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Throwing Baby Jesus out with the wrapping?By Caryl Matrisciana Jesus Christ may be “The Reason for the Season” for many American families but not so for several American corporations who are throwing the Baby out of Christmas. Macy’s, Target, Sears, Kmart, Kohls, Walmart and Costco have chosen to shun a Christ-centered Christmas by taking the “Merry Christmas” phrase out of their advertising and promotions and replacing it with “Happy Holidays” or “Holiday Sale”. In a recent news story broken by WorldNetDaily.com, the Catholic League decided it was necessary to boycott Wal-Mart “for banning Christmas, while promoting other seasonal holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.” Spurred on by aggressive political correctness in our multi-cultural society, the spirit of a Christ- focused Christmas is seen to be offensive to those who want to embrace “all religions as one and the same”. Christmas, centered on the birth of God’s only Begotten Son, who came to earth to die for the sins of mankind, has been the focus of criticism for many years. Christianity’s exclusive message about Jesus Christ is a stumbling block at a time when the global spirit is calling for “the embrace all things as equal for the sake of community tolerance and world peace”. The measuring scales however are not balanced with purity and justice. While the Christ-Baby is being thrown away, the world is attempting to replace Biblical truths with its own pagan, “all things for all people” spirituality. In her Encyclopedia of White Magic, Padddy Slade, a self professed witch explains, “There has always been a miraculous child born at the Winter Solstice; Jesus was only one of them. Dionysus, Attis, Mithras and Baal have all been welcomed to the world with a song and dance in mid-winter, the time when Norsemen also celebrated the birth of Freya.” In my video, The Unwrapping of Christmas: Its History, Myths and Traditions more about Christmas and its trimmings is explained. What’s behind the greenery venerated during this nature festival? What are the pagan roots attached to decking the halls with holly, ivy and mistletoe? How did our modern day Santa Clause come about? And what about the importance of the stag, the Horned Lord, Herne the Hunter who, at Samhaine (Halloween), promised to protect through the dark months of winter? How did these antlered protector-creatures turn into Santa’s reindeers? Why did colonial America and the Puritans not celebrate this pagan holiday of Saturnalia and why only a 100 years ago was it against the law in many parts of the United States to observe these celebrations? The buying frenzy of Christmas, the highest money making holiday, is fanned by advertisers, promoters and commercialism and can’t afford the financial loss associated with the single-mindedness of Baby Jesus born for a sinned filled world. Such negative admission cries out against the ego-centered sentiment of the man-made philosophy of self esteem, which teaches that man is essentially good but circumstances and the environment are sadly lacking. Set against this background, any reminder of mankind’s need of a Savior is disproved of even at Christmastime, the time to rejoice in God’s Gracious Provision. Over the last few years public displays of the customary Christmas nativity scenes have been removed all together. “Holiday trees” replace Christmas trees. Santa, his adoring elves and reindeers now feature where angelic heavenly hosts, lowly shepherds, wealthy foreign Eastern dignitary, the teenager, Mary, and her betrothed, Joseph were symbols of adoration towards the Baby Jesus born in a manger in Bethlehem. As though the removal of such familiar scenes isn’t enough, this year traditional Santa-hatted, Salvation Army bell ringers with their red-kettles have been banned from Target stores across the nation. It seems its payback time from Target, who is a contributor to the homosexual cause, for the Salvation Army’s outspoken opposition to the “gay” agenda. Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association told WorldNetDaily, “While Target contributes to homosexual groups, the company publicly states that they will not contribute to any religious groups.” Target’s sexual tolerance is further noted, according to WTOP radio in Washington, DC, “Target is one of the national chains that will be carrying a new line of women’s products that includes a vibrator. Formerly the domain of sex shops…” (Holiday Blues. October 28, 2005) The dilemma for Bible believing Christians in our multicultural society is how do we respond to the blatant antagonism of the Biblical truths and freedoms we hold so dear, while the promotion of pagan values exceeds and growing materialism (a religion to many) flourishes, but do we realize at what expense and to whom? One can’t miss noticing the plethora of Chinese made Christmas gifts and merchandise rampant in American stores. But at what cost to the freedom of our fellow Christian brothers and sisters in China? What does China stand to gain and what do Americans stand to loose? Harry Wu, the world’s foremost human-rights dissident, survived almost 20 years in a Chinese slave labor camp, the laogai gulag system of mainland China and pleads, “I want to tell ordinary Americans they must know the truth about China and then in turn tell others the truth. We must address the human-rights situation. Write letters to the media and to your congressmen and senators. I think of Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and how she is on the board of directors for Wal-Mart.” (Personal note: Wal-Mart is an Arkansas corporation that also donates untold dollars to the Republican Party!) “If Wal-Mart were a nation,” (continues Wu) “it would be China’s fifth-largest trading partner….boycott products made in China by slave labor, especially at Christmastime. Start workshops on Chinese issues at your church. Most of all, pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters inside China.” I recently returned from a life-changing trip to Hyderabad, India where, amongst other things, I was updated on the deeply moving plight of Chinese Christians. One chilling testimony came from a Chinese pastor who’d been imprisoned thirteen times and tortured to give over the names of fellow Christians meeting clandestinely by the thousands in hundreds of underground home groups. (There are 40 million Chinese in the underground church, 25 million in the above ground church yet incredibly, Roman Catholicism is illegal and Pope John Paul II wasn’t allowed to visit China.) I heard heart-wrenching stories of brutality at the hands of the new Chinese regime, “the new elite”, exemplifying human rights to be worsening in China. On my return from India via London, as I walked through dozens of duty-free shops at various international airports, amongst London’s Christmas decked stores, and through American shops offering Thanksgiving Sales, I couldn’t help but take a fresh look at merchandise made in China. Harry Wu’s urgent words resonated, “the government of China puts Christians in jail and in slave labor camps where they make our Christmas toys stained with the blood and tears of the saints.” Discussing China’s huge market and cheap labor force (for in-depth reports checkout WorldNetDaily articles “Beijing’s “new” patriotism fuels anti-Americanism” and “Harry Wu on the real China”) Wu explains, “American business is comfortable in China because there is (strong) control by the Chinese government. There are no unions allowed. There are no strikes allowed. The workers are told in effect, ‘You don’t need unions, the government will care for you.’” Wu, who has testified before various United States congressional committees, as well as the British, German and Australian parliaments, the European Parliament and the United Nations told WorldNetDaily that in the 1980’s Chinese workers employed by American companies didn’t divulge their political (communist) affiliations. But by the 1990s, the huge numbers of Chinese workers for US companies could no longer be kept secret. The government allowed workers to admit their Communism. “By 2005, Communist Party (CP) regulations stated that anywhere there are three members of the CP you have to set up a CP branch. Now, think about how many CP members work for General Motors…..” (While Americans in USA are being laid off by the thousands?) And to WND’s question – “Is the Chinese government using all of its newly gained money to improve the lives of human beings?” Wu answers, “No, it is upgrading its nuclear submarine capability…new aircraft carriers…fighter jets…China has huge US cash reserves…They are not using their wealth toward the goal of freedom… China being a tyrannical country is not good for the people of China. It is not good for the world.” Wu explains, “There are more public executions in China than ever before… In 1996, China had 4,763 public executions. That was 80% of the world total for that year, which was 6,000. The nation with the next largest amount had 200. And the organ harvesting of the Chinese prisoners?… (It’s there!)…And population control?” Wu says, “When you get married in China you need a certificate from the government in order to have a child. A second pregnancy is illegal. Have you ever heard of ‘an illegal pregnancy’ anywhere else in the world?....We will have big problems with China in the future in terms of the issues of peace and national security. China’s economic status will make her a political and military giant in due course. And still, China will be a dictatorship.” Wu warns of the new political, military and defense paradigm emerging in North Asia mentioning that when Wen Jiaba, China’s prime minister traveled to India, he boasted that China and India, comprising of one billion people each, would become the “two pagodas” of financial and economic dominance in the coming “Asian Century”. I was to witness firsthand India’s financial power while recently in Hyderabad, the fastest developing cosmopolitan city in India. The government has designated 5,000 acres as “Cyberabad” to give a boost to India’s development of Information Technology. At its heart is the 500 acre HITEC City (The Hyderabad Information Technology Engineering Consultancy City), a state of the art technology township. Among the many global corporations situated there to take advantage of India’s quality engineers and cheap manpower for outsourcing, are Dell Inc, General Electric, Capital Records, Google and Bill Gate’s Microsoft whose worldwide information technological infrastructure is spread over an area of more than 42 acres. Here is Microsoft’s biggest facility outside the U.S. India claims its new agreement with China will “reshape” the world order. The hunger for money and power lies at the heart of India and China’s nepotism and unfolding before our very eyes we see the dangerous signs of what foreign capital is fuelling. The Bible gives us insights into end-times greed and of a growing cold heartedness towards human beings. It warns of the rising up of a one-world leader who will cruelly force all nations to submit to him. The devastation created by those in power would annihilate the whole world unless God Himself intervened to save it. 2000 years ago, God intervened into human history to save mankind from a different annihilation. He came to give mankind a choice: to avoid the consequences of mans inherited sin through belief in Jesus, or live an eternity in Hell separated from God. God’s Word Himself became flesh and lived among us as an example of His grace and power. For this gift of unselfish love, He was killed – an attempt to be thrown out of this world by His enemies. Today we see His enemies again attempt to throw out His presence during this time when Christians choose to remember Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to earth as a human baby and left as the Risen Lord.
Remember to pray for persecuted Christians the world over. |
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