OPINION:
Easter has all the drama, salvation and joy. But without Christmas, there is no Easter.
When you look around this world it is hard not to marvel at the mess we humans make of things. Truly, we are the people that only a Father could love.
Nowhere is the human mess more obvious than the scene of politics. Politics is where we humans come together to work out our differences that we cannot work out on our own. It is the very seat of power and money, which always invites tyranny and corruption.
This is the real reason our American founders insisted on the separation of Church and State. They wisely understood that if the two were intertwined, the State would corrupt the Church.
The two were kept separate not to protect the State from the Church, but to protect the Church from the State.
And, so, it is always wise to turn to the Church at times like these.
Christmas — and Easter and, really, the entire Christian faith — can be summed up in just two words. They were the words the angel spoke to the shepherds on the night of Christ’s birth.
The shepherds were, understandably, “sore afraid.” They were, after all, humans living in a world long ago that humans had already screwed up pretty badly.
The angel appeared before them and told them: “Fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.”
“Fear not.”
It is the most powerful directive in the course of human events. It was the inspiration of our founding.
The whole concept of self-governance accepts that life is not perfect nor without threats. No earthly king nor government can protect us from all the ills of life. So, it should be left to us and our God to figure things out the best we can.
Figure out what we can ourselves. And, in our blessed case here in America, elect a representative government to take care of those things that are simply impractical for us to handle ourselves — like building roads and protecting our borders.
Government is merely where we come together to address the conflicts that cannot be settled among citizens. For example, when a vicious little tyrant beats up an old woman on a street corner or a band of tyrannical thugs loot a store, we have elected our government to remove the tyrants from our midst.
Otherwise, handling it ourselves can get a wee bit ugly.
Things obviously get out of whack when government fails in its most basic responsibilities. Things get especially out of whack when government delves deeply into other areas where they have no business.
This comes to mind most recently when President Biden — an unhinged merchant of fear — announced the government is buying 1 billion COVID-19 testing kits to fill your stockings with this year.
Will this stop the China virus? Of course not. But Mr. Biden’s entire presidency is based on the lie that he would stop it.
But you better believe these government testing kits will be used to monitor innocent American citizens. If you get one of these government kits, burn it immediately in the fireplace.
Then, go outside and look at the stars in the night sky. And fear not. For good tidings of great joy are here for all the people.
Merry Christmas.
• Charles Hurt is the opinion editor at The Washington Times.
