Tom’s Big Picture

I had some concerns about Franklin when it was revealed in 2004 that he met with anti-Christian bigot Abe Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League to assure him that he would make sure that Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ would not be “misinterpreted” by the Christian community- as in, we lowly peasants couldn’t handle the raw gospel message (with its account of Jesus’ murder at the behest of, hold your hats, Jews and Jewish leaders, not Buddhists or Druids) without helpful “interpretation” to make sure we didn’t spontaneously re-enact the Kristelnacht.

I recently had this article brought to my attention regarding the removal of religous literature from Samaritan’s Purse packages:

It is a Christian charity bringing Christmas cheer to needy children abroad.

So its decision to ban Jesus, God and anything else connected with its own faith has been greeted with little short of puzzlement.

Operation Christmas Child, run by the charity Samaritan’s Purse, sends festive packages to deprived youngsters in countries ravaged by war and famine.

Donors are asked to pack shoeboxes with a cuddly toy, a toothbrush and toothpaste, soap and flannel, notepads, colouring books and crayons - but nothing to do with Christmas.

Stories from the Bible, images of Jesus and any other Christian literature are expressely forbidden - in case Muslims are offended.

Specifically:

“Ideally, a child would receive a present with a Madonna and Child card, but if that is not possible, it is more important than the aid gets through than the Christian message.”

No, the aid is NOT important. That’s social-gospel Marxist wealth-redistributing nonsense. We meet the need so we CAN share the gospel.

If this is true, it’s sad because it means our leaders have partially internalized political correctness, censoring themselves preemptively to gain approval.

Merry Christmas, Franklin!

Response from Samaritan’s Purse Here:

www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52982

A cause for hope: it looks like the “Happy Holidays” push is dead-on-arrival this year; most retailers are returning to “Merry Christmas” lest they provoke the wrath of the majority of Americans who consider themselves at least nominally Christian.  The people who run the retail stores like our money more than they hate our Savior.  And they really hate our Savior, so that tells you how much they like our money.

On the flip side, I hear of some people rejecting the cultural side of Christmas, including Christmas trees, presents, Santa Claus, etc.  I think that’s a tad overreactive- Christmas is a unifying celebration of our common religion and culture, and while there was a definite secularizing push in the 20th century (complete with Christ-free carols and the retailization of the holy day), that does not mean that any extra-Biblical Christmas themes are inherently wrong, just overpromoted by the usual suspects.  Similarly, sex is over-promoted in our culture, but this does not mean it is wrong in the proper context.

We need to remember the “golden mean” that our wise Greek forebears taught us- let us neither slavishly follow the culture nor slavishly react to it, but rather enjoy our freedom in Christ to the fullest.  Or as another wise man put it, all things in moderation.

There’s enough room at Christmas-time for the Nativity and the Christmas tree.