Leave Baby Jesus Alone!

Thinking through the major American Holidays and their subsequent decorations I can’t think of one more controversial than the nativity scene and I really don’t understand why. No one complains about Cupid’s arrows of love in February and he’s traced back to Roman mythology. In the spring no one complains about the Easter Bunny whose origin traces back to an ancient pagan goddess named Eostre. No one takes issue with Uncle Sam in July although he has been linked to wars involving America dating back as far as 1812. Every November pilgrims pop up all across our nation despite the fact that these men and women represented religious freedom and Christian values.

Regardless of the origin and folklore surrounding them each major holiday is represented by some form of a character and long before Christmas had Santa Clause it had baby Jesus. Jesus is what Christmas is all about and without him we wouldn’t have the winter holiday and yet people still ardently protest nativity scenes at city hall.

Sure we live in a world of religious intolerance but what did baby Jesus ever do to anyone? Again, no one complains about the pilgrims making appearances on City Hall windows and doors in November and they not only stood for Christian values but they also brought disease and death to the indigenous people. We’ll gladly celebrate them but let the Savior of the World lay in his manger on the front lawn and the law suites start filing in.

In my opinion the problem is cultural. We’ve developed a secular society that is so hatefully opposed to organized religion and the things of God that the church that lawsuits are becoming the newest trend among law firms. Unlike the Easter Bunny, Jesus is convicting. To truly believe in him means to turn from a sinful lifestyle and to embrace a biblical standard of morality. However, our society would much rather be offended than convicted! How dare anyone, including baby Jesus, tell us that our lifestyle is wrong. Therein lies the problem with baby Jesus lying in the manger.

Christians are viewed, unfairly, as narrow minded, judgmental and unacceptable by a society where 90% of the people claim to believe in God, 84% believe in the survival of the soul after death and 77% believe in the virgin birth. So why are Christians so grossly misrepresented? Because the people who oppose them are more vocal. Jesus spoke of this in John 15:19, If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Christians need to become more vocal but not in the hateful manner used by those who oppose us. Instead, respond in love and explain why you believe what you do and why something like a nativity scene is important to you. It represents not only the birth or the savior and the rebirth of sinful man. There’s no lawsuit that will ever take that away!