Jesus Is The Reason For The Season But He Influences Us Daily
Equality of Human Beings
Social movements that have changed our nation and the world can be traced back to the Christian concept that all human life is worthy and precious. For example, slavery was ended in good measure through the leadership of Christian activists. The civil rights movement was spearheaded by Christian leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The women’s movement has it roots in how Jesus valued and treated the women around Him. The rise of Christianity can be traced to the ending of infanticide, cannibalism and even gladiator fights.
Hospitals
Next time you see a hospital bearing a Christian/Catholic name keep in mind that Christians have been leaders in medicine and the building of hospitals. This effort was influenced by Jesus who healed the sick during his earthly ministry, as well as his early followers who often risked their own lives and health to care for plague and other disease victims abandoned by society.
Good Samaritan
This is just a small modern example of Jesus’ influence at work in our culture that most people would not connect to Him. The drugstore chain CVS has for 34 years funded an ongoing program called “CVS/Samaritan” providing free roadside assistance in nine major markets. The first time I ever saw one of these vans with “CVS/Samaritan” emblazoned on the side in huge red letters was on the famous (or infamous) Washington D.C. beltway. Since Bible literacy is at an all-time low, upon seeing the van, I wondered if most people still associate the name of this free service with Jesus’ famous parable of the Good Samaritan found in Luke 10:30-37 . Even more revealing was how in 2008 this article celebrating 30 years of “CVS Samaritan” makes no mention of the Bible story from which this free service derives its name.
Literature
Writers such as Dante, Chaucer, Dostoevsky, Shakespeare, and Dickens were all Christians and their writing was influenced by their faith. Connected to literature is the printing press, the most transformational technology of its time. It was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 and the first book he printed was the Gutenberg Bible.
Music
Imagine Christmas without Handel’s Messiah, so beloved it is celebrated even by “flash mobs” as seen in the opening video. Then there is Bach who signed all his work Soli Deo Gloria (“Solely to the glory of God.”) Church hymns also have had an enormous impact on music. Most amusing is when I read about a rock star like Katy Perry, a pastor’s daughter, who got her start singing in church. Even the words to many of our familiar patriotic national songs read like prayers and are included in many church hymnals.
This list could go on and on for there are volumes to be written about how “Jesus is the reason for this season” and every day of the year despite our modern day culture’s attempt to push Him aside. But as I have previously written, Christianity may be on the wane in our nation and Europe but it is surging in Africa, South America, India, and across Asia, especially in China.
Yes, the world’s largest religion is garnering more converts every day and its past and present influence on government, capitalism, law, politics, holidays, history, the calendar, our moral compass and the time line of B.C. and A.D just to name a few more, continues to impact those who are not followers of the faith.
But for those who are, Merry Christ’s Mass to you!
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Related at PJ Lifestyle:
As if none of that would have been possible absent Christianity. Can we please enact a separation of church and press?
Dear Michael,
Your comment is breathtakingly ignorant. Much of what Myra outlines indeed would NOT have occurred without Jesus. Read Kennedy’s book (and many texts with similar themes) and you should be inspired to retract your ill-advised statement.
Merry Christmas!
Unbelievable! You don’t have to be a Christian to understand the amazing influence that Christ and Christianity has had on this earth.
Don’t be such as Scrooge, Michael. Lighten up!
Hospitals exist because Christians invented hospitals, and the pagans recounted with much embarrassment that Christian physicians and nurses treated not only Christians, but pagans as well, charging nothing to the indigent. Infanticide was outlawed because Christians outlawed it. Pagans have never opposed abortion or infanticide; only Jews and Christians banned the practice, and Jews rarely tried to convert pagans.
Thank you for writing this piece, Myra. Just the thing for your readers to peruse this Christmas season. Yes, Jesus has had an amazing influence on this world. But that is what one should expect from Our Lord and Savior. Praise Him this day and every day!
No event in all of history approaches the impact of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. Even if you decline to believe He is the Son of God: No other figure has had his transformative effect on so many persons and societies.
Perhaps the greatest irony arises from militant atheism. Who have they chosen as their principal target? Moses? Muhammad? Buddha? Or Someone Else?
He disdained to write down any of His teachings. Yet He predicted that they would not pass away…and they haven’t, and they will not.
Merry Christmas to all, and may the joy of His coming resonate throughout the New Year!
The bulk of the greatest scientists of the ages were Christians. Judeo-Christianity forms the foundational bedrock of science.
Why? Because the Triune God is a God of order. Pagans had very little science because there was no understanding or belief of order in the universe.
Science at its essence is based on the belief, the FAITH, that events are demonstrably repeatable. There is nothing that requires this be so. The understanding of rationality is what allowed the great Christian scientists to make the leaps they made.
Let us also remember orphanages. Created by Christians.
Believe it or not, Christians were also the first to promote public education in the U.S. In the northeast, a state passed a law funding public education and it was called something along the lines of “Defeating Satan the Great Deceiver Act”. The idea was that by educating our youth we could defeat evil. Guess what kind of education they meant?
I heard a fantastic 40 minute presentation, but have not yet read the book, by Pastor John Ortberg who wrote “Who Was This Man?”, about the overwhelming impact/influence that Jesus and his followers have had on the world. I thought I knew how much He had changed us, but I was wrong. It is far far greater than even suggested in this article by Myra.
Myra,
Thanks for writing this. Don’t know why Kathy S. is getting more attention…