Canada Free Press -- ARCHIVES

Because without America, there is no free world.

Return to Canada Free Press

Christmas, Freedom

Christmas is forever!

By Judi McLeod
Saturday, December 24, 2005

  Every Christmas, he returns from the mists of time as a gooseflesh inspiration.  The humble monk, whose words saw former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev turn and walk off a Red Square platform.

  No one tells the story better than Dr. Charles W. Colson, a Trustee of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and Chairman and Founder of Prison Fellowship, one of the largest volunteer organizations in the world.

  …”We stand at a pivotal moment in history, when nations around the world are looking westward.  In the past five years, the balance of world power shifted dramatically,” Dr. Colson said in his 1993 Templeton address.   “Suddenly, remarkably, almost inexplicably, one of history's most sustained assaults on freedom collapsed before our eyes.   The world was changed, not through the militant dialectic of communism, but through the power of unarmed truth.   It found revolution in the highest hopes of common men.  Love of liberty steeled under the weight of tyranny; the path of the future was charted in prison cells.

  “This revolution's symbolic moment was May Day 1990.  Protesters followed the tanks, missiles and troops rumbling across Red Square.  One, a bearded Orthodox monk, darted under the reviewing stand where Gorbachev and other Soviet leaders stood.  He thrust a huge crucifix into the air, shouting above the crowd, “Mikhail Sergeyevich! Christ is risen!”  Gorbachev turned and walked off the platform.

  “across a continent the signal went.  In defiant hope a spell was broken.  The lies of decades were exposed.  Fear and terror fled.  and millions awoke as from a long nightmare.  Their waking dream is a world revolution.  almost overnight the western model of economic, political, and social liberty has captured the imagination of reformers and given hope to the oppressed.  We saw it at Tiananmen Square, where a replica of the Statue of Liberty, an icon of western freedom, became a symbol of Chinese hope. We saw it in Czechoslovakia when a worker stood before a desolate factory and read to a crowd, with tears in his eyes, the american Declaration of Independence.

  “This is one of history's defining moments.  The faults of the West are evident, but equally evident are the extraordinary gifts it has to offer the world.  The gift of markets that increase living standards and choices.  The gift of political institutions where power flows from the consent of the governed, not the barrel of a gun; the gift of social benefits that encourage tolerance and individual autonomy.  Free markets.  Free governments.  Free minds.”

  and in every Christmas season since, come the concerted efforts of the Christmas deniers.  They try in vain to rename the Christmas tree and to ban the greeting “Merry Christmas”. In 2005, they even tried to change the words of Silent Night.

  In the United States of america, Christmas is anathema to the american Civil Liberties Union (aCLU).

  But in america, ordinary citizens are fighting back.  One Internet site invites readers to “Say Merry Christmas to the aCLU”.

  Even as politically correct agents challenge public display of the crucifix, the Ten Commandments and continue to try to do away with the Holy Bible, the tide runs against them.

  It's not just because popular television shows such as The O'Reilly Factor throw light on the anti-Christmas crusade, but also because there is really no effective solvent with which to erase Christmas.

  Christmas is written on the human heart where the aCLU and the anti-Christmas brigade cannot get at it.

  The world awaits the birth of the Christ Child this year, as it will every other year.

  Not long after the monk's words, “Mikhail Sergeyevich! Christ is risen!” came the utter collapse of the Soviet Union.

  as time would tell, Gorbachev would make a run for the freedom of the same United States he publicly derided.  The former leader of the Soviet Union now works and lives in the freedom and security of the San Francisco Presidio, and it's Christmas there, too.

  For many, the words of the monk are as inspiring today as they were when uttered on May Day, 1990.

  In life on this Earth, very few things are forever but Christmas is.

  There will always be a Christmas because there will always be the Birth of Jesus Christ.

  Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah no matter where you are!


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2018 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2018 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement