Christmas in Battle Ground

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By the way, we would get more done if we didn't chat and laugh as much! For Members of Prince of Peace…. You are invited to a unique worship service called The Longest Night-. Friday, December 21st, 7: December 24, Prince of Peace. Once again we plan to adorn our worship space with Poinsettias. Please bring your Poinsettias to the Church by December 20, , so they may be beautifully placed at the altar.

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Poinsettias brought to the Church. High School Youth Bible Study. Please check our website. The Youth are making Caramel Apples. Christmas Eve Candlelight Services: You are invited to a unique worship service called The Longest Night- a time of candlelight, readings, and music that bring hope and comfort to those who are grieving or desire a contemplative way to worship this Christmas Season.

Please Join Us Saturday, Dec.

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There are now several campaigns to protect and recall the true meaning of Christmas and its traditions. In the United States, Focus on the Family, the Liberty Counsel and the American Family Association each compile blacklists of retailers who do not acknowledge Christmas in their advertisements In Canada, the Knights of Columbus' 'Keep Christ in Christmas' campaign encourages Catholics to spread awareness of the real meaning of Christmas.

There is also an awareness that the growing commercialization of Christmas is usurping its original meaning. Owing to this, German Catholics belonging to a church aid organization, Bonifatiuswerk, have reacted by advocating "Santa Claus-free zones. Nicolas, who emphasizes inner as opposed to material wealth.

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Santa Claus, though, has also been the victim of overt political correctness. At Christmas time last year, Australia's Monash University published a study in the British Medical Journal condemning the figure of Santa Claus as a negative role model for children. The authors inform readers that "there is a correlation between countries that venerate Santa Claus and those that have high levels of childhood obesity," and it is possible that "Santa promotes a message that obesity is synonymous with cheerfulness and joviality.

Unfortunately, the idea of reconstructing a traditional image to create a state-sanctioned role model has been used before by far less of a benevolent regime. Before becoming president, Ronald Reagan used his radio broadcasts to attack the anti-Christmas action of communist leaders in the Soviet Union. He said Moscow, "eventually began banning Christmas commemorations," as "St. Nicholas was replaced with Did Moroz, or Grandfather Frost. This Stalinist creation wears a red cap and long white beard of Santa Claus, but he delivers gifts to children on New Year's Eve.

Christmas trees were also banned, but people continued to trim their New Year's trees. Communism folded all Christmas celebrations into a New Year celebration. Nicolas, was "unmasked as an ally of the priest and kulak," according to Karen Petrone, author of Life has Become More Joyous, Comrades: Celebrations in the Time of Stalin. In the early years of New Year's Day festivities, production was especially emphasized, as workers were entertained by reports of the productivity of the worst workshop with street organ music playing in the background.

A brigade from the Meierkhol'd Theatre sang to workers in a Moscow factory, "if 1, people were to choose not to come to work on a religious holiday it would cost the factory 48, rubles. In , the Puritan-dominated English Parliament passed a law abolishing the holiday. Under Oliver Cromwell's rule following the execution of Charles I, Christmas customs, services, and festivities were prohibited. This sparked riots and people were jailed for defiance of the law. The Puritans thought Christmas encouraged English debauchery during feasting.

They also suspected Christmas of being an expression of Catholicism, as the holiday was, in fact, called "Christ's Mass" and not decreed in the Bible. Christmas was therefore called Christ Tide and declared a day of fasting and prayer. It was only reinstated after the Restoration in the s. British bishops and the Vatican are now worried that Christmas will be banned again in the name of not offending people of other faiths and convictions.

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The Equality Act , which came into force this October in Britain, could pose a significant threat to the autonomy of religious institutions in a secular country seeking to impose its values on others. Concerns about equality and not offending others often run only one way.

In , Home Depot eschewed use of the term Christmas on their website, while employing Hanukkah in its holiday advertising. Several years earlier, the Miami Herald wished a Happy Hanukkah in the days before Christmas on its banner and a Happy Kwanza on its front page on Dec. In , Lowe's began selling "Family Trees. Successful campaigns against avoiding the use of Christmas in commercial advertising have resulted in numerous chains including Sears, K-Mart and the Gap to reinsert Christmas messaging and acknowledging the Christmas gift-giving season rather than the holiday gift-giving season.

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While authorities and corporations continue to try to ban any vestige of religious observance or acknowledgement, the public continues to pushback, defending Christmas trees, carols, and expressions of good wishes. A generation after the politically correct term Happy Holidays was inserted into the public conversation, a large number of Christians are still resisting.

Many public officials are backing down and many companies are reversing course. But, as Tom Fleming of Chronicles magazine wrote a decade ago, the war against Christmas is at heart battle for the soul of society, secular versus religious. It is yet another battleground in the culture wars. Since it was founded in , The Interim has provided honest reporting and insightful commentary on abortion, euthanasia, bioethics, family values and marriage. Reading 1, Jeremiah Rufus and Zosimus were citizens of Antioch or