The Nativity

www.ridgecrestumc.com

I heard a story on the news that caught my attention. I only heard the very end of it, so I went on the web to make sure what I heard was correct. Sure enough, it was.

On Tuesday, it was reported that the City of Chicago had pressured a German Chamber of Commerce to reject the movie "The Nativity" as a sponsor of their Christmas market in Daley Plaza. The movie was paying to be a sponsor of the market. In return, there would be posters of the movie on display, fliers for the movie handed out and trailers for the film would play on TV's at the market. All of this would be side by side with all the other advertisements used to promote sponsors of the event. The City of Chicago said that their request was to insure that no one thought the city was endorsing or promoting one religion over another. In the plaza, they have a Nativity scene, along side symbols from other religions.

This is it. A city has now decided that a Christmas event can't show a depiction of the Christmas event. How can the German Chamber of Commerce have a "Christmas" market if someone is going to be offended that they mention Christmas. Is the city going to require them to rename it a holiday market? It wouldn't surprise me. But the funny thing is this: New Line Cinema was going to pay $12,000 for the sponsorship. They received their money back--and received national/international publicity worth far more than $12,000. Thanks, City of Chicago. And estimates are that up to one million Christians in the Chicago area may go to see The Nativity. I hope that those people who might have been offended by the movies sponsorship won't be offended by how much business the movie does---O, I'm sorry, I actually don't care if they are offended. In fact, I hope they are offended. I'm tired of it being OK to offend Christians, but not OK to offend everyone else. It is time that followers of Christ stand up for our rights and show that we are proud of our faith. JUST DO IT!!!!