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Guest Column
Christians push for "Christmas Celebrations" in public places
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
With the American Civil Liberties Union as their targeted enemy, the Alliance Defense Fund members aim at putting Christmas back into American life. Hallelujah. Hark the Herald Conservatives Sing.
The ACLU says it’s a stupid move for as long as conservatives get their own kind elected to power positions, they have won the game.
Conservatives would like to have faith in the ACLU conclusion, but are wise enough to know that when a snake talks, it bites instead of ushering in wisdom for the community.
Therefore, ADF President and CEO Alan E. Sears informed media that his organization is going full guns ahead to bring religious expression into its rightful freedom of speech place in the American republic. All power to him. He is so right on.
For too long the nation has believed in this bogus definition of "separation of church and state" so as to follow the Pied Piper secularists in forming a godless union. Now that the public has become more educated regarding the true definition of separation of church and state, the grassroots is aching to express faith "out there" without fear of court cases and scowls from educational and political grinches.
Therefore, there’s the "Christmas project" in the offing. According to Fox News reporter Anita Vogel, it’s an endeavor "to defend school districts around the nation against lawsuits to ban Christmas trees and other religious displays during the holidays."
May the merry bells ring loudly and clearly for the reason of the season – Jesus! All else is peripheral, secondary and late in coming, let alone totally superfluous to the origin of Christ-Mass.
In Phoenix, ADF wages its own war against evil, anti-Godness, and secularists who want to supplant the nation’s Judeo-Christian heritage with humbug. The ADF goal "is to defend religious liberty, the sanctity of human life and the traditional family against any person or group who attacks those principles."
All I can say to that is an early Blessed Christmas to all, and to all a holy Yuletide approaching – in Jesus’ name, of course.
THE TRUTH ABOUT "SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE"
Liberals have run off with this phrase, prostituting it per usual.
The matter is simple. It’s this: America does not want a state church. England has a state church – the Anglican Church. America does not want one denomination considered The Nation’s Church.
On the other hand, America has a religious heritage. It’s not Muslim. It’s not Hindu. It’s not Shinto. It’s not animism. It’s not New Age. It’s not Paganism. It’s not Voodoo. It’s Judeo-Christian.
America, while not desiring a state church, does desire religion in life. That includes religious expression in everyday exchange. Because Judeo-Christian is America’s heritage, most citizens honor that heritage expressed and honored. Its expression then should not be thwarted. It should not be belittled. It should not be erased in the name of "separation of church and state."
Unhampered religious expression is promised in the First Amendment.
Further, America, having a Judeo-Christian heritage and the right to present-tense expression, permits freedom of religious expression to other religions. Therefore, there are those of other religious persuasions who practice without fear their religions in America.
What the liberals want to do is redefine the phrase "separation of church and state" to exclude Judeo-Christian religious expression in America. They want not only "separation of church and state" defined on their terms but the exclusion of the Judeo-Christian religions and anything coming close to that particular religious expression–period.
Liberals believe that if they continue harping on the "separation of church and state" phrase, brainwashing the public with their prostituted definition, especially indoctrinating the next generation with their prostituted definition, then they will have won secularism for America’s future.
They, in other words, want not only separation but exclusion of religion – completely so. Note however that the chief religion they want excluded is Judeo-Christian.
They will even tolerate other religions, as they are presently doing with the Muslim infiltration, but it is Judeo-Christian that they want cleansed from America. In other words, it’s a religious cleansing they desire for this nation – the extinguishing specifically of the Judeo-Christian faith.
Therefore, if tolerating another religion such as Islam helps wipe out Judeo-Christianity, then so be it. Islam is far better a tolerance than the American heritage of Judeo-Christian. Therefore, there are school districts hiring Muslims to speak to teachers on how to give Muslim students honor and space. No such invitation, of course, has been extended to Judeo-Christian specialists speaking to public school educators on how to give Judeo-Christian adherents honor and space.
In a nearby high school, a prayer room was set aside for Muslim students. No such prayer room or any other respect has been presented those of the Judeo-Christian heritage.
Liberals, in other words, will do whatever it takes to obliterate America of its rightful Judeo-Christian heritage. This is accented every year particularly during the Christmas season. Any other so-called "religious expression" can come to the fore but the Christian particulars must be silenced at all costs. So we hear throughout the Christmas season, not Christian hymn carols, but "separation of church and state."
Once again, liberals have taken language to serve their own twisted purposes. They took "homosexual" and made it "gay." They took "pro-choice" and made it "protecting females." They take "separation of church and state" and make it "wiping out America’s Judeo-Christian heritage."
What those of the Judeo-Christian heritage must do – and far more concertedly than they have ever done in the past – is to make clear to the public what "separation of church and state" really means. This must be put in print in magazines and journals. It must be preached from pulpits. It must be taught in religion classes. It must be spelled out in letters to the editor.
Unfortunately, this simply has not been done. The church in particular has permitted the liberals to carry on with their prostitution of the phrase. I have been appalled over the years to note that the church specifically has not risen to expose the liberals’ misuse of that phrase. Therefore, the young have taken quickly to the liberals’ definition while the church has sat, in the main, silent, allowing the enemy to win out.
Joseph Grant Swank, Jr., Pastor, New Hope Church, Windham, Maine.
