The secular war on Christmas recently trained its big guns on the door of the nurse’s office in a Texas middle school. Squarely in its sights was a homemade poster on the door, depicting lovable Linus quoting from the children’s classic A Charlie Brown Christmas: “For unto you is born this day in the City of David a savior which is Christ the Lord. . . That’s what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.”
Horrors! The Bible quoted in a public school where impressionable schoolchildren passing by would surely be exposed to the alarming idea that Christmas has something to do with Christ!
To protect these innocent youth from such depravity, the Killeen, Texas school board voted to tear down that poster! Of course, said the district in a statement, “Our employees are free to celebrate the Christmas and holiday season in the manner of their choosing. However, employees are not permitted to impose their personal beliefs on students.” Wait – didn’t they use the word that must not be spoken – Christmas – in their statement? What if someone read that word and felt imposed upon? And by the way, how is a cartoon character able to impose beliefs on anyone?
Meanwhile, half a world away, the ACLU (the ironically named American Civil Liberties Union) was suing the quiet hamlet of Knightstown, Indiana (2,000 residents) because the town Christmas tree had a cross on top. The cross offended freelance Grinchologist Joseph Tompkins who complained he was “forced to come into direct and unwelcome contact” with the cross as he passed through town, causing him “irreparable harm.” Yes, this grown man is absolutely terrified the cross will infect him with Zika virus -- and we thought all the delicate snowflakes were college kids!
The town caved to Mr. Tompkins’ emotional disorder and to the ACLU threats of legal fees and monetary damages, plus their insistence that the cross violated the First Amendment’s Establishment clause. The cross was removed as often happens when towns simply lack the financial resources to fight the well-funded ACLU mafia.
But then in a veritable outburst of protest, crosses began popping up throughout town, hundreds of crosses aggressively adorning homes and even cars as the people asserted their right to celebrate the Christ child’s birth. No word on the safe space in which Mr. Tompkins is doubtless now cowering.
How doubly disturbing that he himself inspired the town’s cross backlash, including the creativity of resident Patricia Hutson who personally made 200 wooden crosses which she distributed during a Sunday night vigil in the town square. Said she, “I hope they make people realize that we should speak up for what we believe in and stand up for it and not be pushed around.” Yes, but what a strangely catty-wampus out-of-whack world we live in when the ultimate act of insurrection is confirming what everybody, Christian and non-Christian, knows.
Meanwhile, back at that Charlie Brown poster on the Texas middle school nurse’s door, a county judge overruled the school board and allowed little Linus to quote the Bible about Jesus’ birthday. The judge agreed with Dedra Shannon, the nurse’s aide who had put up the poster, and her lawyer Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values a group defending, uh, values.
Said Ms. Shannon, "I am so thankful that the court ruled in my favor and that Killeen School District efforts to ban my Charlie Brown Christmas poster have failed." Added Mr. Saenz, “Nothing says ‘Merry Christmas’ like a court victory for religious freedom in December." If your town or group is being attacked for its expression of religious freedom, organizations like the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the American Family Association (AFA) and Liberty Counsel stand ready to help you fight the Christianphobes.
On the other side, the American Atheists now are directly targeting teenagers in their annual billboard campaign to keep people out of church at Christmas. The group is taking cynical advantage of the restless time in which young people are apt to question their spiritual beliefs among other things.
In Colorado Springs, a hotbed of Christian faith and the home of Focus on the Family and other major ministries, a billboard along the main I-25 highway features a teenage girl texting her friend that she’s not going to church because “I don’t believe that stuff anymore.” When her friend asks what her parents will say, the girl texts back, “They’ll get over it” as the girl’s mother looks anxiously over her shoulder. The billboard’s huge headline proclaims, “Atheist Christmas—The more, the merrier!” These messages have been displayed prominently throughout December in Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, and South Carolina as well as Colorado.
The atheist groups are working tirelessly to convert our kids to their dead-end, hopeless, non-God ideology. It’s no exaggeration to say they literally want to steal our children’s’ souls. And the crass, godless messages from so many films, the media, and the often profane “music” they’re plugged into 24/7 are powerful atheist allies.
But parents and grandparents can be even more powerful if we share our reasons for our belief, actually read the Bible and pray with our kids, and get them involved with a local church youth group of peers who can become fun friends and examples of other teens trying to lead a Christian life. Don’t let the atheists claim their souls. And say “Merry Christmas” with a big smile every chance you get!