REBECCA ST. JAMES YES, VIRGINIA, THERE IS A JESUS
(NASHVILLE, TN.) –December 2, 2005 — Grammy Award winning singer, REBECCA ST. JAMES, who appears on the cover of this week’s Billboard Magazine, issued the following statement:
“As an Australian coming to live in America as a teenager in the ’90′s, I embraced America and the American culture of Christmas. I became aware that over a hundred years ago a headline appeared in a New York newspaper assuring a little 8 year old girl named Virginia that Santa Claus really existed. The message of ‘Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus’ and the editorial from which it came were national news, becoming indelible parts of popular Christmas lore.
I find it sad that now in 2005, the newspaper headline might read, ‘Yes, Virginia, There Is A Jesus,’ –as millions of American children are growing up in a country where Jesus is increasingly being excluded from the holiday that was originally set aside with the intent of celebrating His birth.
Over 2000 years since that night in Bethlehem the battle rages. Should Boston light a ‘Christmas Tree,’ or a ‘Holiday Tree?’ Should we be offered the greeting ‘Merry Christmas,’ or ‘Happy Holidays’ while shopping this year?
As a Christian I wish to publicly thank Rabbi Daniel Lapin for recently openly stating to the national media that he encourages his fellow Jews to stand up for Christians and their right to have Christ remain in Christmas. I encourage my fellow Christians to stand up for that same right.
One by one attempts are being made to dim the lights of Christianity in America. We see it everywhere around us.
It’s been successful to the point of taking the Ten Commandments from public walls, prayer out of American schools, nativity scenes off display in communities across the nation. It’s working on taking God’s name off the U.S. currency and out of the Pledge of Allegiance…and now to take all references of Jesus out of Christmas.
If these agendas continually succeed, America holds the potential of ultimately becoming a very dark place in which to live.
Jesus is the light of the world. I wish you not a ‘Happy Holiday’ but a God blessed Christmas as we celebrate the
birth of Jesus Christ.”
Rebecca St. James