'Dear Santa, All I Want for Christmas Is to Skip Church!'

"Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is to skip church!  I'm too old for fairy tales."  So writes a young girl to Santa on billboards appearing across the Bible Belt.  American Atheists have launched the campaign, which will run until Christmas Eve.

Their spokesman explains: "Today's adults have no obligation to pretend to believe the lies their parents believed.  It's OK to admit that your parents were wrong about God, and it's definitely OK to tell your children the truth."  Yes, but which "truth"? 

Author Damon Linker perceptively claims that the prevailing moral value today is "niceness." He believes that our culture has "no overarching vision of a higher human good."  Atheists have their "truth," and so does everyone else.

Meanwhile, trust in biblical truth continues to decline.  The University of Chicago's General Social Survey indicates that 22 percent of young adults previously classified as evangelical now say they have no religion.  If they won't come to our churches, they won't hear our message.  

It's more urgent than ever for Christians to use our influence to change our culture. God has called the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture to respond by equipping believers to make a difference in our world.  We speak biblical truth to the issues of our time and help Christians encounter God in a transforming way every day.  The Lord is blessing our work: the Cultural Commentary has grown to 93,000 subscribers in 203 countries. Likes on the Denison Forum Facebook page have tripled again this year to over 35,000.  Page views across our websites have totaled 5.2 million, an increase of 80 percent over last year.

None of this is possible without your help.  We give our online resources for free and our printed resources at cost.  To do this, we have kept our organization small and depend completely on the financial support of our readers.  We have no fund-raising strategy except to ask for your help.

This morning, I urge you to pray for Christians to stand boldly for Jesus in our culture.  And I ask you to pray for our ministry as we help Christians change their world.  Each December I ask our readers to pray about supporting our work financially.  If God leads you to help us, please send your tax-deductible contribution to the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, 17304 Preston Road, Suite 1060, Dallas, Texas 75252.  Or you can click on this link to make a secure online donation.

Jesus promised, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).  Has our culture ever needed his truth more than today?

Publication date: December 3, 2014

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