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Merry Christmas ... An Intrusion?
The Seattle P.I. columnist Joel Connelly wrote last Friday, “As we try to respect one another’s beliefs, noisy people keep intruding – they proclaim a ‘War on Christmas,’ force retailers to put ‘Merry Christmas’ in advertising and then proclaim that they’ve rescued the manger.”
Mr. Connelly is clearly reacting to Bill O’Reilly’s book, “Culture Warrior” and in a more general sense to Fox News.
I agree with the columnist that Christmas is about the heart and that proper preparation for the coming of Christ should include reading, meditation or listening to appropriate music. I also agree that Jesus taught the virtue and blessing of being a peacemaker.
Mr. Connelly makes his own personal point by quoting Dr. Alan Wolfe, a political science professor at Boston College who recently wrote, “From stem cell research to alleged plots against Christmas, culture war issues have more to do with the policies of advocacy groups than they do with the politics of ordinary Americans.” The columnist then says, “The notion of a ‘culture war’ was first ginned up to rouse the troops as the first Bush Presidency faced defeat in 1992.”
With this, I strongly disagree.
With all due respect to Dr. Wolfe, culture war issues have little to nothing to do with the politics of advocacy groups and only come to bear on the politics of ordinary Americans when the deeply held beliefs of those “ordinary” folks are continually attacked by secularism and political correctness.
These particular advocacy groups didn’t exist until Christians began to take note of the direction the elitists in the media and higher education were leading the country. It was out of concern and the need to be heard that these advocacy groups were birthed.
The relentless attack by the ACLU on prayer, the words Christmas and Easter, religious symbols such as the cross, and the public display of the Ten Commandments on public property is well-documented.
If growing up on a Yakima apple orchard makes one an “ordinary person,” then I would be counted among them and we are not mindless pilgrims who are easily led by advocacy groups and their policies. This, of course, would be the view of the elitists.
Jesus taught that His peace was the inner peace that comes from knowing God through his Son. And He said, “These things have I spoken to you, that in me you may have peace.” John 16:33.
Most Christians are first and foremost driven by their personal belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He was born of a virgin, lived, taught, was crucified and rose from the dead three days later.
Jesus also taught that we are to be salt and light. As salt, we seek to reduce the moral and cultural decay by sharing the gospel and the personal hope and peace that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And secondarily, we involve ourselves in politics merely as a vehicle to be used for what we believe to be greater and nobler purposes.
Tens of millions of Christians, who do believe that there is indeed a culture war and feel called to participate, will also be in prayer and meditation during this holy season. They will reflect is an advent “Quiet Day” and they will listen and participate in the hymns and songs of the season.
The nativity and all that it means will indeed remain the focus.
_________________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom
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22 Comments:
I'm sure it was a typo-- but John 16:33 incorrectly quotes Jesus as saying "...in men you may have peace."
I correct my last post-- the quotation of John 16:33 contains a typo
Thank you! It is frigid in Seattle and my fingers are not cooperating. The verse reference was indeed a typo and has been corrected!
"Humility" another thing the leftists do not understand.Pray they will. thank you Faith and Freedom for your teaching. Thought for sure there would be some one on here poking at the mistake by now. :-)Glad to see not.praise God.
Gary,
Why is it that you never comment on columns & op eds until several days later and then consistently fail to state the date or provide a link the the column you critize? Are you unaware that doing so is standard form when responding to what someone else wrote? For anyone, who wants the real facts, rather than Gary's misrepresentations Connely's column can be found at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/293566_joel24.html . As you can see he provides a great deal of support for his claims about O'Reilly and the phony "war on Christmas", which Gary fails to address.
-JC
gary. thank you for once again setting things straight.
God bless you
CHANGING A LIGHT BULB THE CHRISTIAN WAY
How many Christians does it take to change a light bulb?
Charismatic : Only 1
Hands are already in the air.
Pentecostal : 10
One to change the bulb, and nine to pray against the spirit
of darkness.
Presbyterians : None
Lights will go on and off at predestined times.
Roman Catholic : None
Candles only.
Baptists : At least 15.
One to change the light bulb, and three committees to
approve the change and decide who brings the potato
salad and fried chicken
Episcopalians: 3
One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks and one
to talk about how much better the old one was.
Methodists : Undetermined
Whether your light is bright, dull, or completely out, you
are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb, or tulip bulb.
Bring a bulb of your choice to the Sunday lighting service
and a covered dish to pass.
Nazarene : 6
One woman to replace the bulb while five men review
church lighting policy.
Lutherans: None
Lutherans don't believe in change.
Amish :
What's a light bulb?
OTHERS WHO PRETEND TO BE CHRISTIAN
(Of course some of the above might fit this category, too!)
Mormons : 5
One man to change the bulb, and four wives to tell him
how to do it.
Unitarians :
We choose not to make a statement either in favor of or
against the need for a light bulb. However, if in your own
journey you have found that light
bulbs work for you, you are invited to write a poem or
compose a modern dance about your light bulb for the next
Sunday service, in which we will explore a number of light
bulb traditions, including incandescent, fluorescent, 3-way,
long-life and tinted, all of which are equally valid paths to
luminescence.
God:
Let there be light.
--
Mick,
Thanks for providing us all with evidence that, should they ever achieve their goal and eliminate them nasty secular liberals, Christianists will immediately start turning on one another.
-JC
Ha! Thanks Mick for a good laugh. JC, you should try laughing sometime...it is good for the soul too.
Did you see the recent news report on this? Turns out, almost ALL the companies that Mr. Randall and FFN were going after to try to force to say "Merry Christmas" NEVER had any policy against it ever. Good to see we're still not interested in truth around here when we can still try to come off as a phony martyr instead!
Yes, anon, cause bigotry is so funny.
-JC
It is always funny to watch the justification of the world....Oh, we never had a policy against Christmas. Probably true, they just had a policy FOR "Holidays."
Oh boo hoo 10:54. Did you lose your precious little reason to play the victim again? Don't worry, Papa Randall will make you up another one soon.
I just watched a movie last night about peaceful resistance, about how Ghandi and Martin Luthur King Jr. etc used active peaceful resistance and it made it clear to me how the gay networks are trying to be accepted. The thing is, both Ghandi and MLK had a moral reason behind their movements, and the openly perverted do not. That is why their movement will fail. Every example where it worked, there had to be a moral reason behind the peaceful resistance, or the movement would not garner the support of the majority of the people. All we need to do is inform people of the methods used and the direction headed (Canada is now trying to pass some laws to protect those being harassed by the perverts).
In the meantime, on a personal not national level, Merry Christmas!
Just because you use words like 'perverted' doesn't mean there isn't a moral reason behind movements for equal rights for all. You just chose not to see it
-JC
"NEVER had any policy against it ever."
Baloney.
"Baloney."
That's a fair and reasonable, mature and tolerant response that truly is helpful and shows the very nature of your typical pro-FFN commentor.
Typical liberal at 10:54.
Can't handle anyone disagreeing.
Typical pro-FFN at 10:38.
Can't handle the truth or recognize how ridiculously lame the "Baloney" comment was in the first place.
So much for liberal claims of "tolerance" 11:12 AM
so much for the typical F&FN supporter knowing what the word 'tolerance' means
Exactly 10:57! Who is being intolerant here? No one.
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