Some may claim that this headline is a little strong. But if one goes back and studies history, one finds that Hitler also deemphasized the religious aspects of Christmas in deference to a generalized "winter holiday".
This was only Obama's first Christmas in the Oval Office. Yet the President has already tried to de-Christ Christmas in at least two instances.
It has come to public's attention that the White House considered not putting up its Nativity display. Instead, plans were considered for a "more inclusive" Christmas.
G.K. Chesterton said "Religious liberty might suppose to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it." So in the vain attempt to feign a posture of expansive sensitivity, the Obama administration was on the verge of excluding those who had someone sitting on the throne of their hearts other than Barack Obama.
The President provided more insight into his theology at the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse just beyond the White House. Obama said, "Tonight, we celebrate a story that is as beautiful as it is simple. This story of a child born far from home to parents guided only by faith, but who would ultimately spread a message that has endured for more than 2000 years --- that...we are each called to love one another as brother and sister."
That is only part of the story. While Christ did come into the world to teach us that we are to love one another, more importantly, that love is only possible as a result of the part of His message that Obama deliberately omitted. That is that Christ came into the world to die for our sins and to rise from the dead so that whosoever would believe in Him would have everlasting life.
However, Obama is not even content to allow Christians to bask for a moment in the glory of a watered down version of their holiday as something unique this particular belief system has given to the world. He has to take that away from them as well, and in so doing, Obama reveals the most dangerous aspects of his worldview.
Obama continued, "While this story may be a Christian one, its lesson is universal. It speaks to the hope we share as a people. And it represents a tradition that we celebrate as a country --- a tradition that has come to represent more than any one holiday or religion --- but a season of brotherhood and generosity to our fellow citizens."
It is interesting and revealing to compare Il Duce's minimalist recognition of Christmas and the Christian message as merely a generalized world religion with "universal themes" with him being all a flutter earlier in the year during the White House Ramadan celebration over the contribution of Islam to civilization. Of this faith, Obama said, "Islam as we know is part of America. Like the broader American citizenry, the American Muslim community is one of extraordinary dynamism and diversity. On this occasion, we celebrate how much Muslims have enriched America and its culture in ways large and small.”
What is it exactly that Islam has done for America? One might make a case that the Muslim world played a role in preserving the collected learning of Mediterranean civilization during the Dark Ages.
But that was about a thousand years ago. How much longer are they going to slide by on this accomplishment and hold it over our heads? Though many Muslims live respectable and unassuming lives, for the most part Islam has become more of a liability than an asset to the United States.
At this point in his administration, one has to admit that Obama has not yet crossed the line to become a Hitlerian figure. However, there are a number of mechanisms in place such as expansive versions of COMMUNITY service and a litany of advisors with an appallingly low view of individual human life such as Cass Sustein, John Holdren, and Ezekiel Emanuel that would easily allow for the transition into such a nightmare scenario should a fortuitous calamity just happen to transpire.
For even though Nazi Germany will forever serve as a warning as to the ultimate outcome of ethnic hostility and suspicion allowed to fester out of control unchecked, this was far from that regimes only shortcoming. A common characteristic of all forms of collectivism is a fundamental hostility towards God as the ultimate authority and a propensity to subordinate the traditional accoutrements of religion to the state as a result of this presupposition.
For example, in an address at Georgetown University (an explicitly religious institution of higher learning), Obama, like a vampire unable to look upon a cross, demanded that images or references to Christ be covered over with a black cloth. Even more disconcerting is the commentary compliance with this request makes regarding the spineless nature of contemporary Christianity. Though it might have cost them the photo op, university administrators should have told Obama to go to Sheol (or perhaps at least Purgatory since this was a Catholic school).
One can assume that how one’s Christmas tree is decorated is a reflection of the things an individual holds most dear. For example, a perfectionist will have a tree where the ornaments are all the same and placed at uniform distances all just so. Someone that places a high value on family and memories will have a hodgepodge of treasures spanning the decades that barely go together aesthetically yet bring tears of joy to those that hold such knick-knacks dear.
One must, therefore, ask what does it mean when someone allows an ornament of Chairman Mao and one of their own visage superimposed upon Mount Rushmore placed upon a tree under that person’s authority? Some might dismiss the matter, saying that there are all kinds of eccentric decorations (after all, I have a Garfield bike reflector from a box of 1980’s cereal on my tree).
However, one cannot help but be a bit more concerned when one learns that the queerly decorated tree (there is also a transexual ornament dangling from its branches) is found in the White House? For victims of the public school system, Mao was the Communist Chinese dictator whose regime killed even more that Hitler’s did.
So isn’t this the equivalent of placing a swastika atop of the tree? This is even more disturbing when it is considered in conjunction with the ornament of Obama’s countenance elevated to Mount Rushmore status.
Anyone that would place a Mao ornament upon a tree no doubt admires those wielding absolute power who do not care at all how many lives are destroyed in the attempt to remake reality in compliance with some ideological vision. Anyone of political significance allowing an ornament with themselves added to Mount Rushmore on their tree believes that they ought to be the one to remake society.
From an objective historical standpoint, what we know as Christmas grew out of originally pagan celebrations that were imbued with new meanings as society came to embrace more explicitly Christian values and perspectives. It is thus only natural that, as society slides downward morally, the one heralded by the reprobate as something akin to a post-Christian messiah would want to metaphorically see himself in the manger rather than the Christ that reminds each of us just how far short we all fall of glory of God.
Frederick Meekins is an independent theologian and social critic. Frederick holds a BS in Political Science/History, a MA in Apologetics/Christian Philosophy from Trinity Theological Seminary, and a PhD. in Christian Apologetics from Newburgh Theological Seminary.
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