My heart is heavy as I write this column for you today because of many recent deaths that make me question where we are headed as a society. I could easily go down the road of the political, but I will abstain! I want to go down the runway of the historical.
Recently, our nation celebrated Columbus Day, a day set aside to honor the man who defied all the scientific facts of his day and is credited for discovering America. Everyone “in the know” was certain the earth was flat and anyone who would dare sail east would simply fall off the face of the earth. After many years of great effort and much persuasion, Christopher Columbus received the funding to make what most thought would be a suicide mission. Much to the surprise of all the scholars of his day, he found what he called America. Now many people are dishonoring his statues and marching to protest our celebrations because he was less than a perfect individual!
If we must begin looking into the closets of every American hero, we can simply erase them all! There are none of us perfect and the only Perfect One was hung on the Old Rugged Cross! Historical monuments have been desecrated or destroyed simply because of the political changes that are reaching across our nation. Who among us have been so naive as to believe that every person who has accomplished great things has not done some bad in their lives as well? Why throw out all their good because we have discovered some bad? We surely want all people to show us some mercy and probably each of us has needed a little forgiveness, but simply because our lives have not been stellar, our accomplishments should not be torn down! We must stop rewriting history!
I have the opportunity to attend the special program at the Port O’Connor Library and heard the writer Rose Sherman Williams, who elegantly spoke of her experiences with the invasion of the Nazis in her hometown in Poland. In uncomfortably graphic details, she told of murder and attempted genocide. The book she wrote was enlightening and once I started reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. I truly wish the room had been larger and everyone is this community could have been a part of this informative and inspirational evening. I sadly realize that at her age of 92 there is not much chance that she will be returning so the rest of us can hear her story.
But, the main thing that I took away from that evening was the large segment of our citizenry who totally deny that the Holocaust even took place. I served in Germany in 1970 and saw firsthand many signs of travesties that the German people inflicted upon the Jews. Never had I blamed the Germans, but have always looked to their leadership in Hitler as the one who has had to stand before God and give an account of his misdeeds! But, why are so many trying to rewrite the entire story and say such events never happened?
It is my firm conviction that the outcome of our failure to remember the atrocities of yesteryears will come back to inflict hurts on those with whom we live! We can not deny our pasts and expect to avoid repeating them. Are we becoming so immature that we can not handle the knowledge of evil in the lives of people we love and respect? Are we too aware of our personal humanity that we seek to rationalize that “we were not as had as they”?
This brings to our calendars! Christmas is just around the corner and Thanksgiving is right here and we are acting like there is no spiritual significance to either! Now we want to call it “turkey day” and be ready to rush out to the local stores to devour the “black Friday” bargains! Christmas is a time when we spend too much on presents that others could really care less about, for most kids I know and have observed had rather play with the boxes and other wrappings that its contents! We gladly take time off from our work, but do we celebrate anything at all?
Thanksgiving began as the early settlers of this great nation finally had a harvest and knew there was a chance they might survive the cold winter. They took time to invite each other to a feast to give thanks to the God of Heaven who had so blessed them. How many of our families even stop to say “grace” before digging into the turkey and trimmings? What are our children learning and from where will this next generation get its inspiration?
Christmas in not possible without Christ! We have made it about gifts and Santa while God Incarnate is left outside on the lawn with the nativity scene, if at all! Our school programs will be about reindeer putting a sleigh around the earth so every good boy and girl will receive everything they imagined and for which they hoped!
There is no Thanksgiving without thankfulness! There is no Christmas without Christ! If we are going to rewrite history, we might get away with make these Holy Days something less than what they were designed and for which they were designated. It is time we stopped being Politically Correct and begin again being Historically Accurate! Come enjoy our Community Thanksgiving Service at First Baptist on Sunday, November 17 at 6:00 p.m. Come participate in the many special Christmas Services that will be offered around our area. Let’s return to sanity and historical correctness and allow those who want to change history to start someplace other than Port O’Connor!
