End of an era; dawn of a new

  I don't know how you can claim that Christmas is not under attack.
  I also don't know how you can claim that Christians are not under attack. Around the world, the treatment of Christians is severe and punitive, some would say apocalyptic.
  One doesn't have to wonder which religion is persecuting Christians. It goes without saying.
  Yet as bleak as the outlook may be for traditional Christians, I personally sense something bigger is happening....something so under the radar that traditional sources are not noticing (as if they'd want to anyway).
  I've attended church services in Perrysburg, Chicago and San Bernardino this Christmas season; there is a wild energy I have not felt in years past. The traditional 150 white person church that sinners cannot attend is passing; you know the kind I mean. 
  The lukewarm churches who purport to know everything about Christianity, yet take all the church donations for their denomination and their sound systems, finding little reason to actually seek out or support the poor and lame.
  Good riddance to that kind of church.
  After all, the first bed The Christ---the Messiah---slept in was a rickety manger meant for animals. Even as he lay in the hay, his human eyes opening for the first time on the world he had created, the shadow of the cross fell his tiny body. 
  Today for many people, there is no "guest room" available for even a tiny baby such as he; their homes are filled with so much stuff, junk and disposables that they do not have an inclination to welcome the One--the real One--whose grace we all experience every day.
  Oddly, the Duck Dynasty controversy has drawn a focal point to Christianity, which probably makes sense since so much of our daily comings and goings are determined by pop culture.
  While I personally may not agree exactly with the way Phil Robertson expressed himself, it's clear that the primary reason he is being attacked is his Christian faith and his citation of The Bible as justification for his moral views. 
  GLAAD claimed Phil, who was at a prayer meeting when the whole story exploded, was a "liar" who had no idea what a "true Christian" thinks. 
  This is a typical attack method of the Left. Once again, the "wisdom" of the Leftist agenda supercedes the knowledge of Christians themselves and even The Bible itself, which Phil clearly quoted.
  This time it seems to have backfired.
  Even several gay writers have accused GLAAD of bias and discrimination, the most articulate and notable of whom is Paglia:

"I speak with authority here because I was openly gay before the 'Stonewall Rebellion,' when it cost you something to be so," she said. "And I personally feel as a libertarian that people have the right to free thought and free speech. In a democratic country, people have the right to be homophobic as they have the right to support homosexuality -- as I 100 percent do. If people are basing their views against gays on the Bible, again they have a right to religious freedom there … to express yourself in a magazine in an interview -– this is the level of punitive PC, utterly fascist, utterly Stalinist, OK, that my liberal colleagues in the Democratic party and on college campuses have supported and promoted over the last several decades. It's the whole legacy of the free speech 1960's that have been lost by my own party."

  American Thinker has an excellent perspective on the political justification of the vicious attacks on Robertson. Indeed, gay characters are everywhere on television & movies, sanitized & sweetened versions who are much wiser than their straight counterparts. Here's a snippet:

In recent years such gay characters have been everywhere on TV and in movies. There are also shows that actively promote the fallacy that straight people need gays to teach them how to be sexually attractive. This barrage has driven the gay political agenda. Thanks to the proliferation of gay characters on TV in recent years many Americans vastly overestimate the percentage of the population that is gay.

  The whole thing is definitely worth reading here.
  Lloyd Marcus takes encouragement from the Duck Dynasty brouhaha:

Since the recent controversy surrounding the show, I learned that Duck Dynasty is huge -- the highest-rated show in cable history.

So what does the show's popularity tell me?  It tells me that, instinctively, people are drawn to things wholesome and good.  To traditional principles and values.

  But this whole kerfuffle is not what I wish to dwell on this Christmas Day post.
  Back to that energy thing.
  It certainly won't be NBC News that will tell the world of a real spiritual revival. 
  Probably not even "a great company of heavenly host" appearing with an angel will tell you.
  It's your own heart, that and the thousands of people seeking the truth, going to worship in Perrysburg, Chicago and San Bernardino which will speak to spiritual movement in this country.
  I believe something big is happening, by my own witness and several miracles I have witnessed.
  I've always been a skeptic, somewhat cynical, not about my faith or God but that in my lifetime I would actually witness the power of God in everyday life or see the end of days.
  I heard a missionary to the African continent say once that strange events are quite common where he ministered because the people who live there daily saw evidence of the prince of the power of the air. 
  Here in the United States our attacks are of a different nature.  Such tricks did not work because we are so caught up in the clutter and greed of modern culture.
  Instead that clutter was seductive enough to entice us away from seeing the Almighty around us.
  This year, that has changed. There's a realization that nothing here is permanent; that our freedoms are fragile; that the wonderful life we have needs to be tempered with charity, spirituality and an eye toward eternity.
  I believe we are entering a new era, an era that requires introspection and prayer.