Know Christ, Know Christmas

Presenting America’s Forgotten History and Heroes with an

Emphasis on our Morals, Religious, and Constitutional Heritage

By: David Barton, Wallbuilders

In recent years, a growing number of public officials and bodies have worked to reduce Christmas to a secular holiday, obscuring and at times even denying its origins. This is why it is always inspirational to recall the Christmas words of leaders from previous generations.

For example, in his Christmas Eve address of 1949, President Harry Truman told the nation:

Since returning home, I have been reading again in our family Bible some of the passages which foretold this night. . . . We miss the spirit of Christmas if we consider the Incarnation as an indistinct and doubtful, far-off event unrelated to our present problems. We miss the purport of Christ’s birth if we do not accept it as a living link which joins us together in spirit as children of the ever living and true God. In love alone – the love of God and the love of man – will be found the solution of all the ills which afflict the world today.

And on Christmas Eve, 1952, he declared:

Through Jesus Christ the world will yet be a better and a fairer place. This faith sustains us today as it has sustained mankind for centuries past. This is why the Christmas story, with the bright stars shining and the angels singing, moves us to wonder and stirs our hearts to praise. Now, my fellow countrymen, I wish for all of you a Christmas filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and many years of future happiness with the peace of God reigning upon this earth.

This week there was a refreshing throwback to the spirit of the leaders of previous generations. The occasion was the lighting of the Christmas tree at the U. S. Capitol.

During those ceremonies, Speaker of the U. S. House John Boehner reminded the nation:

Though winter is upon us, the Christmas tree flourishes as a symbol of everlasting life. That life and light, of course, is Christ, whose birth to Mary fulfilled a prophecy of joy and salvation. Out in the fields where the shepherds slept, the angels broke the silence by singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, goodwill toward men.” We best serve this story by serving one another . . . by showing it is more blessed to give than to receive, especially when so many of our fellow citizens are without jobs and in need.  For Christmas is not a distant historical event. It is a spirit, always bringing us closer to each other and closer to the peace of which the angels sang. So on behalf of my wife, Debbie, our two girls, my 11 brothers and sisters, and all the Boehners, I wish one and all a very Merry Christmas.

Kudos to Speaker Boehner for his courage and historical accuracy.  And in the words written by Christian author Charles Dickens in 1843, and spoken by Tiny Tim in The Christmas Carol, “May God bless us, everyone!”

                                 Merry Christmas

And a Blessed New Year

Who is Black Louisiana Sold Out To?

I was reading my paper the other morning and the first thing I saw was mass headliner that read “Black Voters’ Influence Waning”.  I thought to myself, someone finally dares to put this into print.  Personally, I saw this coming from my kitchen window a mile away. 

When it comes to Black voters in Louisiana, and Black America for that matter, this is one of those situations where some of us can’t see the forest for the trees!  I believe we have been straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel for so long that we miss a very large issue that everyone is acutely aware of, but nobody wants to talk about. Perhaps a sore spot or a political hot potato, it's something that no one wants to touch with a ten foot pole.  You know; the elephant in the room.

Well!  Allow me to take a stab at it!  You see, when most of Black America chooses to “serve” a party rather then the Almighty God, waning influence is a great possibility.  In fact, you count on it.  What we “serve” can become an idol and render us ineffective.  Serving one party as a block vote makes our influence a commodity to be used at the pleasure and discretion of the party as it deems it beneficial to do so; or even traded and pimped out by our own “leaders” for their benefit more than the people’s benefit.

When our own desires, ideals, and philosophies began to replace Gods’ plan for our lives, we will be silenced!  When our voting is not based on an understanding of and commitment to biblically inspired principles of limited government, constitutionalism, due process, and liberty of individuals, we will be given over to voting based on self-centered desires like pulling a child out of the womb piece by piece for the sake of convenience; a man marrying a man and a woman marrying a woman; or wanting the government to supply your every needs at the expense of fiscal stability rather than God providing by moving on the hearts of those who are blessed to be a blessing to others less fortunate.

I believe we have sold our soul to the “party” for something God has freely given to us!  God gave us rights; all we need to do is fight to protect those rights.  His way!  He gave us economic opportunity and relief; all we need to do is work for it.  Genesis 3:19 puts it this way, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food”.

At the risk of sounding like I have never been poor, and I have, there are some things more detrimental than not having enough money; it is having all the money in the world and losing your soul.  Because the black vote as a block is based on putting our worldly concerns first and not putting God’s eternal concerns first, our influence is slipping.  More people are voting to avoid the fiscal meltdowns seen in European countries based on financially unsustainable levels of social programs that encourage a dependence of government. 

It is hard to convince people that the solution is taking more money from the rich when the root self-focused culture of wanting more from the government before taking more responsibility for self is never addressed.  While we do have legitimate arguments that institutionalized racism and some corporate crooks have negative effects on economic opportunity, we cannot forget to sweep around our own front door before we sweep around someone else.  We cannot continue to solely blame others that our communities have broken families, high drop-out rates, and crime; and then consistently vote for the party that encourages us to continue blaming others as the reason we cannot improve our community.