Opinion

Merry Christmas

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Pure magic…the greeting of faith and fantasy evokes kind responses from friends and strangers alike as it smoothes the edges off the daily grind in the final month of the year.

Yet even in this magical season, there are those in the world seeking to take the manger from the town square, put the ‘X’ over Christ, remove mottos from coinage, call religious beliefs “hate speech,” and like Seuss’s Grinch Who Stole Christmas, pilfer the simple joy proclaiming a child’s birth which has given hope to millions for 2,000 years.

E pluribus unum: “Out of many one” the Latin suggests; the national motto found on the seal of the United States. The same motto is provided on the coins of the United States along with, “In God we trust.”

Our American heritage includes people from all ethnicities, nationalities and faiths, melding into “one.” Brave young men and women have been dying for two centuries to protect the unique dream of E pluribus unum and the freedom to believe as their conscience dictated, not the least of these including faith in God.

Founders’ faith: It is absurd to offer credence to baseless claims the voices from the liberal world offer about the American founders not acknowledging God in their personal lives and in the development of the original founding documents. At the time of the founding, the Judeo-Christian work ethic and moral code was religiously studied in schools and universities, and applied to law, while the Christian Bible was the most universally owned and sold book.

Whether religious or not, all Americans who have spent US currency have passed the tender with the testimonial inscribed, “In God We Trust.” Was this inscribed accidental or intentionally?

Values & the five and dime: I can still recall our parents giving us $2.00 each that Christmas in 1960 and taking us to Franklin’s “Five and Dime” department store so we could purchase gifts for everyone in the family. Perhaps it was then I first learned the value of a coin.

I now enjoy collecting coins dated before 1970. That was the year where a boy transitioned to man, and the penny, nickel, and dime still had value enough to purchase a stick of gum, a candy bar or a phone call.

I took one of my special coins, a 1966 nickel, to a Sunday school class of 13-year-olds a few months back. I was thirteen in 1966, and I wanted to make a point to the youth who will become faced with earning and the use of money. I shared the Franklin “five & dime” Christmas story and the joys that giving brought my little six-year-old heart.

I finished with, “…the coin’s message is the value.” I explained, “What the coin bought then and what it might purchase now are completely different, but values always remain.”

I then gave each a nickel, minted in 2010, and said, “Maybe forty years from now one of you will share with other boys and girls the message and values inscribed on this nickel.”

The DC nickel and dime dance: Current news bureaus announce the indignation of the politically self-righteous who, from their pulpits in Washington, piously preach about the proper use of citizen-generated tax revenue. Coincidently, this is not without playing upon sympathies in connection to this season of giving and hope.

Class warfare and scarcity: This very week voices of the political left loudly decry the wealthy elite and their evils as they piously brag of their concern for the entitled poor and working class. Offering pork for value, as they sanctimoniously thump their charitable chests, they define “fairness” as a needed tax to even the playing field. Shouting that the rich have too much, they make themselves the arbiter between classes.

These Machiavellian angels of mercy take money not theirs, foment class warfare and discontent, and enslave generations with the chains of entitlements instead of hope of wealth and self-reliance. They have no concept of the “five and dime” lessons our forbearers taught. Their offer of pecuniary daily bread demands support for them at the ballot box; it’s little more than a sell-your-soul pact with the dark side.

Real charity is one thing; freely offered, a hand up, with no strings attached. Intentionally building a citizenry of government dependents is simply another kind of evil.

Abundance and charity: The world is filled with abundance of precious metals, good soils, water, and raw materials available for man to use, create wealth with, and provide for the benefit of others.

No other nation in the history of the existence of the written record has done so much with its resources to alleviate suffering of those in need, both within its own borders as without, as has the United States. Leave the people to their faith and goodness and they will rescue anyone in need any time and anywhere.

Could it be that it is heart-felt charitable giving at work that causes Americans to be the first in the giving-line to those who suffer calamities worldwide?

Could it also be that we have learned charity from needing it ourselves from time to time and from the “five and dimes” we spend which proclaim, “Out of many one” and “In God we trust?

“Render unto Caesar which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s” is a New Testament theme well known to all with rudimentary knowledge of biblical content.

Christ made it clear, however, that Caesar has a way of doing things and God has a way; that Caesar trades bread for support even while the chains of slavery are securely fastened, but that true charity proceeds from the individual heart, without thought of benefit in return.

Lasting values:

I still recall the simple pleasure of giving freely that Christmas 1960. A little boy’s heart was filled with anticipation at the Franklin “Five & Dime” where I stretched my two dollars to bring surprise and joy to my eight family members — learning then what I know so well now, “e pluribus unum.”

And perhaps it was also there I first realized the coins in my blue jean pockets were associated with the Christ child’s freely given gift of sacrifice, as I handed over nickels and dimes to the cashier declaring, “In God we trust.”

Visit my personal website for something I choose to offer this Christmas. I freely give away the one thousand hours it took to write The Christ Report, a simple novel of hope, magic, love, and what happens when one listens to their heart. Find it at: www.jmpratt.com for free electronic download. Share it with all you know. I liberally offer it as a greeting and in hopes of lifting a soul here or there.

Isn’t it awesome being an American, and unafraid to pass along In God we Trust, and these sometimes politically incorrect words…MERRY CHRISTMAS!

James Michael Pratt is a New York Times bestselling novelist and non-fiction author, CEO of PowerThink Publishing, public speaker, op-ed writer for The Daily Caller, and Founder of Reagan Revolution 2. His creative work may be reviewed at www.jmpratt.com. Email: james@powerthink.com and james@jmpratt.com.