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Room in America’s Inn for Jesus 12/22/2004 Christ deserves equal access in the public square and exclusive access in the human heart. Today’s innkeepers of political correctness and tolerance can’t seem to tolerate mention of Jesus or the smallest symbol of Christmas in the public square, even on His birthday. They offer us rationalizations short on logic, long on pretense and as satisfying as lumps of coal in our Christmas stocking.
“We don’t want to offend those who don’t follow the Christian religion.”
While that might be a concern in an Islamic theocracy, it’s inapplicable to the United States. If there’s a real concern about offending people, why is there no concern about offending the 90 percent of Americans who celebrate Christmas? In what way is the message of sacrificial love “for all people” offensive? Acknowledging America as a Christian nation isn’t a reference to government in a theocratic sense but in the historical sense of its founding and because the great majority of its people identify as Christians.
“We are a multicultural country.”
Why then exclude and discriminate against the largest culture group? The United States is a nation of immigrants from every country who freely celebrate cultural and religious traditions in homes and neighborhoods, as in Little Italy and Chinatown. You would think that few immigrants identify as Christians when the converse is true. And those who aren’t Christians come to America knowing that it is a predominantly Christian country. Our uniqueness as a nation, however, is that we become Americans and meld into an American culture—an E Pluribus Unum “melting pot.”
“It violates the Constitution’s ‘wall of separation between church and state.’”
The U.S. Constitution has no such wall. It is a legal fiction created by the Supreme Court in reference to the Establishment Clause and “freighted with Jefferson’s misleading metaphor.” But unlike the myth of Santa Claus, it is not harmless. A “wall of separation” that excludes all religious expression from the public square subverts the Establishment Clause. For example, the school board in South Orange, New Jersey prohibits mention of Christmas in the school “holiday” program, including instrumental versions of traditional Christmas music. Then there’s the “wall” in New York City schools that permits menorahs for Hanukkah and crescents for Islam but not crèches for Christmas—a wall with unconstitutional holes. Our national culture and tradition from our beginning has included a celebration of Christmas in our schools, businesses and public square. The wall to be concerned about is one that separates the mind from truth.
“If we acknowledge Christmas, we have to acknowledge all religions, and that’s not possible.”
We do acknowledge and protect other religions but that doesn’t mean we have to acknowledge them on Christmas. We celebrate a person’s birthday without celebrating everyone’s birthday on the same day and we surely don’t have a celebration and exclude the guest of honor. Federal law makes Christmas a federal holiday just as it makes the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. a federal holiday. It doesn’t logically or constitutionally follow that every religion’s holy day and every clergyman’s birthday must become a federal holiday.
“Holiday” gifts are fine but not Christmas gifts.
“Holiday” is derived from “holy day” as in “the day or days of a religious festival.” Note to “sensitive” merchants: Your stores and ads with trees, wreathes, poinsettias, candy canes, Santas, elves, reindeer, stockings, lights, music and other trappings of Christmas that exclude the mention of Christmas cuts into your bottom line. Jesus inspires generous giving. “Happy Holidays” is a shallow greeting intended to open our wallets but instead it closes our hearts. Closed hearts tend to be stingy.
The exclusion of Christ from Christmas today is not reminiscent of the innkeeper of Bethlehem. He is mischaracterized as if he had available rooms yet knowingly excluded Mary and Joseph because he didn’t want the Savior to be born in his inn. His inn was full and it would have been unthinkable to remove guests he had already accepted and give their room to others. He made room such as he had, and there’s no mention of charging Mary and Joseph. The innkeeper wasn’t like public officials, merchants and individuals who knowingly refuse Christ access to the public square, commercial establishments or the human heart.
Amid the Christmas joy, there is also increased loneliness, depression, and suicides. I recall a Christmas Eve when my husband was a police officer in Long Beach, California. After only a few hours on duty, he and his partner responded to calls involving a husband’s murder of his wife, a woman alone who gave birth to her baby and a man alone who committed suicide.
The emptiness of the human heart is profound at Christmas for those who don’t yet know Jesus. The message of “good tidings of great joy which will be to all people” is meant to be a personal daily experience and not just a yearly public celebration. The inn that Jesus came to fill exclusively is the one in every human heart.
Have you invited Him in? If not, have you considered that He will have no inn for you?
“I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
Jesus said:
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.” Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14: 1-6.
Jesus said, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3: 20. You can open the door by making this your prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I need you. I open the door of my life and receive you as my Savior and Lord. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins and for giving me eternal life. Take control of my life and make me the kind of person you want me to be. Thank you, Jesus, for coming into my life.”
Here is your confirmation:
He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. I John 10-13.
Like the shepherds who, “when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child,” we are obliged and privileged to share Him with you.
We at CWA wish you and yours the blessings of a Christ-filled Christmas and New Year. |
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Concerned Women for America 1015 Fifteenth St. N.W., Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: (202) 488-7000 Fax: (202) 488-0806 |
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