How long, how much farther, will we let an angry, disaffected, alienated, faithless few push us from our God-given liberty to express our joy and faith – whenever and wherever we choose?
Has it not become insufferable, inexcusable, for any of us to feel cowed and almost forbidden by some notion of “political correctness” to even exclaim “Merry Christmas!” to shop clerks, airline stewardesses, delivery men, even passersby on the streets and in the stores? How long will we let this go on?
The latest brouhaha, claiming “lead-item” status on the news and talk shows, is a simple, warm and earnest Christmas greeting from presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. In 30 seconds, he guesses that folks want to enjoy the season without ever-present and clamorous campaign messages, so he offers a plain, old-fashioned “Merry Christmas” greeting. He notes that the day is meant to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus, a time for family and friends to come together and enjoy hearth and home, and a time of peace and love. And he wishes us all those very things.
Cunning? Calculated? An unprincipled, callous manipulation of Christmas to further his political aims? What about those bookshelves behind his head that suggested a cross? Wasn’t that an obvious premeditated ploy to remind the voters that Huckabee is the Christian candidate? The political analysts and the talk show hosts on the news networks had a field day, variously and sometimes angrily accusing Huckabee and his “handlers” of those very things. The idea that a man, even a Baptist minister, might actually and sincerely want to wish everybody a “Merry Christmas” with no other motive at all, was simply unthinkable. Who would spend campaign bucks, of which Huckabee has relatively few anyway, to do something as meaningless and altruistic as that?
In recent years, leftist and atheistic individuals and organizations have been waging war on any and all public expressions of faith, mainly Christian, but even including some Judaic ones. They insist, with the backing of the ACLU and “People for the American Way” (what a tragic misnomer), and the exceptionally spurious “Christians United for the Separation of Church and State” (akin to “Doctors United for the Separation of Healing and Medicine”), that the name of God be removed from every public building. They insist that crosses be removed from graveyards and memorials and county seals, that prayer be removed from school, and that any mention of a deity or creator be excised from school functions and even our Pledge of Allegiance and our currency.
And the American people, stampeded by liberal jurists and prejudiced lawyers – and even some misguided elected officials – have been allowing all this to happen! Many have been persuaded that our Constitution actually contains some mention of “separation of church and state” (which it emphatically does not) and that this country was created a “secular society” and that our Founding Fathers never intended that Christian principles would interfere or influence national policy.
But wait; what does the First Amendment to our hallowed Constitution provide? “Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion.” Do you ever hear it quoted that way? That’s what it says, although that phrase is preceded by the more oft quoted “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,” followed immediately by “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
The clear summation, the obvious and stated intent of that amendment is that government will leave religion completely alone, and subject to each individual’s precept and conscience – and that no governmental restriction shall impede or prohibit free expression of that faith, whenever and wherever religious people might choose.
But, since atheistic activists have managed to remove most references to America’s religious history and purposes from public school curricula – and a couple of generations of our young have grown up abysmally ignorant of our past and what the Constitution actually states – these “re-engineers” of our national DNA have persuaded legislators (and too many voters) that freedom of speech can extend to outright perversions of any intentions of our founders.
Our California governor signed a bill into law which allows public school children to arbitrarily choose whether they should be treated as a boy or a girl … and which restroom they can use!
Our Sacramento Public Library Authority Board refuses to ban Internet access to pornography. Viewing of this state-subsidized access to pornography is in areas where children are present – in our tax-funded public libraries!
A school board recently attempted to censor God out of a privately purchased ad in a yearbook. To wish their son well upon his graduation, the parents had submitted an ad that included the abhorrent phrase “May God bless your life.”
More than 100 students were suspended in Sacramento area schools for wearing T-shirts that quote a Bible verse. Sexual and drug-related and political slogans are protected “constitutionally,” but not those foul, seditious Bible verses!
Increasingly, almost incessantly now, obscenities are included in most dramatic and comedic shows, in prime time, not just cable TV, and every filthy, violent, and depraved act humans can think of is portrayed graphically in our homes, and parents are advised to “control” their kids’ viewing – never producers and networks to control their own spewing – of pollution into our public airwaves.
The liberal “free speech” advocates require us to accept a new, more contemporary morality, not to be so “prudish.” Ah, but a public, supporter-financed “Merry Christmas” message? By a Baptist minister running for president of the United States? Scandalous!
Friend, this is still a republic (“If we can keep it,” as Ben Franklin declared, while the ink was still damp on the Constitution), and “we the people” can still exercise our freedom, including the freedom of expression, if we’ll show some backbone, some knowledge, some will of our own – and say loud and proud, “Merry Christmas to you too, Mr. Huckabee! And God bless us everyone.”
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