If you live in parts of the country where outdoor lights decorate homes during Christmas time, you can’t help but notice the absence of nativity scenes donning front yards. Just a few years back, the symbol of the infant Jesus in the stable along with Mary and Joseph was quite common. Almost two or three houses per block would include this religious symbol in their display. What seems to have replaced nativity scenes is a green creature called the grinch which you can readily buy. The problem is not in the person wanting a sincere religious symbol, it is in the lack of stock.
The problem of obtaining any type religious symbols, even at Christmas, lies in the lack of availability of such products to the public. Just five years ago, a major home center used to sell illuminated figures of Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the three Kings for use in private outdoor displays. Today, no big box home centers have any of those figures for sale. You can’t even get them through their online offerings.
The same trend is observable in the warehouse type stores which always included indoor nativity figures for purchase. Big department stores also offered them too, or at least the figures, but none can be found inside their walls anymore. In public commerce, the Christmas religious symbols of the Nativity of Jesus are now extinct. Christian symbols are disappearing everywhere.
Christmas cards with religious themes certainly cannot be found in any drug store or any store which sells greeting cards. Try and find a nice religious themed card or religious tree ornament even on the internet. If you do, it will take you a bit of time to find. The fear is Christmas cards in themselves are becoming obsolete, but moreover, any religious themed cards are going the way of the dinosaurs.
The obliteration or religious symbols at Christmas is part of a bigger elimination of anything relating to Christianity under the guise of inclusion. Any person who has tried to sell a house on the market will inevitably be lectured by a realtor to remove from their walls any religious pictures and crucifixes prior to the showing of their property. They are told it turns off some buyers, and of course, they readily comply.
The changes in public commerce are by no means coincidental or accidental. For most things in life there is a principle known as cause and effect. The lack of religious symbols in our society is the effect of a constant fight to remove anything Christian from public consumption.
Unfortunately, the purge is not over (the cause) and the hoped result (the effect) is to change the minds of individual Christians. No one can constantly be told Christianity has no place in the public square and not be affected by it.
How many religious symbols do you think are in the homes of baby boomers or millennials? How many crucifixes hang on the walls of American homes right now? I would venture to say, even those who still proclaim to be Christians, not too many.
Religious symbols in homes are healthy reminders of what we believe and how we are to live as Christians. There are plenty of photo frames in homes with pictures of people whom are loved. Shouldn’t that hold true to God and the saints we profess to love?
You cannot fight every battle, but a bare minimum seems to be to include some type of religious symbol in your home. If you can’t find one in the store, check the internet or go to garage or estate sales. Once you have the religious symbol, go to church and asked for it to be blessed and proudly display in your home as a person who refuses to bend to an anti-Christian culture.