Evangelist Tree. (Or it would be if they really had Old Testament fire-calling power instead of just the gift of loudness)
Rapture Tree. Poof.
Standards Tree. Not conformed to the image of this world. Also not incredibly practical or safe — just the way we like things.
Church and State Tree. Because the camo trees all sold out early. Thankfully there were still some bald eagle tree toppers left.
Kent Hovind Tree. Proven decisively from Genesis to be only 3 1/2 years old no matter what your carbon dating says.
Ministry Staff Tree. You’re lucky blessed to be able to afford even this much.
College library tree, the limbs of which are to remain demurely covered at all times. What? Would you wish to celebrate the birth of our Lord with a NAKED tree!?
Soulwinning Tree. We’ve been using the same one for the last fifty years and it’s just as effective now as it was back then.
I’m on a “Merry Christmas” mission and I’m in full throttle. My little yellow VW Beetle has turned into a Christmas billboard with Merry Christmas written across the back window. Yes, I’ve decided to trek off to work everyday on the public highways with a message that seems to offend people.
At stop lights, I even turn my music up a little louder, and to top it off, I sing along with it. Don’t I know that stopping at a red light to roll my windows down only to share the joy of Christmas carols on public streets is a No-No? Don’t I fear the Christmas Gestapo and those who would have me remove the written message from my car?
I’m sorry folks, but the only person I’m concerned about “offending” during this Christmas season is the Lord himself. LEAVE THAT MANGER ALONE! We’ve allowed the Baby Jesus to be kicked out of His lowly manger, and those offended by Christmas are still not happy. I refuse to let this happen. I’m going to do my part to make sure “Merry Christmas” doesn’t become extinct. Because like it or not, if the believers in Christmas don’t take a stand now, it’s gone forever.
Listen folks, the Christian community has been underestimated before; we will have to show ourselves again.
I walked into a Wendy’s Restaurant the other day and was rather exuberant with my “Merry Christmas” greeting to the manager. He didn’t have much of a response and I said, “Where’s your Christmas spirit?” He said, “We’re not allowed to use the words “Merry Christmas” when greeting customers. We can only say “Happy Holiday.”
This morning I grabbed a quick breakfast at a Whataburger Restaurant. I noticed there wasn’t a single decoration in the store. I asked the manager why they weren’t decorated for Christmas. He told me the corporate headquarters decided not to send any decorations to any of their stores, and he didn’t know why.
After I heard about all the Macy’s and Federated Stores taking down their Merry Christmas signs, the Target stores not allowing the Salvation Army to “Ring the Christmas bells,” and the many incidents of children, choirs, and bands not allowed to play or sing Christmas carols, I realized it was happening right here in my own little Texas town.
Who sinned? This man? His parents? Our legislators? Society as a whole?
It would seem that the need to establish guilt in the wake of a tragedy is part of our basic human programming. Our media outlets opine with varying degrees of accuracy about exactly happened and why. Our politicians make statements and promise reforms. Our friends and neighbors light up Facebook with pictures and captions about what they think happened and how it (oddly enough) proves their position right on this issue or that. Meanwhile, fundamentalists inevitably blame everybody who isn’t one of their own.
The truth is, however, that the reasons are rarely as simple in their cause to effect as we or the fundamentalists would like to believe because disaster on an epic scale does not happen from a single point of failure. As much as some people would like to believe that “God being removed” from schools (as if such a thing were possible to an omnipotent and omnipresent deity) it’s impossible to prove. The rain falls on the just and unjust. Seemingly random acts of violence and disaster do as well.
Perhaps those who claim to be of Christ should ask themselves what he would do and say. I rather imagine that he would be binding up the wounds of the living, weeping at the graves of the departed, and in this season when we celebrate his birth he would be giving to those who mourn the hope of his Incarnation and Resurrection to life eternal.
These things we ought to do. Agendas and blame can wait.
It never ceases to amaze me that fundies love to bash Charismatic churches for their outpouring of emotion and unintelligible worship utterances when truth be told you really can’t figure out much of what is being said or done in some “camp meeting” style Baptist churches either.
The caption to this video reads: “It got on in Sunday School and never slowed down! Glory to God!”
What exactly is “it”? Anybody want to venture a guess?
A silly blog dedicated to Independent Fundamental Baptists, their standards, their beliefs, and their craziness.
