Our Secular Society

Paraphrasing a famous Christmas editorial we could say, "Yes, Virginia, the United States is a secular society". That became even more obvious last night in our Awana game time. My son, Tim, is the game director for the girls in grades 3 – 6 and he is very creative in planning new games and variations of old ones. Last night his games included facts about the Christmas story. When he told the girls that, quite a few of them thought he meant a movie. It was disappointing how little many of them actually knew about the birth of Christ. Quite a few of the girls had no idea who Mary was and they didn't know that she traveled on a donkey. And they knew little or nothing about other factual aspects of this special story. And this wasn't in Russia or Iraq, it was in our program located in the middle of the "Bible Belt" in Lancaster, PA. When I was still teaching, on my last test before Christmas, just for fun, I would include some bonus questions about the holiday season (incidentally, holiday came from holy day). I would include some items about other faiths and good holiday literature. But every year fewer and fewer students could answer correctly my questions about the story in Luke. Should we be surprised about this ignorance of basic Bible facts? Maybe, but isn't this the result of our society becoming very secular. It's a society in which Christmas can't even be discussed, and certainly not celebrated. It's a society where even Christmas carols can't be sung. It's a society in which many nativity scenes are banned. Some of you may think it has always been that way, but that isn't the case. Today I heard parts of the Christmas message delivered to the American people in 1944 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Here is just a portion of that speech. "It is not easy to say "Merry Christmas" to you, my fellow Americans, in this time of destructive war. Nor can I say "Merry Christmas" lightly tonight to our armed forces at their battle stations all over the world -- or to our allies who fight by their side. Here, at home, we will celebrate this Christmas Day in our traditional American way- because of its deep spiritual meaning to us; because the teachings of Christ are fundamental in our lives; and because we want our youngest generation to grow up knowing the significance of this tradition and the story of the coming of the immortal Prince of Peace and Good Will." Wow, times have changed and most of the parents of today's children don't even remember a time when the President could and would speak publicly like this. And few are concerned about our youngest generation knowing about Christ – certainly not the leaders of our country. So what can we as individuals do? First, we can make sure that we are teaching God's Word to our children and grandchildren. Second, those of us who have the opportunity to work with children must be diligent about our ministry. We need to teach basics. We need to be faithful – we can't give up or get discouraged. The battle is too critical. We need to ask the Lord for wisdom and then teach these children prayerfully and lovingly. For if we don't, who else will?