Peace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men!

Our annual Christmas Message. 🎄⛪️

George Washington crossing the Delaware used to be a popular wartime memory this time of year. But it almost never happened.

In fact, by Christmas 1776, what was left of Washington’s ragtag army—losing battle after battle and driven from New York and across New Jersey—huddled on a cold riverbank. Fearing imminent attack from British troops to the north as well, a despondent Washington wrote “the game is pretty near up.”¹

Only Divine Providence could provide the inspiration he was so desperately looking for. Thomas Paine, the pamphleteer whose pen was truly mightier than his sword, had already inspired the revolutionary effort in Common Sense. Now in Philadelphia, he was inspiring its “broken and dispirited” troops with his famous passage from what would be known as The Crisis.

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."²

Washington was so moved by his friend’s prose, he had it read to his weary soldiers on December 23rd, two days before the stunning crossing and victory at Trenton, then Princeton and beyond. The war for American Independence was saved.

Today, a decadent cultural elite, led by the then commander-in-chief’s namesake newspaper, the Washington Post, chides its readers about the “myth of American exceptionalism.”³ It attacks and destroys monuments of our Founding Father while castigating readers who still believe there is more good about America than bad.

We could use a little inspiration.

So on this Christmas as we once again celebrate with family and friends and commit ourselves to a life of hope, charity and most of all, faith—let us always remember that none of these is possible without the freedom our great American patriots and their Savior bequeathed us.

1. McCullough, David, ‘1776’ (Simon & Schuster: New York 2005) 269.

2. https://www.loc.gov/item/2005694599/

3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/50-years-later-st-louis-gateway-arch-emerges-with-a-new-name-and-a-skeptical-view-of-western-expansion/2018/06/25/7cbee8d6-644d-11e8-99d2-0d678ec08c2f_story.html