[Clemenza]

Are you the guy from "Sojourners" magazine?

[jennyjenny]

May I have extra butter on my popcorn, please?

[Americanwolf]

I would petition to stop satan from being so mean, but politics is so corrupted now it would go no where...

plus satan needs his hobbies to..

[somemoreequalthanothers]

Tell 'em like it is, Pastor!

[Americanwolf]

So i am kinda lost here with what you are saying... are you saying christans have become slaves to consumerism...walmart is bad..... you know it all kinda blurs for me.

[firewalk]

What’s next: “Concerned Christians Petition Satan to Stop Being So Mean.”

& why not?
he really should be nicer...

[airborne]

Joined today to preach?

Good luck with that!

[BigFinn]

A very unpolitically correct
MERRY CHRISTMAS

[Americanwolf]

Man I just hate hit and run preachers

[joebuck]

A "holly troller" as it were.

[apackof2]

Gee pastor, some of us can do both, proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and fight for our American cultural and historical Judeo-Christan hertiage

After all the Word saids, "We can do ALL things through Christ Jesus"

[silverleaf]

The slippery slope is the growing distraction away from the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And if the trend of removing Christ from public view and public mention continues, just where and how might such proclamation be made, Pastor? You may be willing to hide your light under a bushel, but fewer and fewer of us are willing to take our religious celebration underground. Frankly, if merchants wish to cash in on a birthday celebration, they need to hear from the guests that we will not be attending if they censor mentioning the name of the Guest of honor and equate His birth with the phenomenon of kwanzaa.

[GLDNGUN]

It's really quite simple, "Pastor". If a business is too ashamed of the word "Christmas" because it has the word "Christ" in it, while another business is NOT ashamed to recognize this CHRISTIAN holiday, why should Christians patronize the former and not the latter?

And, oh. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[FourtySeven]

An interesting point, I hadn't thought of it that way before.

I can see it about commercial enterprises not being forced to be "Christian". I would say though that it was a sad day in our nation's history when prayer was banned from school. It's not that Christians need it, it's that it was clearly good for children, as discipline in our schools steadily declined since then. I do believe there's a direct correlation there.

Also, it opened the door for this insane policy of "separation of church and state". There was never supposed to be such a "separation" as we've seen today. Local communities were supposed to be able to decide their own fate, especially when it came to religious expression. Now, everything is becoming increasingly centralized, with virtually no local control. The founding fathers never wanted that. I think they would cringe at the notion of a tiny minority of atheists in Washington deciding a decent, Christian community in Indiana cannot put a nativity scene on their local town hall lawn.

But, you do make a good point about the focus seemingly only on the political. Christians should be involved in every aspect of society, not just politics, that's the best way to truly spread the Good News. I don't think we should abandon such fights, but we shouldn't make political fights our only ones.

[b4its2late]

What’s next: “Concerned Christians Petition Satan to Stop Being So Mean.”

From a liberal? Maybe......

[txroadkill]

OK, I'm short on time to give a long argument to your sermon, but here's a short one. Godly men (and women) fighting for their community is not a new Idea. God sent Jonah to Nineveh : "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." Jonah 1:2

We all know how that worked out for Jonah when he decided not to do it. As "American Christians" we believe that our lives have been blessed by God by giving us this great country. As American Christians who study history we also know that the fall of all great societies has been marked by the rejection of God and the acceptance of immorality as normal. Tell me what could possible be wrong with Christians standing up for what they believe and protecting their home and God's blessings from destruction.

[DannyTN]

Spreading the gospel is certainly our most important goal.

But the two are not separate issues. Not only is Christmas a wonderful outreach program that spreads the gospel message to the non-Christian world, but allowing the gospel to be taken out of Christmas creates a secular story of Christ that will compete against the gospel message.

I suspect that there is no other time of the year, when the gospel message is presented as often and as clear as at Christmas. Retail stores carry (or did) scripture on Christmas cards, nativity scenes, etc. The festivities attract participation by non-Christians. Church perform passion plays which outreach to the community. And more than any other time of the year, charitable acts are done in the name of Christ.

To say "Gospel, Gospel, Gospel" and ignore the secularization of Christmas is to allow the destruction of one of the best vehicles for spreading that Gospel.

We must fight these smaller battles at the same time we seek to spread the Gospel.

[adorno]

...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.”

A company or organization that does not cater to the wishes of the customer is one that is in danger of seeing that customer go elsewehre for his/her needs.

So, yes, Christians have the right to complain and get their wishes granted. If a company doesn't want to recognize that Christmas is about Christianity and that Christmas trees are a symbol of Christmas, then the customer should, if she or he wishes, transact his business elsewhere. Businesses and capitalism and even government should not be immune to the feelings of the MAJORITY of the people.

If a religiuus minority wishes to have their religious symbols represented at stores at their appropriate times, I'm sure that the majority of Christians would not be offended. So, why should a minority religion be offended by the Christian symbols.

Using religious symbols around religious holidays is not the same as imposing a certain religious belief on another group. Religous tolerance is the key to managing the many different religions that exist in societies. No one religious group, large or small, has the right to impose restrictions on the way a store does business.

So, buddy, it is not extortion. It is the stores complying with the wishes of the customer. Doing otherwise would be submitting to the extortions from the supposedly offended other religions or groups.

[Americanwolf]

What is mammon anyway

[RedBeaconNY]

My 11-year-old brother's bus driver is not allowed to play Christmas music on the radio because two atheist kids on the bus object to it...