A word to live by: No one can do very wrong by going against the trends.
Somehow I missed this Pew Research report that came out last month (http://www.pewforum.org/2017/12/12/americans-say-religious-aspects-of-christmas-are-declining-in-public-life/), claiming “Shrinking majority believes the biblical account of the birth of Jesus depicts actual events,” etc.
At the heart of this report we have this. “Most U.S. adults believe–” the word “observe” would be more accurate–“the religious aspects of Christmas are emphasized less now than in the past.” Duh! Really! You mean, after a decades-long, concerted effort to mock and vilify Christians who believe the Bible, some people have either turned away from that belief or else keep quiet about it? Gosh, who’da thought it? Propaganda really works! Thank you, teachers’ unions, noozies, and lawsuit-happy lawyers.
You can be sure the nooze media were popping their buttons over this one, just like they do with every year’s just-in-time-for-Christmas “Christmas stinks” report.
Pew sez belief in the historical accuracy of the Biblical account of Christ’s birth is 57%, down from 65% in 2014. That’s just three years.
I take this with a boulder of salt. I don’t know how Pew phrased the questions, how they decided who to ask, and other details that can dramatically skew the outcome of a poll.
What to do?
Like a wise lady once said, “When things get darker and harder–sing louder!”
God’s will shall be done, no matter what people think. Actually, I don’t think He spends a lot of time worrying about trends in popular opinion. God will keep His promises, He will do what He has said He’ll do. And if people don’t want eternal life, forgiveness of sins, the healing of all hurts, and the restoration of the world… I guess that’s their lookout.
The follow-up question should be are we better off for it? Look at America prior to the cultural revolution of the 60s. Drugs were not an epidemic. There were few abortions. You could unlock your door at night. Mass shootings were not commonplace. There was no Islamic terrorism. Movies and TV shows were not violent or salacious. Families stayed together. Divorces and out of wedlock babies were rare. Americans were freer, and so on. Was it perfect? No. Bad things and injustices still happened, we live in a fallen world after all. But we were better off when Christianity held more sway over the culture.
An interesting way to “prove” a case: First you spend years banning any expression of Christianity, especially about Christmas — and demonizing and punishing people who violate the ban — and then you say, “By golly, very few people express a belief in Christianity, especially about Christmas.” What a coincidence.
Imagine if they put as much effort into persuading people to be good as they put into teaching them how to be idiots.
What an insight – having the gov’t controlled institutions persuading people to be decent.
Oliver Cromwell’s gov’t banned Christmas celebrations, and the early American Puritans were down on it. But you can’t curtail the servants of a beloved King from celebrating their King’s birthday – “Happy birthday, King Jesus!!!”
Well, if you put it that way, suddenly it sounds like a really bad idea–since we’d have to be nuts to trust the government to define “decent.” I don’t want that word pawed by Al Franken, smeared by Chuck Schumer, or turned into meaningless babble by Nancy Pelosi.
They say St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. If we could only get him to come to Washington…