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PreachParsly
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Joined: 2005/1/14
Posts: 2164
Arkansas

 Restoring 'Christmas'

Restoring 'Christmas' -- Lowe's Axes 'Holiday Trees' Campaign

By Mary Rettig and Jody Brown
November 30, 2005

(AgapePress) - The president of a Mississippi-based pro-family group says he's pleased that Lowe's home improvement stores have stopped selling "holiday trees" and have changed to offering "Christmas trees."

According to the American Family Association (AFA), several major retailers have joined in a politically correct "push to ban" the use of the term "Christmas" in their advertising and in-store promotions. Included in that list, says AFA, are such major outlets as Kmart, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart, and Walgreens. Last week, the pro-family group brought to the attention of the public that another retailer -- this time the home improvement retailer Lowe's -- appeared to have jumped on the bandwagon as well. AFA reported that instead of selling "Christmas trees," Lowe's was offering fresh-cut "holiday trees." (See earlier story)

Following that revelation, "thousands of AFA supporters contacted Lowe's to express their displeasure," states an AFA press release -- resulting in the retailer announcing it was going to refer to all its trees as Christmas trees "to ensure consistency of our message and to avoid confusion among our customers." In addition, Lowe's said it had removed a "Holiday Trees" banner from their storefronts.

Why make such a big deal about the advertising phraseology employed by retailers? AFA president Tim Wildmon responds.


Tim Wildmon
"The secularization of Christmas is a serious problem, especially in the retail business today," Wildmon says. "These big corporations are wanting to make money off people at Christmastime for celebrating Christmas, but they want to call it a 'holiday season' -- they don't want to identify it as Christmas because that might offend one or two percent of the American public."

And since retailers are unable to remove "Christ" from "Christmas," says the AFA president, many of are simply trying to do away with Christmas. Such "anti-Christian bias," he adds, does not bode well with consumers.

"Companies who choose to abandon the national observance of Christmas are finding that Americans are not afraid to speak out with their pocketbooks," he says. Last year the pro-family group called for a boycott of Federated Stores because the retailer had banned "Merry Christmas" in its advertising. But this year, "they are using 'Merry Christmas,'" notes Wildmon.

AFA also reports that more than 400,000 individuals have signed an online petition to stop retailers' ban on the use of "Christmas." The AFA leader says while this petition, which is being sent to retailers, likely will have no effect on company policies this year, it could affect things next year.

As for the Lowe's announcement, Wildmon offers kudos, saying it is "good to know Lowe's is a company that listens to their customers," That quality, he says, is a "rarity in today's politically correct retail market."


[url=http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/11/302005e.asp]Source[/url]


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Josh Parsley

 2005/12/1 11:18Profile
IRONMAN
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Joined: 2004/6/15
Posts: 1924
IN HEAVENLY PLACES WITH JESUS

 Re: Restoring 'Christmas'

i've seen adverts for some shows in which fox news hosts like bill o'riley and so on are declaring war on people who are at war with Christmas. i say that there is no connection between, santa claus, so called "christmas trees", reindeer or any of this other foolishness with the birth of Christ. Christ's birthday is celebrated on the 25th of december because Constantine decreed it. i'm not sure when exactly Christ was born but i've heard t said that it was earlier in the year. we could do better without all the pomp and fanfare which comes with this season. don't get me wrong it's a blessing to spend time with family but it would be better if we did so in all reverence to Christ without the pagentry.


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Farai Bamu

 2005/12/1 13:06Profile
Warrior4Jah
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Joined: 2005/7/5
Posts: 382
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 Re:

Was about to say, no matter if a tree is called a 'holiday-tree' or 'Christmas-tree' or whatever it has nothing to do with Christ, not having any relation to Him at all.

Alto I see no wrong in having a tree in our house, decorated, etc. I do oppose Santa Claus.
A nice song which I heared from a brother which also resides on this forum has this lyrics:

[i]Last time I heard about it He didn't come in a Santa outfit
Santa Clause is dead![/i]
[i]Last time I heard about it He didn't rise in an easter outfit
The easter bunny is dead![/i]
[i]Christmas is when I celebrate Jesus' birth
Easter's when I celebrate Jesus' resurrection
Jesus is alive![/i]

Amen! :-)


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Jonathan Veldhuis

 2005/12/1 17:37Profile
ccchhhrrriiisss
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 Re:

Hi IRONMAN...

I agree with you. The roots of "Christmas" predate the birth of Christ -- and are decidely [u]pagan[/u] in origin. However, most of vocal opposition concerns the attempt to remove all references of Christianity away from public expression.

There used to be "conspiracy theories" about Hollywood and wealthy retailers purposely attempting to secularize holidays such as "Christmas" and "Thanksgiving" because many of those leaders did not consider themselves "Christians." I tend to believe that these attempts were more economic in purpose.

Remember, the modern conception of "Santa Claus" is relatively new. Even the appearance was greatly influenced by early 20th century advertising from Coca-Cola -- where it painted Santa's suit almost completely [u]red[/u]. The purpose, according to a book concerning the history of Coca-Cola, was to have viewers associate the warm, happy feelings of Christmas with a bottle of Coca-Cola.

This is common with alot of holidays. From many of their inceptions, there were almost completely secular economic reasons for their celebration. Even Christmas began as an attempt to "bridge the gap" between traditional paganism and the newly "christened" Holy Roman Empire.

Of course, while I recognize the pagan origins of such holidays, I still do not want to see the name of Christ banned or legislated out of them.

I even wrote to Wal-Mart concerning the issue. I told them that I would not shop at a store that was afraid of offending non-Christians by saying such things as "Happy Christmas" or "God bless you." I also told them that I would not be offended if I were told, "Happy Chanukah!" I told them that I felt that Sam Walton would have been displeased by such secularized corporate commercialism. Wal-Mart wrote me back an apology. At the end of their note, they wrote, "God bless you!"

:-)


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Christopher

 2005/12/1 21:40Profile
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 Re:

bro Chris
i guess we agree on the economic designs of secularizing holidays such as Christmas and so on.

Quote:
This is common with alot of holidays. From many of their inceptions, there were almost completely secular economic reasons for their celebration. Even Christmas began as an attempt to "bridge the gap" between traditional paganism and the newly "christened" Holy Roman Empire.



Quote:
Of course, while I recognize the pagan origins of such holidays, I still do not want to see the name of Christ banned or legislated out of them.



this disturbs me though. if Christmas as we know it came from an attempt to reconcile/bridge the gap or somehow unify Christianity and paganism why should we continue to all the name of Christ to be associated with such things? does this not blaspheme His very name?what fellowship does Chirst have with paganism? joining together Christ and one of the things He came to free us from? How can we in good conscience sit back and allow the saviour to be in any way associated with what He (and what we too should be) is at war with? How does the Lord God in heaven feel about this? :-(

if Christ's name was removed from all this pagentry would it somehow detract from our faith? if it does then we have no faith. it should increase our faith because it is a step on the journey to return to out true N.T. roots as the Holy Spirit laid down through the apostles. our brethren from the days when Christ ascended to heaven suffered death and all manor of violence for preaching the true gospel in faith. should we not strive to represent Christ as they did since they were in obedience to God instruction in those days?

not meaning to rant but the Lord has been quickenning me as to how far the church is off the mark in terms of sturcture, conduct and how much of what we value as orthodox/tradition and practise is really of pagan or Greco-Roman origin rather than N.T. doctrine and practice. bro it's scary...but the Lord will correct it, amid all the grief i feel about these things, that is my comfort.

Lord set us right with you by any means necessary.AMEN.


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Farai Bamu

 2005/12/2 1:41Profile
Onfire
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Joined: 2005/11/20
Posts: 49


 Re: Restoring 'Christmas'

My wife and I chose to raise our children knowing the truth. Santa is purely fiction ~> Jesus Christ is reality. If we were to lie about Santa then why should they believe us about Christ?

There is nothing wrong with festive ornaments and decoration; however, it has nothing to do with Christ.

Many Christians also teach obscure stories about the Nativity as well. Such as the place where Christ was born was not a barn but a cave. And the wise men did not arrive till much later. And so on!

Most pagan holidays were "Christianized" by the institutional church system. Why is this so?

There is nothing to be restored in my opinion than the truth about who Christ is ~> God in the flesh.

 2005/12/2 1:51Profile
clownstruth
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Joined: 2005/12/3
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 Re:

Even though some holidays may have been pagan, can they not be changed, much as we were? What was once nothing good can become a tool for the Lord, can't it? I think that there's a good thing in Christmas- it's known for its love and giving atmosphere (once you get past black friday, etc.) Can we use it as such?

 2005/12/3 10:52Profile
Warrior4Jah
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Joined: 2005/7/5
Posts: 382
The Netherlands

 Re:

Quote:
Even though some holidays may have been pagan, can they not be changed, much as we were? What was once nothing good can become a tool for the Lord, can't it? I think that there's a good thing in Christmas- it's known for its love and giving atmosphere (once you get past black friday, etc.) Can we use it as such?



Its not known for Christ. Even tho its known for 'love' and 'giving atmosphere'.
Well apart from that, its a free day (even 2 for us Dutchies) which you can spend with family or friends.

What makes this day so special that countries who are in war 'lay off arms' for a day?


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Jonathan Veldhuis

 2005/12/3 13:41Profile
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Joined: 2005/11/20
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 Re:

Clowstruth while I agree that followers of Christ should use every opportunity to glorify our Lord there is nothing in scripture that would indicate the need for us to change earthly things into something that looks like God ordained it. There is nothing wrong with being festive and celebratory; however, it pushes it when we followers of Christ force the issue of these Holidays having some kind of spiritual meaning when they were never intended as such.

There is a big difference between the agent of change being the Holy Spirit as we were and the agent of change being man for his own pleasure.

God creates the tools that He uses. Man does not. Unfortunately, man is busily creating all sorts of tools and labeling them "evangelism."

 2005/12/4 9:57Profile
deltadom
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Joined: 2005/1/6
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Hemel Hempstead

 Re:

[url=http://www.messianichome.org/articles/2000/fall/thebirthofyeshuaduringsukkot.htm]Article about Christ being born[/url]
Yeshua Hamishia or Jesus Christ. How can we restore something that was not even christian in the first place. I still think it is right to celebrate christmas. This is just an interesting article from a Jewish perspective!!


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Dominic Shiells

 2005/12/4 10:35Profile





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