We have been seeing a growing hostility toward anything Christian at Christmas, as odd as that sounds.
We saw new examples of religious bigotry last year in a country founded by Christians on Christian principles where the overwhelming majority of people still call themselves Christians.
In addition to retail stores that won't say "Christmas" in their ads, etc., we have numerous cases where various governments in the US won't allow public displays that celebrate Christmas. And while our congress could vote to recognize Islamic and Hindu holidays, some couldn't bring themselves to recognize a Christian holiday that most, if not all, of them celebrate and take time away from their congressional work for.
We even have a co-hostess of a national television show who expresses incredulity that President Bush would include a Bible verse on a Christmas card he sent out!
The latest on this war on Christmas comes from CNS News:
With Dec. 25 only days away, a central image in the celebration of Christmas -- the manger scene featuring replicas of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus -- has become the focus of attacks by vandals and leaders of "the secular Left," Christian groups charged on Wednesday.
While the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights was erecting a nativity scene in New York City's Central Park, the group issued a news release condemning three dozen instances in which manger scenes were vandalized or stolen from Antioch, Calif., to Leesburg, Va., this Christmas season.
"In perhaps the sickest incident, a public school coach in Marietta, Ga., drove students around the area in his pickup truck, instructing them to thrash Christmas displays after dark," League said.
During their Dec. 8 vandalism spree, 46-year-old John Hayes and several middle school students damaged a number of Christmas displays, let the air out of inflatable figures and rearranged plastic reindeer into X-rated sexual positions.
How can this be in a country founded by Christians on Christian principles where the overwhelming majority of people still call themselves Christians?
As often happens, the silent, apathetic majority allows itself to be led around by the nose by a vocal minority--in this case, those who either grossly misunderstand the First Amendment (intended to guarantee freedom of religious expression), or who know the intent of the First Amendment and simply want to sanitize the public square of every expression of Christianity, regardless.
But as these numerous articles and links show, people are finally starting to wake up. Oh, there are still those who bury their heads in the sand and claim there is no effort to wipe Christ out of Christmas, or to make the United States a secular nation, but they are slowly falling silent as the evidence becomes overwhelming.
And those who do care about their religious freedom are finally becoming more vocal. They are talking to stores and other retailers who take Christ out of Christmas. They're setting straight those public officials who trample the First Amendment.
So even as the war on Christmas escalates, those very efforts are waking up people who won't stand for it. They realize God has given mankind a special gift in the United States, especially those of us blessed to live here. And many of us won't let that blessing slip away without a fight.
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