December 30, 2005 - Issue #26
Local News | Opinion/Editorials | Letters to the Editor
Couple use their business to help others
When Don Lederhos walked to the podium to receive a philanthropy award for the company he and his wife, Karen, own, he passed a lot of folks decked out in power suits.
But Lederhos, whose Anchorage company, Raven Electric, gives away thousands of dollars and in-kind services to the community each year, was wearing his usual green work shirt with his name and company logo embroidered above the pocket.
This modest, down-to-earth style typifies the Catholic entrepreneur whose company was named the "Outstanding Small Business in Philanthropy" for 2005 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals at a luncheon last month.
In accepting the award, the former seminarian turned husband and father of four fell back on his Catholic faith.
"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded," he reminded the audience.
The Lederhoses’ pastor at St. Patrick Parish, Father Scott Medlock, said the acceptance speech exemplified the couple’s commitment to Christian stewardship.
"They are generous because of their deep relationship with Jesus Christ," Father Medlock said. "They give in a true sense of thanksgiving for the blessings God has given them."
The small-business award goes to a company with 25 or fewer full-time employees that "demonstrates leadership through monetary contributions and civic responsibility" and "encourages volunteerism and dedication to Alaska."
Raven Electric was nominated by Catholic Social Services, which has benefited greatly from the owners’ largess.
Dewayne Harris, director of Brother Francis Shelter, said the Lederhoses’ donations to Catholic Social Services include a litany of free and at-cost electrical work to various agency facilities, especially the shelter.
Raven Electric "has been in many ways a life-saver," Harris said. If there’s a problem, "they step in and take care of it. We seldom see a bill, even for cost."
Sometimes, needed supplies simply appear — such as the five new walkie-talkie radios used for neighborhood patrols that Harris recently discovered on his desk.
Additionally, Raven Electric has been a big supporter of Catholic Social Services’ premier fund-raiser, the Charity Ball, donating tens of thousands of dollars as well as auction items for the event.
The Lederhoses’ East Anchorage parish is also a major recipient of their generosity. For the third year in a row, the couple has donated the funds necessary to employ a youth minister at St. Patrick.
Recently, they purchased the property next to the church with the express purpose of using it for parish youth ministry.
They have donated electrical work worth thousands of dollars to St. Patrick and recently provided the parish with new ovens, ranges, a freezer and a lighting system.
Then there’s a long list of civic organizations assisted by the couple, as well as individual families who benefit from a company policy that offers materials free if a journeyman will donate his time to assist fixed-income, disabled or lower-income people.
Where are the roots of this generosity?
"My faith tells me that’s what we should be doing," said Lederhos. "I have a social and moral responsibility." He said he especially finds inspiration in Christ’s injunction to "do this to the least of my brothers" in Matthew 25.
Don Lederhos entered the seminary for the Boise (Idaho) Diocese during his last year of high school. During his years of theology and philosophy at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., he met Karen, who inspired a change of vocation and shared his deep faith.
Together, they helped found a home for mentally and emotionally ill street people in Spokane.
He and Karen, an Alaskan born in Bethel, married during their college years and soon began a family.
"When we first married, we were dirt poor," Karen Lederhos recalled. "We struggled, we were having kids, we had no insurance."
After college, the couple moved to Anchorage and Don began working for Raven Electric. About ten years ago he purchased the company.
Karen is a teacher at Rogers Park Elementary.
When they realized they were becoming monetarily successful, they "made a decision that we didn’t have to be rich," Karen said. "There’s always the call to share what we have."
Eschewing the "party house" and the lavish lifestyle, the couple began to spread their wealth around.
It took a bit of arm twisting to persuade them to agree to have their company nominated.
It was the thought that he really isn’t doing enough that kept Don Lederhos from jumping at the award, he said.
"If we don’t give out of our need, we really haven’t gone far enough," he said, mentioning that recently a friend asked for advice on where to give $1,500 he wished to donate.
That friend, Lederhos said, was giving out of his need — "ten times more than what I’ve given."
Alaska pilgrims have a scare in Jordan
It’s hard to imagine there are many Irish pubs in Amman, Jordan.
So it was a stroke of luck when their Jordanian cab driver couldn’t find the one Anchorage residents Lynn and Linda Roberts were seeking. That Irish pub happened to be in the Days Inn hotel, one of three hotels frequented by Americans in Jordan that was bombed by terrorists that same evening, Nov. 9.
The Robertses, parishioners at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in South Anchorage, are members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem. The Catholic order, which originated during the Crusades, provides assistance to Christian sites in the Holy Land and to Christian communities living there.
The Robertses were making a pilgrimage to Israel and Jordan with 22 other members of the Holy Sepulcher order when, during a night off, an Irish-American priest in the group recommended the pub. When the cab driver got lost, they visited another instead, then headed back to their hotel.
"There were armed guards all around the hotel when we returned, and we could hear sirens in the distance," Lynn Roberts said.
It wasn’t until they went to their rooms and turned on the television that they learned the Days Inn, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and a Grand Hyatt had been bombed nearly simultaneously, resulting in 59 deaths.
Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility the next day.
Although the Robertses’ hotel had not been targeted, later that evening alarms went off and guests were told to "immediately congregate outside," according to Lynn. "We were herded out to the street away from the hotel and stood around for a couple of hours while they searched the hotel."
Later, the entire group was moved to a Sheridan hotel, where they slept in the ballroom.
Despite this unnerving experience, the pilgrimage continued. The Roman Catholic Patriarch of Jordan came the next morning to offer the pilgrims encouragement.
The group held a meeting and decided not to cut their trip short. They headed on to Ader, Jordan, where a Catholic church and school has been supported financially by the Holy Sepulcher order’s northwestern region, which includes Alaska.
In Ader, a small desert village, the local parish held a Mass and feted the pilgrims with a feast. The only change to the travel schedule was an earlier, daylight return to Amman, where the pilgrims found armed men "at every intersection," according to Lynn.
During the earlier part of their pilgrimage, when they visited Israel, the Robertses had grown accustomed to a heavy military presence.
Although the level of violence in the region has mitigated, and more visitors are beginning to return to Israel, the news isn’t good for Palestinian Christians, the couple told the Anchor.
"The Christian population is decreasing dramatically," Linda Roberts said, attributing the decline in part to the wall that the Israelis are building aimed at preventing suicide bombers from entering Israeli areas.
"The wall is a scar on the face of the earth," said Linda, who talked with people whose farm was literally cut in half by the structure.
Moving through checkpoints to get from one side of the wall to the other can range from cumbersome to impossible, the Robertses said.
"We talked to the priest of a Christian village called Taybeh," Linda recalled. "He said that since the wall went up, 76 ambulances have been held up (at the checkpoints) resulting in 29 pregnant mothers or newborn babies dying."
The priest also told them of an incident in which a Muslim woman was impregnated by a Christian villager from Taybeh. In retaliation, the woman was executed in her village, and Taybeh was attacked and 12 houses burned to the ground. The priest alleged that the Israeli government would not allow the Palestinian authorities to intervene to stop the attack.
Since Christians are already a minority within the heavily Muslim Palestinian territory, and many of their relatives have already emigrated, a constant stream of exiles threatens the very existence of a Christian community there. Many of the forebears of today’s Christians in the region date back to the earliest times of Christianity.
"We’ve heard that soon many of the Christian sites in the Holy Land will be museums" rather than active Catholic or Christian assemblies, Linda said.
During the pilgrimage, the Robertses visited ancient remains in Jordan, as well as the Jordan River, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Jericho, the Sea of Galilee, and Cana, where they renewed their marriage vows.
They visited the Catholic-run Bethlehem University, where an official told them that the reason the majority of students are female is that it is so difficult for young men to get through the checkpoints to attend college.
"One boy on his way to graduation was jailed instead," Linda said.
The magazine Christianity Today reports that only 2 percent of Israel/Palestine is Christian today, down from about 17 percent around 1900. Since 1993, when the Palestinian Authority took over control of Bethlehem, the Christian population there has dropped from 60 percent to 30 percent, according to the magazine.
Although the Robertses were the only members of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher from Alaska on this pilgrimage, the organization counts about 50 members, including Archbishop Roger Schwietz, in the state.
Nine deacon candidates ready for formation process to begin
Nine men from around the Anchorage Archdiocese have embarked on a journey of study and discernment as deacon candidates. Archbishop Roger Schwietz admitted the men into the candidacy stage Dec. 17 at a ceremony at Holy Family Cathedral.
The candidates are Rick Ernst of Kenai; William Evans; James Fornelli, Jon Hermon and George Neuerburg of Anchorage; Curtis Leunberger and Harry Moore of Palmer; Michael Smith of Wasilla; and Daniel Stowe of Valdez.
They are now at the beginning of a two-and-a-half-year formation process that will include classroom-style learning and hands-on pastoral ministry components, leading ultimately to ordination as deacons. The men have already been discerning and attending preliminary study sessions with a formation team from the archdiocese.
The group of "aspirants" that started out a year and a half ago had 27 men; through the discernment process 18 withdrew before the Dec. 17 ceremony.
The diaconate is one of the three ordained orders in the church, along with the episcopate (bishops) and the presbyterate (priests).
The early church established the diaconate — from the Greek "diakonos," meaning "servant" — to serve the needy on behalf of the church so that priests and bishops could concentrate on preaching (Acts 6). Gradually, though, deacons joined the other ordained orders on the altar.
The diaconate went into decline beginning in about the fourth century and, by the seventh century, the only deacons in the Western church were seminarians preparing for the priesthood. The "transitional" diaconate remains today as one of the steps to priesthood.
But, after having virtually disappeared for 13 centuries, the "permanent" diaconate has returned, restored by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). The nine candidates in the Anchorage Archdiocese are preparing for the permanent diaconate.
The archdiocese now has 13 active permanent deacons, each assigned to a parish where he is authorized to preach the homily, witness weddings, administer the sacrament of baptism and preside at funerals, among other things.
In addition to their liturgical roles, deacons in the archdiocese are active in visiting and bringing the Eucharist to shut-ins, prison ministry, parish catechesis programs and assisting in annulment cases in their parishes, according to Deacon Felix Maguire of Anchorage, who directs the archdiocese’s deacon formation program.
"The ultimate role of the deacon is to be the servant," Deacon Maguire said. "We are ordained specifically for the archbishop and serve wherever the archbishop feels there is a need."
Deacon Maguire, a licensed pilot, sometimes flies to outlying areas to marry or baptize parishioners when a priest is not available, he said.
The nine men who are now deacon candidates come from diverse backgrounds — there’s a lawyer, a wildlife biologist and a North Slope oil worker among them. Each has been active in his parish, according to Archbishop Roger Schwietz, who approved them for the rite of candidacy.
"I find them to be a really dedicated group of men who … will be able to bring with them a certain amount of background and experience, so the classroom teaching won’t be in a vacuum," the archbishop said. "Their parish experiences will make their training more enriching and their service as deacons more valuable."
In an era of declining vocations to the priesthood, the return of the deacon has helped cushion the blow of a diminished clerical presence. There are approximately 30,000 deacons worldwide, about half of them in the United States.
"There is a rich mixture here in the archdiocese of people who are ministering, both the ordained and nonordained," Archbishop Schwietz said. "It is really broadened by deacons mixed with priests and lay people."
Unlike bishops and priests, deacons can be married and have families; the archdiocese even encourages the deacon candidates’ wives to attend the training sessions with their husbands. In that sense, deacons bring a unique perspective to ministry, Archbishop Schwietz said.
"They make ordained ministry a presence among the people in their ordinary, day-to-day lives," he explained. "They’re present in the ministry of Christ as servant, so … that whole aspect of Christ’s ministry is made more present in the world through them."
Our Lady of Guadalupe: Dedicated parish
There is a bright red stained-glass rose set in the wall above the huge wooden doors of the new Catholic church in Anchorage, Our Lady of Guadalupe. On Dec. 12, the night the building was dedicated, the wind was blowing and a sticky snow had been falling all day, coating the church’s exterior walls with frigid winter white. But that huge rose, in full bloom despite the cold, promised something vibrant, surging, warm and alive inside.
The rose has special significance in the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, who appeared to a Native Mexican man in 1531 in what was then part of the dying Aztec Empire and is now the outskirts of Mexico City. The man, whose birth name, Cuauhtlatoatzin, means "Talks Like an Eagle," converted at age 50 to Catholicism, the religion of the Spanish, who had arrived in the "new" world from Spain when he was a boy. He took the name Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin.
The lady who appeared to him looked like an Indian, not a Spaniard, and spoke to Cuauhtlatoatzin in his native tongue, Nahuatl. She asked him to go to the bishop and relay her request that a church be built on the little hill where she appeared.
Bishop Juan de Zumárraga, a Spanish Franciscan and the first bishop of Mexico, must have thought the Indian man Talked Like a Fool; he turned down the church idea.
Mary again appeared to Cuauhtlatoatzin and repeated her request, which the bishop, a cautious man, again denied.
Poor Cuauhtlatoatzin started avoiding the hill where the lady had appeared, but one day as he was sneaking around the other side there she was again, this time walking down toward him, intercepting his path.
She told him not to be afraid. He told her that the bishop didn’t believe him and had requested a sign of proof. She suggested he gather up roses, a puzzling idea since it was wintertime, but Cuauhtlatoatzin took a look around and sure enough there were roses sprouting and blooming right there in the cold dirt. He gathered up a bunch and the lady arranged them in his cloak and sent him once again to the bishop.
Roses blooming out of season may have been proof enough for good Bishop Zumárraga, but the Virgin of Guadalupe apparently wanted to make a point. When Cuauhtlatoatzin opened up his cloak and the roses spilled out, there remained in their place an image of the lady herself, a brown-skinned young maiden wearing a black sash around her waist, signifying pregnancy. Imagine Juan Diego’s surprise when he looked up to see the bishop and his staff kneeling before him, and then looked down to see the picture of that persistent young woman imprinted on his old coat.
Archbishop Schwietz retold that familiar story Dec. 12 in his dedication Mass homily, and retired Archbishop Francis Hurley referred to it as well, and Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin himself was present in the form of at least one little boy dressed up like him at the Mass. And roses were everywhere in the new church, festooning the Blessed Sacrament chapel, piled in front of the altar table during the Mass and spilling from huge bouquets on the walls on either side of the altar.
The congregation erupted in applause when Archbishop Hurley recalled the parish’s first pastor, Msgr. John Lunney, and his habit of passing out roses on Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Msgr. Lunney planted the seed of a new church for his new parish in 1970. But it would be 33 years before the tree-covered lot next to the West Anchorage parish’s "interim" worship space suddenly started becoming something else. The ground the parish had nurtured for all those years finally had the right stuff for the seed to take, and the structure, like a long dormant flower, rose miraculously up out of the cold dirt and became a church.
— Anchor Editor John Roscoe
Happy to give, thankful to receive
Anna Premo gets her 5-month-old son, Hesikiah, ready to leave Dec. 16 after picking up Christmas gifts for her two children during the annual GIFT (Giving From The Heart) Christmas present and food distribution organized by Catholic Social Services and other nonprofits. Premo said that high gas and electric bills in the winter make the program "really helpful." The Food Bank of Alaska distributed 2,511 turkeys and 3,997 boxes of food to 12,083 GIFT recipients.
Tasi Liua, left, selects gifts for her six children, ages 6-15, with the help of volunteer personal shopper Rev. Lisa Smith, pastor of Central Lutheran Church.
Chase, 2, sits on the shoulders of his mother, Suzanne Apassingok, as they wait in a two-hour line to take part in the Christmas charity event.
Archbishop's Column
Just 39 years after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus a young man who had just recently become a Catholic was walking by a hillside near Mexico City when he heard his name called out. A beautiful lady appeared to Juan Diego and gave him a message to give to the bishop. She wanted a house of God built on that hill.
Juan Diego managed to get to see the bishop, who was new at the job and a prudent Franciscan. He didn’t believe the story. It took three tries and the miracle of December roses tumbling from a tilma imprinted with the image of the Blessed Mother for Mary to get her way.
Her persistence succeeded and an avalanche of conversions began.
It took the persistence of over 35 years here in Anchorage but once again Mary got her way and we now have the beautiful new church of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
What Mary asked for in the desire she expressed to Juan Diego can now be realized anew. She wanted a church "where I can reveal Him (Jesus), lift Him into view and make Him visible."
Jesus is now lifted into view in the beautiful carving of the resurrected Jesus that dominates the sanctuary.
He is made visible in the miracle of bread and wine changed into Body and Blood on the newly consecrated altar, through the sacraments, and through the caring love the community that gathers in this church for worship.
Mary can again "Offer Him with all my tender love, my compassion, my help and protection." And this Mary wants to offer "to all the people living in this land, and who love me."
The diversity of the community gathered for the dedication Mass gave witness to the remarkable hard work and generosity of myriad people from the different cultural and ethnic backgrounds that are found in Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish. They came together and made their gifts available as a model of church and of stewardship for all of us.
I am truly proud of what the people of Our Lady of Guadalupe accomplished, and found the dedication to be a joyful and moving experience.
It was good news for the whole archdiocese. The donors, planners, leaders and workers are all to be congratulated.
Of course, as with any great church, the task is not yet complete. Ongoing generosity will be needed in the years to come. The continued building of a community vibrant in its diversity will be a sign that Christ is alive and present in its midst.
Surely those who have made this accomplishment possible and who will support its life and ministry in the future will merit the assurance Mary gave Juan Diego: "Be assured that I will be very grateful and will reward you very much."
Well done, people of Our Lady of Guadalupe!
Editorials
‘Intelligent design’ ruling makes sense
Evidence of an "Intelligent Designer" abounds for those who believe in a Creator God, and evolution is an imperfect theory. Does that mean that "intelligent design" should be taught as science in public schools? Surely not.
It is no disrespect to the Designer of Life to agree with the federal judge who ruled last week that the Dover, Penn., school board can’t compel public school teachers to present intelligent design as a viable scientific theory alongside evolution.
Intelligent design is the fine-tuned offspring of creationism, that earlier failed attempt by religious groups to introduce the concept of a supernatural creator into public school science classrooms.
The new and improved version asserts that some life forms and organs are so complex that evolutionary mechanisms cannot explain how they came to be, and concludes that such inexplicable complexities in the natural world must therefore be the work of an "intelligent designer."
That’s a fine way of viewing the world. But it is a religious view, and therefore shouldn’t be taught as science.
Scientific knowledge is composed of testable hypotheses about the natural world. Intelligent design is not testable; when it arrives at a scientific unknown it doesn’t seek an explanation using the scientific method but rather forfeits the quest to "design," which must be taken on faith.
Eight of the nine Dover school board members who voted to bring intelligent design into the classroom were defeated in an election last month, which prompted televangelist Pat Robertson to warn that God would punish Dover.
Catholic theology takes a much different approach; it doesn’t collide with science but rather runs gracefully alongside it. Pope John Paul II famously embraced science, even calling evolution "more than a hypothesis" in a 1996 paper. Earlier this year Pope Benedict XVI said the created world must be understood as an "intelligent project."
There is no contradiction in the Catholic view because it recognizes that science and religion are simply different ways of explaining the world. Therefore one way needn’t be forced to conform to the other.
Science explores how the natural world works; religion explores the meaning and purpose of existence. The sensible ruling in the Dover case says these different realms can’t be combined in public school science class.
Respectful dialogue can help on Iraq
Debate is raging in the United States over U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq. This is as it should be; this is how a democracy is supposed to decide public policy.
Democratic Congressman John Murtha, a highly decorated and respected Marine veteran, lit the fuse last month when he announced his view that the Iraq war was not winnable, and that therefore military withdrawal should begin immediately. He laid out his reasons and the outline of a plan — and was immediately jeered as a coward by the most fervent war supporters.
The Bush administration response to Murtha was initially disgraceful: White House press secretary Scott McClellan compared the congressman to way-leftwing filmmaker Michael Moore.
But President Bush and other Republicans soon put a stop to the partisan name-calling and began to actually address Rep. Murtha’s proposals. The result has been a healthy dialogue about ideas among the nation’s elected leadership and, it seems, an increase in civility among the populace.
From the beginning, even before the invasion began nearly three years ago, the Iraq war has generated intense debate. Too often, it has degenerated into questioning one another’s patriotism, integrity or courage.
That may be changing. Rep. Murtha and President Bush have both articulated compelling arguments to the American people regarding their divergent opinions about Iraq. No matter how how we got into this war, respectful dialogue is needed to chart a course back to peace.
Letters to the Editor
Joy of Eucharistic ministry
Isn’t the Internet great? There I was surfing along and came across the Anchorage Archdiocese’s newspaper. I saw the story about the extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist who serve the homebound (News, Dec. 2) and wanted to congratulate the people in your archdiocese who do the work. I was homebound for months after an accident and a neighbor brought Holy Communion to me daily. I vowed that if I got well, I would return the favor to my fellow parishioners. So, my "have pix, will travel" adventures began.
I feel so lucky to be part of a long legacy of Eucharistic ministers who have been performing this activity for 2,000 years. It’s the Eucharist that connects us as Catholics and takes us back to the Last Supper. It is such a primal and foundational activity for us that when I bring Holy Communion to someone who has Alzheimer’s and has been lost to the family and the community for years, they become alert and aware of the Body of Christ just for that split second.
The husband of a woman I bring Communion to cries each time Katie momentarily flits into awareness. He aches to see that brief connectivity to her former hearty and faithful self, and the Eucharist makes her whole again, although briefly, in her husband’s eyes. It’s a privilege for me to be part of that.
I think of myself more as a "less than ordinary" minister than an extraordinary minister. I am not worthy, for sure, but I encourage anyone to offer themselves as service to their fellow Catholics. Someone did it for me when I needed it and although I live in Indiana and not Alaska there are those of you up there who would have been there to bring Communion to my home.
The next time I bring the Eucharist to a home, and I see the corn stalks in the field waiting to be harvested and turned into silage, I’ll think of my Alaska counterparts feeding the faithful and looking out over the north woods. Thank you for your commitment to the church.
Batesville, Indiana
Book awoke happy memories
I just read the two-page spread about "Alaskana Catholica," Father Louis Renner’s new book about the history of the church in Alaska (News, Oct. 21). What a big surprise! Father Renner, as usual, was very thoughtful to suggest sending a copy to me. I read every bit of it. It was especially good to see the group of Sisters of Saint Ann, all in their "furs." I lived happy, fulfilling years with those Sisters. We were all a united group, but each one of us had her special gifts. A special thank-you to Anchor writer Effie Caldarola for her ministry of spreading the Good News through her giftedness in journalism and with the witness of her life.
Lachine, Quebec, Canada
Requests for coming year
I wish you all a very happy Christmas and blessed New Year. God be with you throughout the new year. May I request from you for the coming year rosaries, statues and holy pictures? I also request you send ballpoint pens and pencils for school children. They can be sent to me at St. Antony’s Church, Kanjirakodu P.O., Kundara — 691 501, Kollam, Kerala, India.
Kollam, Kerala, India
Please clarify parish concerns
As one of the many Catholics in this area who do not enjoy the beloved benefits of a parish priest, I would like to echo the concerns of Sister Joyce Ross in her guest column in the Nov. 18 Anchor. I have also heard comments that Communion services and Liturgy of the Word will come to an end in parishes without a resident priest. If these are in fact ungrounded rumors, I wish the archbishop would step forward and let us know that this will not happen. The best way to stop the devil’s work is to communicate with the followers. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states it quite clearly: The Eucharist is "the source and summit of the Christian Life" (no. 1324). So let’s stop all the uncertainty at this time and inform those of us without the services of a parish priest what the status of the Liturgy of the Word with Communion services is, or will be, in our future.
Kenai
Editor’s Note: We noted in the Dec. 16 issue that Archbishop Roger Schwietz said that he is not aware of any formal Vatican process underway aimed at ending Communion services, and that he is not planning to ban the services in the archdiocese.
Worship should be free, open
Merry Christmas — trivializing persecution (Editorial, Dec. 2)? Bias, dishonor and oppression are never trivial. The editor may mean well to say we should focus on worse persecutions, but I believe he is naive. Rosa Parks refused to go to the rear of the bus. Her action seemed trivial to some at the time. Jewish persecution started with laws against basic rights. One could not openly be Jewish without fear of "political incorrectness," and later, murder. In many places in today’s world, religious rights are withheld from Christians. So too, the religious rights of others. America has always stood for the right to worship freely, openly and without fear. Christianity can’t be contained in a building. Yet those who deny Christmas would like to have it confined. By its very nature, which reflects God’s welcoming and saving grace, Christianity most authentically lives its mission when turning outward toward the world (which is God’s), and there inviting others to Jesus. Christmas, by its very name, is also this invitation. Christians need be concerned and awakened to the real threat of religious persecution in America.
Kelso, Wash.