Apparently the White House
referred to Christmas Trees as
Holiday Trees for the first time
this year, which prompted CBS
presenter, Ben Stein, to present
this piece which I would like to share with you.
The following was written by
Ben Stein and recited by him on
CBS Sunday Morning
Commentary.

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single
one of my ancestors was
Jewish. And it does not bother
me even a little bit when
people call those beautiful lit up, bejewelled
trees, Christmas
trees. I don't feel threatened. I
don't feel discriminated
against. That's what they are,
Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit
when
people say, 'Merry Christmas' to
me. I don't think they are
slighting me or getting ready to
put me in a ghetto. In fact, I
kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers
and sisters
celebrating this happy time of
year. It doesn't bother me at all
that there is a manger scene on
display at a key intersection
near my beach house in Malibu. If people want
a nativity scene,
it's just as fine with me as is
the Menorah a few hundred
yards away. I don't like getting pushed
around for being a Jew, and I
don't think Christians like
getting pushed around for
being Christians. I think people
who believe in God are sick and tired of getting
pushed around,
period. I have no idea where
the concept came from, that
America is an explicitly atheist
country. I can't find it in the
Constitution and I don't like it being shoved
down my throat. Or maybe I can put it another
way: where did the idea come
from that we should worship
celebrities and we aren't
allowed to worship God? I
guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
But there are a
lot of us who are wondering
where these celebrities came
from and where the America
we knew went to. In light of the many jokes we
send to one another for a
laugh, this is a little different:
This is not intended to be a
joke; it's not funny, it's
intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham's
daughter was
interviewed on the Early Show
and Jane Clayson asked her
'How could God let something
like this happen?' (regarding
Hurricane Katrina). Anne Graham gave an
extremely
profound and insightful
response. She said, 'I believe
God is deeply saddened by this,
just as we are, but for years
we've been telling God to get out of our
schools, to get out of
our government and to get out
of our lives.And being the
gentleman He is, I believe He
has calmly backed out. How can
we expect God to give us His blessing and His
protection if
we demand He leave us alone?' In light of
recent events...
terrorist attacks, school
shootings, etc. I think it started
when Madeleine Murray O'Hare
(she was murdered, her body
found a few years ago) complained she didn't
want
prayer in our schools, and we
said OK. Then someone said
you better not read the Bible in
school. The Bible says thou
shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love
your neighbor as
yourself. And we said OK. Then Dr. Benjamin
Spock said
we shouldn't spank our
children when they misbehave,
because their little
personalities would be warped
and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr.
Spock's son
committed suicide). We said an
expert should know what he's
talking about. And we said
okay. Now we're asking ourselves
why our children have no
conscience, why they don't
know right from wrong, and
why it doesn't bother them to
kill strangers, their classmates, and
themselves. Probably, if we think about it
long and hard enough, we can
figure it out. I think it has a
great deal to do with 'WE REAP
WHAT WE SOW.' Funny how simple it is for
people to trash God and then
wonder why the world's going
to hell.
Funny how we believe what
the newspapers say, but question what the
Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes'
through e-mail and they spread
like wildfire, but when you
start sending messages
regarding the Lord, people
think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd,
crude, vulgar
and obscene articles pass freely
through cyberspace, but public
discussion of God is suppressed
in the school and workplace. Are you laughing
yet? Funny how when you forward
this message, you will not send
it to many on your address list
because you're not sure what
they believe, or what they will
think of you for sending it. Funny how we can
be more
worried about what other
people think of us than what
God thinks of us. Pass it on if you think it has
merit. If not, then just discard it.... no
one will know you did. But, if
you discard this thought
process, don't sit back and
complain about what a bad shape the world is in.


My Best Regards,
Honestly and
respectfully, Ben Stein