensity that atheist activists have invested in their efforts to make it a Christ-less holiday.
John Calvin, one of the early protestant fathers of our faith said this, “The Gospel does not fall from the clouds like rain by accident, but is brought by the hands of men and women to whom God has sent it.”
Don't be ashamed to speak the name of Christ at Christmas. Don't be ashamed to wish people a Merry Christmas. There is an 80-90% chance that they celebrate Christmas too! If you are a politically correct type of person, that's fine. Be politically correct when you talk about politics, but we need to be a Christian when we’re talking about the religious holy day that celebrates the birth of Christ and glorifies the risen King! Amen?
* See the entire AFA Naughty or Nice List here
No comments:
Post a Comment