More and more stories emerge of banning of all things Christ-like
You could be forgiven for thinking that the First Amendment really doesn’t exist in America anymore. Or that we ave all escaped down the rabbit hole and are really living in the days of Oliver Cromwell or even the Holy Roman Empire!
It all kinda kicked off in June this year 2018. You knew something was up when famed author of “Little House on the Prairie,” Laura Ingalls Wilder, was considered a racist. For decades children young and old have loved the Wilder books and the popular TV Series, which some channels still continue to air as re-runs on television. Following a few complaints, the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) submitted to the pressure and changed their primary award named in Mrs. Wilder’s honor to something else.
Around Christmas 2018, a concerted and apparently coordinated effort to ban or deem “bad” all things linked to Christmas had started in earnest. The list included banning songs that mention Jesus from a school, a principal banning candy sticks because in his view the “J” stands for Jesus, and the one that really got me – Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer is somehow a racist character! The most worrying part is that these comments are coming mostly from adults in authority. People whom parents have put their trust in to educate their kids. For example, a teacher declared to a class of first-graders that Santa wasn’t real – she was sacked!
However, one alarming example that really goes over the line, was a nativity scene at a Massachusetts’ church, where someone had authorized that the baby Jesus should be caged! I believe this is simply a self-serving, shock-and-awe tactic to somehow try and influence others by offending them. A person or persons, dramatizing their own personal opinions on illegal immigration. It is ungodly.
Sadly, reading all these reports, has not deterred people trying to ban God. It would appear that “evicting” God continues in our society on all levels. Of course, it is not the first time that Christianity has been attacked and its ideals/beliefs plundered. Going back to the days of Oliver Cromwell (1653-58), stricter laws were passed by him to catch anyone holding or attending a special Christmas church service. The Puritan beliefs that he held encouraged the passing of such a law that frowned upon such “carnal and sensual delights.”
However, the banning of Christmas by the Puritans proved extremely unpopular and needless to say, pro-Christmas riots broke out in the population and Cromwell fell from grace. When a statue in his memory was erected some 340 years later, officials in the township where it was being installed still couldn’t face attending the ceremony to “honor” the man who banned Christmas hundreds of years before! Such was the depth of feeling carried down through the centuries….
Therefore, take heart friends! As the current futile attempts to erode our faith continue, the Bible encourages us once more with Jesus’ words. John 16:33:
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
This article was written by Karin McBride-Chenoweth. It was first published on THE CHRISTIAN EXAMINER blog. Karin is an award-winning writer, editor and publisher of Christian and secular works in Europe and the USA. Karin is a US Citizen and lives and works in the USA.
3-in-1 Publishing 