Monday, December 19, 2016
527 - The Cross, Christmas and Freedom, Part 4
Spirituality Column No. 527
December 20, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
By Bob Walters
December 20, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
2016
Christmas Series: The Gift of Freedom, Part 4
The
Cross, Christmas and FreedomBy Bob Walters
Reinforcing my great joy
in Christ and providing a profound reminder of salvation was the humbug lawsuit
removing the cross from the public Christmas tree in Knightstown.
It reminded me that my freedom in Christ is overwhelming
compared with the spotty smallness of laws and symbols. It reinforced the joyous truth of the completeness
of Christ vs. the dreary intellectual barrenness of the frightened, secular chattering
class of the perpetually offended. They
know not what they are missing.
Two enormous issues of freedom were attendant to this
dance of desolate intentions. One imperils
our constitutional government; the other is pure folly.
The danger was not to the “offended” plaintiff or to common
decency or even to Jesus, but to our necessary civic freedom to express our
faith and opinions. The folly is in
thinking a Christmas tree or a cross has any affect whatsoever on the truth,
power, dignity, righteousness and permanence of Jesus Christ. Christ is sufficient in Himself.
In the civic/government/legal/media arena of the
Knightstown issue, liberals described the crusading valor of the ACLU while conservatives
decried the nauseating infringement of a community’s freedom to express its
moral values. Sadly, too much of public
“Christmas” already has nothing to do with moral values and everything to do
with avarice and affront avoidance. “Happy Holidays,” anyone? Why does their right to remain in darkness outrank
my right to express the goodness of Jesus – with a cross – in this season of light? A sincere “Merry Christmas” is the nicest
greeting we can offer.
My friend
Peter Heck, a national speaker, media figure, educator on US history and adept
Christian apologist, well and succinctly enumerated the very real, serious and
dangerous legal lunacy, constitutional impairment and community affront
embodied in this “take the cross off the Christmas tree” Grinch-fest (video link
below).
The folly of the lawsuit is that
civic decrees and legal miscreants cannot touch, impair or reduce the promise
of Christ. Look at how the Pharisees and
Romans tried to stop Jesus. Instead they
unwittingly fulfilled God’s will, enabled the completion of Christ’s mission
and harkened the Holy Spirit into the hearts and minds of humanity.
As Christians we have the freedom to be unchained from
artifacts and symbols, and even from Christmas if we so desire. Jesus never mandated any festival or
celebration – not even for the incarnation of God – because the freedom of Jesus
already is in our hearts. This is God’s
gift. It is prudent to defend our
constitution against twisted “civic” agendas, and crazy to think Jesus can be
stopped.
We have the freedom to find and be found by Him, to know Him,
love Him and to follow His will by loving others (yes, even the ACLU), or to shun,
snub and mock Him.
Whether we accept the gift is a choice upon which our
eternal freedom rests.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) admires the Knightstown townsfolks’ plucky response of putting
crosses everywhere including their cars (much better than reindeer noses and
antlers, he observes). See Heck’s brief
video here.
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