2019| Week of December 16 | Radio Transcript #1338

At Christmas most of us would, I think, really like kind of a universal truce, even if for just a few days. I’m thinking a few days where evil doesn’t show up every few minutes, the culture wars take a break, opponents of religious freedom stand down for a bit. Things like that. Oh, I realize I’m asking for the impossible, but wouldn’t it be nice?

That sentiment reminds me of the 1914 Christmas Truce, when starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops fighting in World War I sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines; and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

Christmas morning some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and crossed no-man’s -land heading for the Allied lines, calling out “Merry Christmas.” It wasn’t a trick or a ploy. The Germans were unarmed. The men even exchanged presents and some enjoyed a soccer game.  While the truce wasn’t official, it was real; but it was very short-lived. But while it lasted it showed that the true Christmas spirit triumphed, at least temporarily, over the ideological and geo-political differences.

With Christmas now just a week away, I yearn for even a temporary truce and to be able to deliver only good news in these days leading up to the celebrating of our Savior’s birth. Sadly, I don’t see that happening as it seems this time of year in today’s culture reveals more and more of the divide we are experiencing.

Many conservatives, especially Christians, are likely still reeling from the news that broke last month about Chick-fil-A walking away from its support of organizations such as Fellowship of Christian Athletes and The Salvation Army, at least in part because of their statements of faith supporting marriage as God designed it—one man and one woman. Then the news broke that this fast-food restaurant chain had given money to none other than The Southern Poverty Law Center, a group that claims organizations such as Wisconsin Family Council are hate groups because we hold to biblical but culturally unpopular beliefs.[1] In spite of calls for boycotts and letters appealing to Chick-fil-A executives, the company appears to be entrenched in this change.

And then there’s Hallmark, the creator of endless romantic Christmas movies. First we hear the company had agreed to run advertisements for a wedding planning company featuring, among heterosexual couples, same-sex couples kissing at their wedding. A conservative moms’ group started a petition, submitted some 40,000 signatures, and Hallmark reversed course and withdrew the ads. Then, after pressure from the LGBT crowd, and likely threats of somehow taking them down, Hallmark executives earlier this week flip-flopped again and have now decided to run the ads, saying in an official statement that withdrawing them was the wrong thing to do.[2]

Now we find that the Green Bay Packers Foundation has this year given money to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin.[3] I’ve never heard that this foundation has before this year given money to the state’s leading abortion provider. Frankly, this giving puzzles me.  Out of the 192 organizations the Foundation supported this year, most seem in keeping with its mission, which certainly doesn’t include support for abortion. Regardless of what specific program the Green Bay Packers Foundation thinks it is supporting at Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, they just gave a boost to an organization whose main reason for existence is to kill unborn babies. For those of us who are unabashedly pro-life and that position way supersedes our support for the Packers, this is very disappointing.

So, it’s obvious we aren’t going to have a truce of any sort this year on these matters. But, even in the midst of these situations and much more that hurts our hearts and disturbs our souls, we must remember that the world Jesus was born into wasn’t any better. Evil was alive and well—and even sitting in the seat of government with Herod being so threatened by the birth of this baby that he ordered all the babies in Bethlehem under the age of two to be killed.

Sometimes we forget in the midst of how we celebrate Christmas that not everyone was rejoicing at Christ’s birth then any more than they are today. However, this story has an incredible ending. Evil loses; righteousness wins. Jesus Christ wasn’t just born. He became our sacrifice. He was crucified, buried and gloriously rose again and one day He is coming again! One day we won’t need a truce because the war will be over, and we will be on the winning side!

This is Julaine Appling for Wisconsin Family Council reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2019/12/04/chick-fil-a-southern-poverty-law-center-donation-column/2588820001/

[2] https://apnews.com/e0be449b0558ac4c9266ca0d171d906a

[3] https://www.packers.com/news/packers-foundation-awards-a-record-1-million-in-annual-grants?fbclid=IwAR0x8HW2M48qzTV3alWEIN9JuC0XVDIZnyp-xdwHXX6fjvyfRIsBMWiubsE