The Christmas celebration has its root in God’s incarnation as a man on earth. He did this to provide, “peace on earth” for mankind. But this peace is not simply the absence of war. It is the presence of peace between man and God. Even the absence of war must start at the individual level.
Well, there is certainly no absence of war on the world stage. And, judging from all of the conflict we have seen lately on the streets of America, there is also no peace in our nation. And, true to the bigger principle, the conflict exists because there is no peace with God.
A few weeks ago, a truly tragic event happened in Ferguson, Missouri. A young man, Michael Brown, lost his life in an altercation with a police officer. As the facts were gradually revealed, it was evident that this did not have to happen if only the young man had not first robbed a convenience store then tried to violently attack the police officer.
But these facts were not generally reported by much of the news media. What was reported by many news outlets was designed to promote a political agenda – one in which racial tension was the fault of a racist law enforcement officer, not of a lawbreaker. Since that time, there have been riots and protests all across America based on the narrative that justice was not done because the police officer was not sent to trial by the grand jury.
Here are some of the statements made by a supposedly impartial media.
1) “Given all of the conflicting evidence … it is just clear to me that probable cause did exist.” Sunny Hostin – CNN legal analyst
This statement is simply not true.
2) “What we saw from Bob McCulloch was a presentation dressed up as a prosecutor doing the presentation. … There’s no question that Darren Wilson got special treatment.” Lisa Bloom – NBC legal analyst
Again, simply not true.
3) “The law of self-defense is favorable to police officers in Missouri, and nationally.” Jami Floyd – Al Jazeera legal contributor
Again, the implication of this statement is simply not true.
But it is not just the media running with this false narrative. There are religious leaders doing the same thing.
1) “We going to die anyway,“let’s die for something.” Rev. Louis Farrakhan
Farrakhan says that racist people in power will not be swayed by peaceful tactics anymore and that violent actions need to be taken.
2) “Are we saying that it’s unreasonable to ask for unarmed people not to be killed by the folks who are to protect them? Is that unreasonable?” “Have we become a society that we can’t question the deaths of people that there was no life-extenuating circumstance?” Rev. Al Sharpton
The only problem is, there was a “life-extenuating circumstance.”
And even people in the general public are running with the false narrative.
1) “We are profoundly disappointed that the killer of our child will not face the consequence of his actions. While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen.” Family of Michael Brown
The presupposition is that the police officer unjustly killed the young man. It is simply not true.
2) “Mike Brown is an emblem (of a movement). This country is at its boiling point. How many people need to die? How many black people need to die?” Ethan Jury, a protester in Philadelphia
The presupposition is that any white person can do anything to any black person and there are no consequences.
Again, this is simply not true.
The one thing that all of these comments have in common is that they are speaking and advocating based on things which are not true. Unfortunately, some will get upset at me for speaking out this way because they will consider that I am speaking based on a political agenda. But what I am getting at here has nothing to do with a political agenda. If the police officer had acted wrongly and there was some actual guilt here, I would be all for the officer receiving a just punishment for his deeds. But that is not what happened. The TRUTH is that the cause of all of it was the young man and his actions. No, the purpose in my comments here has nothing to do with politics. It is about the topic of truth. And no matter how many times an untruth is spoken, it will not somehow become the truth.
What we have in this case is a situation where untruth has been raised to the level of ultimate importance. It is not the truth that must prevail, but some other agenda.
So, this brings us back to the celebration of Christmas. Christmas is the story of God coming to earth to reveal the truth and promote it among all people. It is the acceptance of truth which is the source of peace, and as long as people are determined to live in a lie, truth and its accompanying peace with God will not happen. And if there is no peace with God, there will not be peace on earth.
Sadly, those who promote untruth cannot truly celebrate Christmas because they are promoting something that does not relate to God. They may support having a “Happy Holiday,” but Christmas is associated with belief in Christ and the truth he brought with him.
My greatest desire is that we will someday come to a place where we can experience peace on earth among all people. But it will never happen as long as people insist on promoting lies. It can only happen when the truth about God is known on an individual level and passed on in the world by people who know his peace.
© 2014 Freddy Davis