C'mon preacher man, wake up!
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. Genesis 15:12
Posted on 11/29/2005 11:36:32 AM PST by Pastor Fletcher
Please, PLEASE, tell me you are kidding!
When I saw the line “’A Petition to Stop the Ban on the Use of "Christmas" By Major Retailers” I thought it was a joke. I was not taken back by the possibility of retailers ‘banning Christmas.” No, I was taken back by the absurdity of a petition to address this issue.
Christians in America, will you please wake up and get a grip? We are so focused on the “culture war” we are neglecting the battle for the souls of men. The slippery slope is not the eventual dechristianization of America. GOOD GRIEF! The slippery slope is the growing distraction away from the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Why are Christians asking non-Christians to live, act and think like Christians? We have been begging the public schools to pray to God for us. We have been all hot and bothered because our courts will not publicly display the Word of God for us. Now, we are miffed that retailers do not love the Son of God for us. This latest tempest in a teapot is indicative of how desperate Christians are to be embraced by the culture.
We have got our heads buried so deep in our history books that we have lost our theological and biblical vision. If the only way we can “keep Christ in Christmas” is to boycott Walmart for saying “Happy Holidays” we have the problem, not Wal-Mart. The sad ironies of this are profound.
We preach, “You cannot serve God and mammon.” Yet, when the local retailer does not serve up our mammon with the proper Christian greeting, we take our maxed out credit cards and go buy our mammon elsewhere. We are using money to bribe if not outright extort retailers into making us more comfortable with our own convictions. We have become Simon the Sorcerer for the new millennium. We are telling retailers “say what pleases me, and I will give you money.” When the world will not give us what we want, we whine and complain like spoiled children. Our boycott is little more than sophisticated temper tantrum. Miffed, we sign our petitions and take our money to the closest store that will gladly tell us what we want to hear as long as we bring our money.
What’s next: “Concerned Christians Petition Satan to Stop Being So Mean.”
And all this time I thought it was about girls with Big Mammons.
Please try to be a gentleman. The good Pastor, I'm sure, has good intentions and we can at least be gracious while he gets his FReeper legs.
I don't agree with him either. I see a day when "Allah be praised" will be the only religious slogan allowed. Fight now, no regrets later.
Bill Federer has just published a book called Backfire which makes the case that many of the problems within American society stem from the fact that Christians left the public square many years ago-and now they're complaining about all the horrible problems that were created in the absense of Christian influence.
IMO, his thesis parallels what you're saying here.
C'mon preacher man, wake up!
And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. Genesis 15:12
I make it a point never to address Hillary directly.
You've made some excellent points and I expect you'll be excoriated by many here. They want everyone to pay homage to their beliefs but they're too lazy to get off their fat butts and shine a little light themselves. Government and retailers are supposed to spread the message for them. [/sarcasm
As long as I have my ping list out, what the hell.
Fake Pastor in Aisle 1!
So is your post. You give your real agenda away in several places, most notably here---Our boycott is little more than sophisticated temper tantrum..
Now, where have I heard that before?
"We are so focused on the “culture war” we are neglecting the battle for the souls of men."
Umm, it is a cultural war for the souls of men, don't you get that?
Or have you lost sight of the heritage we have?
"We have been begging the public schools to pray to God for us."
Wrong, the schools weren't praying in our stead, it was the allowing of school children to pray.
The cultural war took that away, and hence the battle for mens souls is also a cultural war.
"We have been all hot and bothered because our courts will not publicly display the Word of God for us."
Wrong, the Ten Commandments were displayed to remind the judges and the public from hence came the basis for our laws.
Your premise is false.
"Now, we are miffed that retailers do not love the Son of God for us."
Wrong again, people aren't allowed to mention God during the holidays..
"What’s next: “Concerned Christians Petition Satan to Stop Being So Mean.”"
No, I sued him and won sole rights to the movie.
"Christmas celebrations, secular and sacred, are a tradition in this country. I object to the fact that the only TRADITIONS being changed, renamed and suppressed right now are American Christian ones. And the reasons given by the retailers are extraordinarily weak."
Your statement bears repeating. I too am mad that the only traditions that are pushed aside are Christian. I disagree with the fake pastor here. The only thing that gets these businesses attention is taking away their money or getting bad press. If they can't call it Christmas, then I'll take my money elsewhere.
Every Christian should display a Nativity scene on the front lawn. Every so-called "Christian" church ought to have a Nativity scene prominently displayed to witness to the "reason for the season." Until they do these two simple things to witness to the world, Christians have no right to whine about the denigration of Christmas into "Pump Up the National Economy Day."
Actually I agree with you and have been saying this to myself for quite a while.
But gnubs and vanities don't go well on FR...
Blessings.
RB<><
The stepkids' school "Winter Concert" last year had a Chanukkah song, a Ramadan song (!), and a Kwanzaa song (!!). Then there was some tepid number called "Holiday Lights". The name of the "holiday" whereby lights are strung on trees and houses was not mentioned anywhere in the lyrics.
The concert ended with a song about getting the day off of school because of snow. They had to underscore the "winter" part of the theme, I guess.
So you see, it is really not about being inclusive. It is about EXCLUDING the word "Christmas" because it might offend somebody. The principal and music teacher did not think it was okay to INCLUDE a Christmas song of any kind in the program, even alongside a Chanukkah song, a song for a completely contrived and UNTRADITIONAL holiday like Kwanzaa, and one for the Muslim month of fasting which had concluded over a month before and had nothing to do with winter.
How things change in a few short years. People have been made to feel they shouldn't say, sing or print a sign with the word "Christmas" anymore, but the pastor thinks WE are the ones throwing a tantrum and acting like spoiled children. It's the whiners trying to overturn tradition that are doing that.
Helloooo?
You there?
I responded to your illogical tripe, I posted my response at post 50.
You haven't responded yet on thread, and tyhat would mark you as a post and run troll.
The kind who tosses a text grenade into a forum and then runs away and then brags about how brave they were.
The reason given was the demographics of the elementary school that they attend. IOW, a high proportion of Muslims, asians, etc. I don't know why it is that our traditions are the ones that must suffer. This used to be America, a Christian nation. Now, we're the Newdow nation.
Uh, because the Bible commands us to? We are supposed to evangelize the world, not be tolerant of the world in its current state.
Jesus did not exhibit tolerance to the forces of darkness. Neither should we.
And we should be damned grateful that the tune got in there somehow. D:
Now, which other religions, non-religious events, made-up holidays, and foreign cultural traditions may I look forward to hearing about this year, at that all-important "Winter" concert right before the national "Winter" holiday?
"We are so focused on the “culture war” we are neglecting the battle for the souls of men."
The culture war is about removing mention of God from everything.
"The slippery slope is the growing distraction away from the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
You say this..
And then you state the below:
"Why are Christians asking non-Christians to live, act and think like Christians?"
You know the terminology, but not the usage of it.
You are NOT a Pastor, and if you ARE a pastor of any kind, I feel extremely sorry for your 'church' as the Word of God is most definitely NOT being spoken from your pulpit.
But, your ignorancec of your contradiction tells me that you are NOT a pastor anywhere.
You are a troll.
Then they can walk.
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