Hardened Hearts?
More blatant and public anti-Christmas, anti-God messages are popping up this year, sponsored and funded by atheist activists. For example, on 200 Washington D.C. Metro buses (inside, on the sides, and on the backs) are signs printed in bright green and red text decorated with festive snowflakes, the words, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’sake." We can’t resist picking this presumptuous mockery apart. When used in this idiom, the word goodness is a euphemism for God, so what they are doing is using God to deny God, i.e., "Why believe in God? Just be good for God’s sake." One wonders where they think goodness comes from. But the intent to blaspheme our Creator and denigrate religion is loud and clear. You can call the Washington D.C. Metro customer assistance line with your comments or complaints at 202-637-1328.
Another example is the poster sitting next to a nativity display and Christmas tree in Washington State’s capitol building which reads, "At this season of the Winter Solstice may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."
Not only is this completely over the top and unnecessarily in-your-face, but the wording of this poster is curiously reminiscent of the protestations of the famous Anti-Christ Korihor, who sought to overthrow the doctrine of Christ, recorded in Alma 30 which took place in 74 B.C. The supposedly enlightened arguments of modern secularlists are the same old stuff. Among Korihors’s premises were: there is no God,, men fare according to their own genius and strength in this life, there are no crimes or sins, there is no need for redemption, belief in God is a mental derangement of frenzied minds that comes of foolish handed-down traditions, and religious people are bound down under a foolish and vain hope. Korihor, with his clever talk, led many of the people of God astray before he was struck deaf and dumb and wrote a confession that the devil had deceived him and taught him what pleasing lies to say. His treachery was published throughout the land and the people repented.
It’s curious to us that similar forms of the metaphor, "hardened hearts" used in the poster, are used in the New Testament, and over and over in The Book of Mormon. For instance, the phrases "hardness of your hearts," "hearts have waxed hard," "they hardened their hearts," "harden not your hearts," etc., occur several times even in a single chapter such as Alma 12. You might say these literary phrases are common in the scriptures but not commonly used in today’s everyday language. It seems strange that these professed atheists employ religious words and phrases. Indeed, they use God’s words describing those who have turned away from God to describe those who worship God.
You can call Washington State’s Governor Gregoire who gave permission for the poster at 360-902-4111 to voice your concerns. Evidently they’re getting a lot of calls today, thanks to Bill O’Reilly.
In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Scrooge’s nephew reminds us we must not separate Christmas from "the veneration due to its sacred name and origin." And now in the streets of our nation’s capitol and in government buildings we are calling Christmas "Winter Solstice" and proclaiming there is no God.
In the soft-hearted words of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!"
--Stephen & Janice Graham