Letter to the Editor

Your view: Same old story

Monday, December 12, 2005

What's wrong with calling Christmas, Christmas?

We have heard in the media this year more ridiculous controversy, than ever before, about Christmas. There's a few folks whose goal is to take Christ out of Christmas. But then again, that's not so surprising. For that's the same story of old that we find told at the first Christmas. We look back in history to the birth of Christ and we read how King Herod pretending to be concerned about worshiping Christ, but his true intentions were to kill him. Remember the story? Herod told the wise men to bring him information about where the child could be found, for he wanted to worship this new born king also. But, in reality, he wanted to do away with him.

Well, it's the same old story today. The grinchly few that want to remove Christ from Christmas have the same underlying intentions as Herod. They tell us that they are looking out for our best interest. They pretend to be concerned about our "Constitutional rights." HOG WASH! They don't even know the original meaning of the Constitution, and after years of twisting and rewriting the law with their leftist rulings, the courts don't even know the true intent of the Founders. They left the original intent behind a long time ago. Today their rulings are made based on case law, not the Constitution.

Let's be honest for a moment! The truth about this whole matter over Christmas is clear; there's an underlying motive, just like Herod had, and it's to remove Christ and any recognition of him from the Earth. The driving force behind this movement is called in scripture, "the spirit of anti-Christ" which was prophesied to come in the last days.

I grew up in Sikeston, Mo., went through the Sikeston Public School system starting in the mid fifties and this is how the Constitution worked back then. Christmas, singing Christmas carols, giving Christmas cards were all Constitutional! We prayed in school, in the morning and before lunch, and it was Constitutional! The first thing we did every morning was proudly pledge allegiance to our flag and country, being taught in doing so, that we were exercising our Constitutional right! Downtown in every public building you could find the Ten Commandments openly displayed, as well as in our school, and it was Constitutional! All the merchants and their employees would greet shoppers at this time of year with "Merry Christmas" and they called the evergreens they sold then, "Christmas Trees." There was nothing unconstitutional about that either!

And get this! Once a year the Gideons were invited into each classroom in the Sikeston Public School system to pass out Bibles. Yes, I said Bibles. And that was Constitutional, too! Can you imagine trying that today? Why, the ACLU would be completely wiped out. They'd all have cardiac arrest, hypertension, lock-jaw and locked bowel syndrome all at the same time.

Now, I'm not a Philadelphia lawyer! I'm just a down home, common sense kind of guy! So, my question is simple, "If all these things that I grew up with were Constitutional and there was nothing wrong with them back then; how in the world can the very same things be declared unconstitutional today?" A simple question deserves a simple answer. The fact is, they don't have a simple logical answer, but I do. The logical answer is clear, the legal system is being manipulated in an attempt to remove any and all references of God, Jesus Christ and the Bible from our country.

You know what? When I grew up with God and prayer in school, and the phrase "under God" in the Pledge, and the Ten Commandments on the wall, we didn't have killing, cussing or crazies disrupting and disrespecting the class or the teacher. We actually went to school to get an education. We even had a dress-code in school. Boys were required to have their shirts buttoned and tucked in their pants, their hair cut and combed, no T-shirts with anything offensive on them. Girls were required to cover their bodies, skirt or dress no shorter than the knee. Respect for faculty, facility, friends and family was the norm. A high standard of conduct and academics was the goal set for every student. Compare this with what we see today in our community and in our country.

If the people who are stirring up all this controversy over Christmas are really wanting to make changes for the better, then looks like to me, based on results, they would be wanting to put Christ back into the public, instead of taking him out. But then again remember, I'm not a Philadelphia lawyer. My reasoning ability is limited to only common sense, not educated nonsense.

I've got an idea! I know how we can get Christ back in Christmas without (so called) forcing our religion on anyone, and we can stop all this foolishness to boot. We can start teaching American history again! Americans would once again realize how that made our country great, and that our Founding Fathers had a profound reliance upon the Creator to guide them as they forged this Republic. For example, look at the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

You can see for yourself, there was no atheist nor evolutionist among the signers of this document. Because they said, "all men were created equal." They believed Genesis 1:26-27, that God made man. I love this opening phrase they used, "We hold these truths to be self-evident." This phrase puts stupid on notice! These truths don't have to be explained, because anyone with a little common sense can understand, that God made us and gave us our rights. That's what endowed by their Creator means.

Unalienable simply means, a possession you can't give away and no one can take from you. Our Creator gave us our rights. Not the government. Not the Constitution. Not our mighty Army. It was God! Then to ensure that those rights and freedoms would never be infringed upon, the Founders crafted the first amendment of the Constitution to read: "Congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, . . ." Looks like to me, the founders number one concern of possible future infringement was upon their freedom to worship their Creator. Seems they had a fear of the government getting strong enough one day to usurp authority over their right to recognize Christ. Maybe they were afraid that one day there would even be an attempt to take Christ out of Christmas.

Once again! What's wrong with calling Christmas, Christmas?

Tom McCanless,

Pastor