{"id":8708,"date":"2010-12-27T03:04:17","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T08:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=8708"},"modified":"2011-10-11T22:48:44","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T03:48:44","slug":"christmas-in-afghanistan-presidential-message-on-jesus-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/27\/christmas-in-afghanistan-presidential-message-on-jesus-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in Afghanistan, Presidential Message on Jesus’ Birth"},"content":{"rendered":"

FoxNews had a headline article on Christmas highlighting “Christmas in Afghanistan<\/a>.”\u00a0 One of the more interesting parts of the article:<\/p>\n

Afghans who support the coalition troops respect the holiday, [US Marine Chaplain (Capt) William] Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

“We’re in a Muslim country, but the Muslims venerate Jesus as a prophet and the people I’ve met, whether it’s the locals or ANA (Afghan army), the mullahs, they respect the fact that we’re a religious people,” Kennedy told AFP.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(In a contrast to the Chaplain’s supportive perceptions of the local population,\u00a0an activist group once\u00a0tried to claim public American military celebrations of Easter<\/a> were “convinc[ing] the Muslims we’re on a crusade.”)\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Americans celebrated freely in Afghanistan, local Iraqi Christians “toned down<\/a>” their Christmas celebrations in Iraq over fear of attacks.\u00a0 It appears American military services in Iraq may have been “toned down” a bit as well, despite the “end” of combat, though Soldiers were still able to celebrate both Christmas<\/a> and\u00a0Hanukkah<\/a>.\u00a0 (Note the Jewish celebrants were mixed rank and armed, as is normal in these circumstances regardless of religion<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Last week, President Obama used his weekly address to deliver a Christmas message<\/a> and encourage Americans to step out in service of the sacrificing members of the US military and their families:<\/p>\n

Because this is the season when we celebrate the simplest yet most profound gift of all: the birth of a child who devoted his life to a message of peace, love, and redemption. A message that says no matter who we are, we are called to love one another…<\/p>\n

Today, we\u2019re also thinking of those who can\u2019t be home for the holidays \u2013 especially all our courageous countrymen serving overseas…<\/p>\n

America\u2019s brave servicemen and women represent a small fraction of our population. But they and the families who await their safe return carry far more than their fair share of the burden. They\u2019ve done everything they\u2019ve been asked to do. They\u2019ve been everything we\u2019ve asked them to be. And even as we speak, many are fighting halfway around the globe \u2013 in hopes that someday, our children and grandchildren won\u2019t have to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

US House Rep Joe Pitts (R-PA) delivered the Republican address<\/a>, also acknowledging the military’s service and emphasizing the heart of the Christmas message:<\/p>\n

Behind the splendor of the Christmas season lies a simple and inspiring story of how a single birth spread a message of love and salvation throughout the world, one that continues to resonate across this and other lands…Scriptures tell us, in him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.\u00a0 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Via the Religion Clause<\/a>, the\u00a0Army Chaplaincy Blog<\/a>,\u00a0and CNN<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FoxNews had a headline article on Christmas highlighting “Christmas in Afghanistan.”\u00a0 One of the more interesting parts of the article: Afghans who support the coalition troops respect the holiday, [US Marine Chaplain (Capt) William] Kennedy said. “We’re in a Muslim country, but the Muslims venerate Jesus as a prophet and the people I’ve met, whether it’s the locals or ANA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[58,5284,108,350,19,1279,149,2,43,17,10,1280],"class_list":["post-8708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-afghanistan","tag-chaplain","tag-christmas","tag-easter","tag-government","tag-joe-pitts","tag-marines","tag-military","tag-obama","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-william-kennedy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}