The problem in our society today is not that we don’t have Christmas.  In fact, we seem to have Christmas everywhere and for a long time.  Well before Thanksgiving you can begin to hear the music, the bells, and the endless television commercials.  It seems that everywhere you look, you see Christmas advertised in newspapers, on radio, television, and in every store across the land.

Our problem is not that we don’t have Christmas but increasingly it is a Christmas minus Christ.  We have the celebration, but the celebration has gradually edged Jesus completely out.  In fact, there are people who are attempting to gradually remove any mention of Jesus – Whom, by the way, is the Source of the joy and power of Christmas.

The American Family Association (AFA) recently examined a couple of newspapers in one city and analyzed over 280 pages of advertising they had, collectively, in them.

AFA found that Christmas was not mentioned by Target, Kroger, Office Max, Walgreen, Sears, Staples, Lowe’s, J.C. Penney, Dell or Best Buy. These stores refused to mention “Christmas” in their advertising, but substituted the term “holiday” 59 times instead.  If you were to ask these companies why they’ve banned “Christmas” in their in-store promotions and retail advertising, they’ll tell you they didn’t want to offend anyone… except perhaps Christians.

Fox news commentator Bill O’Reilly sees this as a small conflict, but one which is part of a larger “culture war” being waged to remove Christ from the public stage.

- School bus drivers in Maine were banned from leading Christmas carols.

- A couple of years ago, in Broward County, Florida, a Church was told that they could not include the words "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" in their out-door Christmas display.  The church filed a suit in the U.S. District Court claiming they had the right to display the words.  The presiding Judge agreed with their "free speech" argument and allowed them to keep the words in their display as long as they included the words, "Calvary Chapel says," before the words "Jesus is the Reason for the Season."

And recently one school even outlawed the “whistling” of Christmas carols because someone just might recognize the words from those tunes and wrongly believe that Jesus was the reason for the season.

There is clearly a culture war and it’s being waged despite the fact that the majority of Americans believe in the story of Christmas.

Newsweek conducted a telephone poll of over 1000 adults.
- 79% of Americans believed that Jesus Christ was born of the Virgin Mary, without a human father.
- 67% said they believed the entire story of Christmas was historically accurate.
- 93% of Americans said they believed Jesus Christ actually lived, and
- 82% believed Jesus Christ was God or the Son of God.

Of course, there are those who don’t agree.  And they believe that by removing Christ from Christmas they would actually make the world a better place.

What difference would it make if Christ was taken out of Christmas?

According to that same Newsweek poll, the question was asked:  What if Jesus had never born?
- 63% - believed there would be less charity
- 61% - less kindness
- 59% - less personal happiness
- 58% - less tolerance
- 47% - more war

Would the world be worse off if Christ were removed from Christmas? A visit to one period of history gives a startling insight:

According to one historian, before the advent of the Christmas carol, celebrations of Christmas had become so depraved and rowdy that the observance of the joyous season was once forbidden by the English Parliament.

The meaning of Christmas had become lost in a pandemonium of reveling, drunkenness, rioting, and depravity.  Decent people found it necessary to stay indoors for safety.  The situation became so shameful that in 1644 Parliament passed strict laws making it illegal to commemorate the season in any way whatsoever!

As early as the first part of October at Wal-Mart, on one side of the aisle is Halloween candy, costumes, and decorations; on the other side are Christmas-candy, lights, and decorations.

Halloween is primarily a ‘how much candy can I get’ holiday.  Christmas has become a ‘how many presents can I get’ holiday.  And sandwiched in between is Thanksgiving, which is the ‘how much can I eat’ holiday.  Thanksgiving does happen to be the only holiday set aside to thank God for His blessings!

When you remove Christ completely (or even partially) from Christmas you simply end up with a holiday focused for self.   It can very easily become a very selfish time of the year.

But whether that would be true or not, the fact remains . . . there are people who not only don’t like Christ and Christmas but who are determined to remove any semblance of either one in America.  That actually is nothing new.  The Bible tells us that the birth of Christ received the same opposition over 2000 years ago.

The Shepherds heard about His birth and hurried to see Him.  The Wise men from the east followed the star and traveled to His birthplace with great expectation.  But not everybody was excited about this birth. Matthew 2:3 tells us that “when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him”.

Today, just like years ago in Jerusalem, there are people who are troubled by any reference to a king born in Bethlehem.

So what can we do about it?

First, we can keep ourselves informed.  We should be grateful for the various commentators and editors who have helped highlight the foolishness of school and government officials who have tried to keep Christ away from our children.

We need to be aware of such things.  We need to realize that there are people out there who are actively seeking to push Jesus and the church off the public stage. 

The more we know, the better prepared we can be to deal with those situations.  There’s an old saying: forewarned is forearmed.   We need to make sure we are doing the right thing for our children, re: Christian Education.

Secondly, we can make our voices heard.  We are in a free country . . . we can do that!  That’s what the American Family Association has done.  The AFA has asked people to send polite but firm letters to places like Sears, Target, Walgreens, and other businesses, asking them to change their policies on advertising.  And they have had some success:

Walgreen sent a letter apologizing for having left Christmas out of advertising.
Lowe’s sent a letter saying their “holiday” trees will again be called “Christmas trees”.

A spokeswoman for Target said it did not intend to ban Christmas and might use Christmas in advertisements later this year!  In addition, Sears is adding "Merry Christmas" signs in their stores.

But we need to realize that as important as being informed and as important as it is to make our voices heard those things can solve only part of the problem.

There was a news story on cable TV about a young man who was being interviewed in a town on the East Coast.  The local politicians had erected a “Holiday tree” and had apparently removed any reference to Christ on the city square and this young man was protesting.  The interviewer asked why he was protesting and the man responded that he was a Christian and it really upset him that this was now being called a “Holiday tree” rather than a “Christmas tree”.  The interviewer asked the man if anyone had joined him in his protest.  “No” he responded. Then he was asked if he felt lonely in his protest.

If this young man was the only Christian complaining about a shift of public policy towards Christmas, then there must not have been many Christians in that community to begin with. 

Revelation chapter 12 tells a slightly different story.  It tells of the fall of Satan from heaven.  There was a great battle in heaven and the forces of the resurrected Christ overwhelmed and completely defeated Satan.  But then verse12 declares: "…rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!  But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you!  He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."

Satan knows he is vanquished.  Satan knows he has been defeated, but he’s not about to crawl away into a hole somewhere and wait for the final judgment.  He thoroughly intends to do as much damage to Christ’s kingdom as he can accomplish before his final destruction is completed. 

Satan, does not just roll over and play dead simply because the rightful King, Jesus, has thrown him out of heaven.  Satan knows his time is short and he intends to do as much damage to the church and Jesus as possible.  He’ll do anything and everything he can think of to remove the advantages we have.  And because he is such a determined foe, once in a while he’ll succeed.  Once in a while he will succeed in pushing back Christ from influencing society.  Once in a while he’ll succeed in making it difficult for us to be the “salt of the earth” and the “light of the world”.

When this happens, the tendency, for many, is to wring our hands and become filled with despair and conclude that maybe we should have kept our mouths shut and our faith to ourselves.  Satan wants to silence the Church.

But we have no need to despair.  In 1 John 4:4 we’re told: “... Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”  And Jesus said: Matthew 16:18 “… upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

We may suffer setbacks but we cannot lose as long as we keep our eyes on Christ.

Jesus expects us not to wait and worry about what Satan will do.  Jesus expects us to be “on the move”.  We cannot be satisfied with keeping our faith to ourselves.  We are told to “Go, and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:18)

We can’t obey that command if we allow ourselves to become “comfortable” with our faith.  We need to realize that there is a lost world out there that we need to reach and having a “comfortable” faith just isn’t going to get the job done.

In Ontario Canada, a church was having a special Saturday Evening worship service.  Suddenly a thunderstorm swept through the town and a bolt of lightning plunged the church into darkness.  The preacher felt his way to the kitchen to find candles which he handed out to everyone present.  The people lit their candles in much the same way as many churches do on Christmas Eve, each lighting the candle of the person next to them.

The worshipers then made their way through the church’s winding hallways to the front door.

“Peering out, we could see the rain coming down in sheets,” the pastor remembers.  With traffic snarled, people were running for the nearest shelter.  Looking around they realized that the entire city was in darkness.  “There in the darkness we stood, a little band of Christians, each clutching a light, not sure whether to venture out into the storm or stay inside the church in hopes that the storm would soon blow over.”  There in the darkness the light of truth struck him.  In this most dramatic way he realized what it means to be the “light of the world.”  He writes, “It occurred to me then that this is the temptation that I face every day.  It is easy to play it safe and be a good Christian in church.  It is a lot harder to venture out in faith into the storms of life and tell people about Jesus.”

We need to realize that as important as keeping “Christ in Christmas” can be for us, we need to focus even more on the task of putting Christ in the hearts of all men.

May God help us to be bold and be strong, for the Lord our God is with us.  Deut. 31:6 “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, He it is that doth go with thee; He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee”.

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To All My Liberal Friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or explicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2010, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

To My Conservative Friends:

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a Happy New Year!

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HELPFUL LINKS FOR LEADERS: 

An Assault On Press Freedom

One Solitary Life

Perversion 101: GLSEN In Our Schools

Same Sex Marriage Bill Signed In A Church

Religious Restrictions In One Third Of All Countries

Top News Stories According to Religious Newswriters

Firefighters Required at Candlelight Service

Islamic Mosque Built at 9/11 Ground Zero

School Goes Ballistic With 2nd Grader's Picture of Jesus

Funeral Services for Oral Roberts

Attempt to Shut Down Preachers Fails

Shameless

Christian Dads Jailed For Resisting Sex Ed For Their Kids

No Tree . . No Santa . . No Offense

ELCA Bishop Quotes Others On Homosexuality

Pro-abortion Measures Being Smuggled Through Congress

The Roller Coaster Battle For Marriage