The War on Christianity

Bah humbug! The growing war against Christmas

A survey by Rasmussen Reports says 69% of Americans would rather hear “Merry Christmas” than “Happy Holidays.”

Incidentally, breaking it down by party affiliation, 85% of Republicans want to hear “Merry Christmas,” compared to 61% of Democrats. A huge majority in both groups.

Here is what I would suggest:

• Say it: If someone says “Happy Holidays,” reply with joy, “Merry Christmas.” Don’t lose an opportunity at any gathering, meeting or retail store to say, “Merry Christmas.”
  
  
• Your cards: Make sure your Christmas cards don’t say “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” like the pagans. Proclaim Christ in Christ-centered cards.
  
  
• Christmas purchases: We called for letters asking Wal-Mart to reverse their decision to ban employees from saying “Merry Christmas” and to leave out the word Christmas in ads and products (using instead such expressions as “Happy Holidays” or “Holiday Trees”). With pressure, Wal-Mart did reverse their decision, and we need to thank them.

Personally, I avoided shopping at “Happy Holidays only” retailers. I thought it was insulting to walk through Lowe’s and see only “holiday.” Especially when you consider that they have taken Christmas money, but refused to mention Christmas!

This false political correctness is growing; however, if we don’t spend our money with these retailers, they too may reverse their decisions.

If you also decline to shop at these retailers, politely let them know of your decision and the reason for it. Some of the worst offenders are: Banana Republic, Best Buy, Eddie Bauer, Gap, Home Depot, J.Crew, Lane Bryant, Lowe’s, Old Navy, PetSmart, Rite Aid and Staples.

The Lord said, “You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:13-14.)

Beware of false rumors

Recently, a reader named Bob sent me the Dobson email chain letter concerning petition number RM-2493 and asked me if its warning was true. He wrote:

“I hate to bug you with this kind of thing, but as a Christian I am bombarded by so many of these types of e-mails where if I don't sign up or don't send it to 10 people right away I'll blow it and ruin it for everyone. Is this true?

“I understand these kinds of things are really not faith based, but futile works based on immature Christians thinking they are doing something good. Maybe they should actually do something for some of the poor people in their neighborhood.

“But I want to know if this Dobson email is a hoax. After looking at it, I think it has to be! If the petition is true, sending a bunch of names on an email isn't going to do anything. Any advice you could give on matters like this would be much appreciated.”

The email warning says that atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hare was responsible for CBS’s decision to take Touched by an Angel off the air and that there was a move to have the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) stop religious programming.

The email, which comes in several versions, called for Christians to flood Congress and the FCC with letters and petitions. It also said Dr. James Dobson was asking for help in this effort.

This is all false. The truth is, O’Hare has been dead for more than five years and Dr. Dobson has nothing to do with the email. Touched by an Angel ran successfully for more than nine seasons. It was cancelled because of a lack of viewers in a competitive market, not any political pressure.

To get a full explanation of why the email is false, go to Rich Buhler’s website www.truthorfiction.com. It’s a great website that addresses false rumors and gives the real truth. Check this website out before you forward any email that might be a rumor or false.

Episcopal church splits—finally

Many outraged Episcopal congregations are splitting from the liberal Episcopal Church in the United States. They disagree over the ordination of homosexuals and over the authority of scripture.

The church largely preaches humanism and is void of historic Christian doctrine. Its politics of liberalism are its god.

In a recent issue of Reality Alert we discussed the lawsuit against San Diego for charging higher fees to religious groups that rent public facilities than to secular groups.

The suit was filed by Canyon Ridge Baptist Church. As often happens, instead of pursuing a lawsuit, cities usually give in when a suit is filed. San Diego agreed to charge the same amount to religious groups as to secular groups.

Elton John’s intolerance of Christianity

On November 12, Elton John said that he wants to see an organized effort to suppress institutionalized faith. "From my point of view, I would ban religion completely,” he said. The superstar said that even though there are some wonderful things about it...the reality is that organized religion doesn’t seem to work. "It turns people into hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate," he said. “I think religion has always tried to turn hatred toward gay people. Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays.”

This is another example of the left's intolerance, their desire to avoid radical debate, and their desire to use the power of the state to impose their own beliefs and values.

Can you imagine if a “religious” person suggested banning homosexuality or atheism? The outcry would have been deafening. But that’s not Christianity. Homosexuality is a sin. And Christ is the solution to get one out of the lifestyle. Not the state and not force.

Atheism is a flawed philosophy. Christianity has the answers to truth and life. But we won't use the state to do the work of the Holy Spirit.

This is the type of anti-Christian mentality that seeks to ban symbols and expressions of public faith on buildings, events and public institutions. The controversy against crosses, the Ten Commandments or even saying “under God" in our pledge is evidence of the liberals' intolerance in action. We can see the left's violent reaction to issues of textbook curriculum, especially intelligent design, that liberals want to suppress. Pray for Elton John, that he will experience the love of Christ and a changed heart.

Now, the liberals are using Bible verses, especially concerning the poor, to promote liberal causes.

As Christians, we must be concerned about the poor. We must be obedient to God’s word about the poor.

However, government welfare programs and transfer-of-wealth schemes are economically unsound and have a history of hurting the poor.

For example, the increase in the minimum wage hurts the poor, minorities, students and young adults by destroying entry-level jobs that provide the opportunity to learn the skills that lead to better paying jobs.

The unintended consequences are devastating

What the liberals don’t get is that Christians do help the poor—not by being forced to pay taxes, but by giving $93.8 billion annually in charitable donations to organizations promoting physical and spiritual needs. These donations are effective. The money actually helps the people, while government money is wasteful and largely ineffective.

Christians reach out voluntarily in the private and independent sectors. That’s what America is all about—Christians reaching out in love to the broken, the poor and the underprivileged, with physical help and the transforming power of Christ.

And Christians volunteer, on average, 12 times a year compared to 5 times a year for the average non-church attendee.

Government only messes things up. Look at the Katrina disaster. Help came from God’s people reaching out with the love of Christ, not politicians and bureaucrats.

No religious symbols allowed, unless you're of the Jewish or Islamic faith

In last week’s issue, I told you about business owners who were falling under pressure to change the word "Christmas" to the word “holidays.”In case you missed it, click here to read last week’s issue of Reality Alert.

Now, what about our public schools? For the past several years, schools have renamed Christmas pageants to "holiday" shows, Christmas vacation to "winter" break and Christmas dance to winter or holiday formal.

However, in some cases the rule only applies to Christians

Recently, a lower court ruled to allow that New York City public schools could display menorahs at Chanukah and the star and crescent at Ramadan—but not the Christian nativity at Christmas.

After this ruling was challenged by the Thomas More Law Center, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the school policy that banned Christian symbols from holiday displays, though symbols from both the Jewish and the Islamic faith were allowed.

“Many federal courts are using the contrived endorsement test to cleanse America of Christianity,” Richard Thompson, president of the Law Center said. “This unprincipled test allows judges to impose their ideological views under the pretext of constitutional interpretation.”

Bible study wins the battle

Residents of a mobile home park in California recently won a lawsuit that will allow them to return to their community center for Bible study.

The group had met for more than 30 years before the homeowners association banned the group due to a so-called complaint they had received regarding the group’s once-a-week meetings.

During the two-year lawsuit, the Bible study group met in each other’s homes, although they often found it difficult to accommodate the more than 40 members.

Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Stern ruled in favor of the Bible study group and ordered the homeowners association to pay $12,000 in attorney’s fees.

ACLU, not you, should pay the bills for church-state lawsuits

There is a growing need in the House and Senate to pass legislation that would prevent the state from being charged legal fees in church-state lawsuits.

In recent years, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has won millions of dollars as it files lawsuits challenging public displays of religious beliefs.

What is happening is that public offices (like the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, which took the cross off of our own county seal) are caving in to the threat of lawsuits by the ACLU because they don't want to pay the legal fees.

The legislation is called the Public Expressions of Religious Protection Act.

Where does your representative in congress stand on this issue? Your Senators?

New attack on church tax exemption

The ACLU and other plaintiffs are challenging several churches in Alaska on a statewide law that gives tax exemption for real property owned by a religious organization.

Anchorage Baptist Temple owns six residences used for housing teachers who work at their private Christian school. The houses allow the school to recruit and retain quality teachers despite being unable to offer as competitive a salary and benefits as the public schools in the area.

The ACLU claims that the use of the property violates federal and state equal protection and establishment clauses.

This is likely just the first step of many in the liberal group’s attempt to revoke the tax-exempt status of churches.

The Decline of Christianity in the West

Over the centuries since the Reformation, the core of evangelism and Christian influence was in Western Europe and North America.

Today, about 70% of the world’s Christians live in the non-Western world.

• More Christians worship in Anglican churches in Nigeria each week than all the Episcopal and Anglican churches in Britain, Europe and North America combined.


• There are more Baptists in the Congo than in Britain.
  
  
• It’s estimated that there are more Christians in home churches in communist China than in all of Western Europe.
  
  
• There are 10 times more Assemblies of God members in Latin America than the United States.

  (Source: Christianity Today, Jan 2007)

WARNING: It's getting worse—denying Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit

Recently, over 900 young people videotaped themselves denying belief in Jesus Christ, God and the Holy Spirit. They then posted the videos on YouTube on the web for thousands and thousands of kids to watch. Just one video I saw had nearly 200,000 viewers.     

Your kids or grandkids are very likely to see this new assault on Christianity—the Blasphemy Challenge.     

These kids are being encouraged to publicly renounce God and deny the Holy Spirit (Mark 3:28–29) as a marketing strategy to generate publicity for a new movie called The God Who Wasn’t There.     

The website offers kids a free DVD of the movie if they videotape themselves denying the Holy Spirit. I watched dozens of these videos and it breaks my heart. Worse, the number of these videos is growing.     

The movie (go to www.thegodmovie.com to see a trailer) is a systematic attack on Christianity. This is nothing new; it's simply going into old atheist arguments of the past and dragging up historical myths.     

The people behind this film say they are doing these videos to “release the suffering of children” who have been indoctrinated by religion. It’s to stop the “psychological torture” of kids who grow up believing the Bible.     

In response, a counter website has been created called Challenge Blasphemy (challengeblasphemy.com). On the site, Christian kids have recorded testimonies in response to the blasphemous video postings.     

Please pray for the people behind this negative movie and promotion, that God will show these enemies of Christ His love, grace and mercy and that these lies will not harden hearts.     

Also pray for the growing number of kids who are proclaiming His love in response to these videos. Pray they will do so in love, guided by the Holy Spirit.

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