A world-famous father that everyone seemed to love and respect was a violent, mean, raging man who often mistreated his son, especially during Christmas, but that almost unbelievable truth would not be revealed for decades after it could have made a difference.

Christmas is celebrated worldwide, and for that, I am pleased even if the boozing, wild spending, partying, and general excesses usually accompany the season. It should also be an opportunity for parents to teach their children basic principles they need for adulthood. How to live does not come automatically, and it must be taught.

What a story to tell everyone: Christ was born to a virgin as angels celebrated His lowly birth. Wise men traveled hundreds of miles to worship him with many expensive gifts. King Herod the Great killed all males under two years old in Bethlehem and its coasts. There is a hurried trip by the young family to Egypt to escape a bloody king’s paranoia.

Who needs toys, trees, and tinsel with a story like that?

Santa is a fun thing to children; however, most parents make a tragic mistake by letting them think he is real. Maybe they don’t lie, but they go along with that untruth. That is a lie (even if you insist it is a white lie—no such thing), and no child should be told a lie. No parent should undercut their rightful authority by confusing children for “a little harmless fun.” The gifts came from parents and others, not from Santa.

It is not harmless.

Have your trees, toys, and tinsel but inform children that they are honoring the most incredible event in world history: God became man to provide personal salvation to anyone who merely trusts Him in simple faith.  Additionally: children should be taught the qualities needed for a successful life.

I am saying Christmas should promote character. One should learn early to be a giver; to stand against tyrants; to serve others; to be humble. All of that is not natural and must be taught.

We know Christ came to provide life, but He also promised abundant life. Children need to be taught that Christ is the pattern for them. Children don’t absorb truth as a sponge absorbs water, instead, they must be taught. Even church people make the mistake of thinking it is enough to tell children the truth and expect that to settle the fact for all time. It doesn’t happen that way. Most parents major in talking, failing to follow up with teaching and training. That seldom happens and our schools and streets are overrun with thugs, made that way by uninformed, or unconcerned, or unmotivated parents.

No child has to be taught to lie, be selfish, or be unkind. With time, usually very early, each child will prove that truth since they are born with a sinful nature, a reality that makes humanists go ballistic. “How dare you suggest my innocent little children have a sinful nature.” Well, they do. That’s why Christ told Nicodemus he needed to be born again: that his first birth was not enough, and he must have a new nature through the new birth.

That’s why we have Christmas.

Since the last few generations have failed in rearing principled children, we have people in positions of power without principle. Political lying is not only accepted, it is expected. University professors, with missionary zeal, peddle ridiculous lies to our youth.

Attractive women, who are blessed with beauty and unblessed with brains, deem it appropriate to expose their bodies for the whole world to ogle. They usually decorate their body with a silver cross, whatever that means. Young adults think someone or some group or the government owes them whatever they want. They think they deserve it since they are poor, oppressed, hated, and ridiculed, doing outrageous things without accountability.

It is too late absent a radical born-again experience for those pathetic people who were failed by their parents. They were not taught biblical characteristics of always being honest, punctual, kind, generous, obedient, honorable, charitable, hard-working, dependable, respectable, and forgiving.

I saw many children in Christian homes without character during my early years because their parents had failed to teach and practice principled living. They taught the Bible but did not apply it to their lives. I determined that I would not be so dedicated to the ministry that I failed my own children. When my wife was pregnant with our son, to be followed by three beautiful blonds, I wrote the principles we would follow in making them normal, gracious, adult Christians. She was faithful in implementing those rules to her credit while I spent much of my time traveling as an evangelist and Christian apologist.

I don’t need to admit that my brood is not perfect, far from it. After all, half their genes are mine.

I am delighted with how our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren have developed. Of course, everyone reading this is saying, “Yes, but wait until they are grown.” Well, my children had enough commitment to train their children, and I think those children are training their children to be an honor to our family, Christianity, and America.

Sending children to a Christian school is not enough since teachers must be concerned with academics: science, history, geography, English, spelling, math, biology, etc. The successful school will implement Christian character into each subject, but that is not enough. Parents must talk, teach, and train their children, which requires work—consistent, persistent work. Most parents are too lazy or selfish, resulting in today’s America—bedlam, which means “a scene of uproar and confusion.”

Using the Bible, parents should train their children in biblical truth. Additional character-building materials are also available. The best help I have seen is a series written by Dr. Ed Dunlop. I was surprised to discover I deeply enjoyed reading the series a few years ago and have since recommended that series to thousands of people, schools, and home schools. It is called The Terrestria Chronicles, a medieval allegory series available at talesofcastles.net . The students don’t notice the abundance of character-building taking place because they are so engrossed in the story.

Be proactive now if your children are disobedient, slothful, angry, unmotivated, or even harm other children or pets. Almost all mass killers have had a history of mistreatment of animals and children. Children should be taught to not even break or destroy a toy.

The above books would be a very beneficial Christmas gift to a child. It could pay big time.

Lindsay was a handsome boy who was given whatever he wanted except love, acceptance, and training. His world-famous father often screamed obscenities at him and beat him at times. He was especially brutal during the Christmas season. He was given extra chores to do during that time, but it never seemed to satisfy his stern father. The whippings often drew blood.

He had three older brothers, but Lindsay incurred most of his father’s rage.

The public would have been shocked if the famous father’s actions had become public. That didn’t happen until many years later, and even today, few know the details.

A friend of Lindsay’s said, “Lindsay was never able to find happiness. He became a hard-drinking rounder who went from woman to woman and couldn’t find peace or success.” Because of his famous father, Lindsay was cast in a few movies that failed, as did his other endeavors, including his three marriages.

Having a famous father, Lindsay and his three older brothers formed a singing quartet and experienced a short period of success on major television shows, but he was always compared to his father. When Lindsay had a nervous breakdown, the quartet broke up.

Another failure.

After a lifetime of failure and being forced to live in the shadow of his famous and brutal father, Lindsay made a tragic decision. It was just before Christmas on December 11, that he watched Bing Crosby’s White Christmas movie in his apartment one last time. He then put a gun to his head and put a bullet in his brain.

Tragically, Lindsay’s brother Dennis killed himself with a shotgun two years later. Shockingly, their dad was Bing Crosby, the world-famous singer and movie star. However, some family members disagree with that extreme characterization of Bing.

Lindsay wrote, “I hated Christmas because of Pop, and I always will,” and continued, “It brings back the pain and fear I suffered as a child. And if I ever do myself in, it will be at Christmastime. That will show the world what I think of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas.”

Christ’s birth is the most extraordinary story ever told, but apparently, Lindsay never knew the true story of Christmas. The death of Lindsay Crosby is one of the most tragic stories ever told.

And it didn’t have to be.

Christ’s birth, death, and physical resurrection were Lindsay’s answers he and his family needed. That is because Jesus Christ makes a difference when accepted, and biblical principles are instilled in children.

The best Christmas gift you can give to your family is recognizing your sin, repenting of that sin, and receiving Christ as Savior.

Merry Christmas and a very successful New Year, the best of your life!

(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for 8 years. Boys authored 20 books, the most recent, Reflections of a Lifetime Fundamentalist: No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets! The eBook is available at Amazon.com for $4.99. Other titles at www.cstnews.com. Follow him on Facebook at Don  Boys, Ph.D., and visit his blog.  Send a request to DBoysphd@aol.com for a free subscription to his articles and click here to support  his work with a donation.)

Yale historian Jeroslav Pelikan mused along the same lines when he wrote, “Regardless of what anyone may personally think or believe about him, Jesus of Nazareth has been the dominant figure in the history of Western Culture for almost 20 centuries. If it were possible, with some sort of super magnet, to pull up out of history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how much would be left?”

Down through the ages Christians used the Bible to reform social structures: replacing the detrimental elements with wholesome and productive features. They believed the Bible should be the guiding influence in every area of life–family, education, politics, marriage, and personal devotion. Such belief totally transformed the world.

Historian J. M. Robbers declared in The Triumph of the West, “We could none of us today be what we are if a handful of Jews nearly two thousand years ago had not believed that they had known a great teacher, seen him crucified, dead, and buried, and then rise again.” Well said!

E. H. Lecky in his History of European Morals commented on the influence of Christianity declaring, “The greatest religious change in the history of mankind” took place “under the eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philosophers and historians who disregarded as contemptible an Agency [Christianity] which all men must now admit to have been . . . the most powerful moral lever that has ever been applied to the affairs of men.”

Yet, many Americans think of Christmas as relating to toys, trees, and tinsel along with some booze and an office party!

Early Christianity influenced the people of Rome to be kinder and more gracious than their earlier ancestors. In the ancient world, it only made sense to please your friends and punish your enemies. Conan the Barbarian in his famous answer to the question “what is best in life?” answered, “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.” He was really paraphrasing Genghis Khan who held the same sentiments. Such was life before Christ.

Then entered Christ into our world. Bethlehem. Bethlehem was visited by a couple from Nazareth, the wife large with child. That child changed the whole world. He taught everyone to love their enemies, and do good to those who despitefully used them. Shocking! No one had ever taught such altruistic and exceptional concepts.

Since the Bible taught people to love their neighbor and not murder him, it drew activists against gladiator fights. No church member could attend the contests in the arena. The gladiator contests came to an end. Slowly, the world was beginning to soften.

Christianity taught people to love and protect women and children, and treat them with care. Down through the ages a parent could do as he desired with a child and the government did not intervene. Women were property to be used and abused. Killing one’s child, especially a female, was applauded in ancient Greece and Rome! Infanticide in Rome was considered a beautiful thing. Christians rightly called it murder. The churches taught that harming a child was one of the greatest sins that a person could commit. Christ warned those who harm children, “It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.”

Jesus treated women equal to men which was scandalous behavior at that time. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:8, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” Scholar Thomas Cahill, author of The Hinges of History, opined that this was the first statement of equality in human literature! Even the concept of equality was revolutionary! Women were considered property but the Bible taught its readers that women were special creatures to be prized, provided for, and protected by men.

Aristotle said that a woman was somewhere between a free man and a slave and it was common in Greece and Rome for female babies to be exposed to the elements to die. Christians repudiated and rejected that thought and rescued such babies, adopting them as their own. Greeks and Romans thought unmarried women had no value and it was illegal for a widow to go more than two years without remarrying. However, the churches stopped that practice and financially supported the unmarried if they chose not to marry. Gibbon reports that the Church in Rome supported fifteen hundred widows, poor, and helpless and the church at Antioch supported three thousand of the same! No other civilization or religion ever did so.

In later centuries, widows in India were voluntarily or involuntarily burned on their husbands’ funeral pyres, known as suttee, but Christian leaders were a major influence in stopping that practice that had been common since the fourth century B.C.

Furthermore, Christians forbade sex outside of marriage thereby providing wives with security, stability, and safety not known in any previous society. Moreover, all sexual perversions– polygamy, polyandry, polyamory, and promiscuity–were forbidden by Christians thereby making a case for married sex that usually produced children in a loving, disciplined, and caring family. The elimination of human sacrifice, slavery, infanticide, polygamy, infanticide, divorce, incest, abortion, and adultery all accrued to the benefit of women and strong families.

Early Christianity elevated slaves and women to full church membership and eventually both were given the right to contract and to own property. It was shocking to enter a first century church and find women and slaves as equals to wealthy businessmen! Many Christian slaves had their feet washed by men of authority, since according to the Bible, they were brothers and equal in the eyes of God and the church. Society was stunned.

According to historian Glenn Sunshine in his book Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home, “Christians were the first people in history to oppose slavery systematically. Early Christians purchased slaves in the markets simply to set them free.”

Kenneth Latourette declared in his classic seven volumes A History of the Expansion of Christianity, “Such Protestant groups as the Baptists and the Quakers were concerned for the spiritual and social equality of men and women. Through the Protestant movement marriage and romance were now combined. What had been in the Middle Ages the courtly tradition of unwedded love was united with the Christian standard of monogamy.”

Christianity promoted monogamy and male as well as female sexual purity which elevated women to the pedestal they occupy in our society.

Christ changed the world one life at a time. He still is.

Boys’ new book  Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy,  click here. An eBook edition is also available.

Man was created in the image of God so within every man is a desire and capability of knowing God. No matter how pagan or how wicked people become, they never lose that ability to know God; however it is possible to know about God and not know God. People can know Him only through faith in Christ.

Philosophers and anthropologists have long speculated why religion is so prevalent in every society and has been since the beginning of time. The answer is rather simple: a loving God wanted to make Himself known to His creatures so He put a question inside every living soul: “Where did all this come from and why am I here?” That is an internal revelation of a sovereign God as John 1:9 says of Christ, “which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.”

Atheists have been discomforted lately with the possibility that the brain is wired for a knowledge of God! God’s Brain by Lionel Tiger who is the Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University and Michael McGuire suggest that faith is rooted in the very structure of the brain! So, it appears that faith, at least in something, is a part of life!

Additionally, there is an external revelation of God in nature. God made it obvious in nature that He existed as recorded in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.” As men tremble while watching leaping lightning during a dangerous thunder storm; as men watch the sun rise over the Atlantic; as men observe the intricacies of the hummingbird and monarch butterfly; as men watch the birth of a child; all are confirmation of a sovereign, all-powerful God.

While external revelation is not enough to provide personal salvation since only trusting in Christ will do that, it does provide enough information to produce a thirst for more information. However, rebellious, sinful man has often rejected the knowledge of a sovereign God and stooped to the construction and worship of idols.

The internal revelation is recorded in Romans 1:18, 19 declaring, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.” Clearly God has revealed Himself to all men who hold the truth in unrighteousness even New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins! Someone call Dick and tell him he does believe in God!

Rom. 1:20 reveals, “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” Notice that the things of God are “clearly seen” from the creation of the world and men are therefore without excuse. At the Judgment, men will not be permitted to argue that they were in ignorance.

It seems the writings of prominent philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, Seneca, etc., indicate they knew much more of the Divine nature than they thought safe or prudent to reveal to others. They were also aware of the Hebrew nation and their Scriptures and rejected them. Those judicious men, aware of their cultural and political circumstances, refused to honor God and turned to the most absurd idolatries and superstitions. Consequently, they degraded themselves by the most vile, vain, and vulgar deeds.

Most people of the ancient world and into the first century refused to profit by the light they had and chose darkness rather than the light. Because they refused to live up to the knowledge they possessed, they died in darkness.

However, men may argue that they know whether or not they believe in God; after all, they are the final authority as to what they believe. But they are not. Men have a deceptive heart and cannot know it according to Jer. 17:9. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Plus they have a rebellious nature so they cannot be trusted to declare what they believe! And people must understand that saying it a thousand times does not change the fact that they do believe in God. We were created with a need for God and a desire for Him even though sin gets in the way.

Gibbon remarked, that “the philosophers regarded all the popular superstitions [religions] as equally false; the common people as equally true; and the politicians as equally useful.” This was probably a correct account of the prevalent feelings among the ancients. Cicero, a few years before Christ, showed that they had the knowledge of one God: “There is something in the nature of things which the mind of man, which reason, which human power cannot effect; and certainly that which produces this must be better than man. What can this be called but God?” Again, he wrote, “What can be so plain and manifest, when we look at heaven, and contemplate heavenly things, as that there is some Divinity of most excellent mind, by which these things are governed?”

There is no doubt that the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers were convinced of God’s existence but thought it was the better part of wisdom to keep it from the hoi polloi. All for the stability of the state. Often the ruling dictator accepted the legislature’s award of personal deity upon him but no one really believed it.

Most people have always done what they knew to be wrong and refused to do what they knew to be right proving the whole world is guilty before God. Faith in Christ satisfies the inner craving in every human heart that mere religion cannot satisfy.

No, neither God nor I believe in atheists. Atheists don’t even believe in atheism!

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY  Watch these 8 minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota: “A Christian Challenges New Atheists to Put Up or Shut Up!”

I wonder if being a Bible believing Christian disqualifies me from being offended. Maybe I’m not permitted that luxury. Whatever the answers to the above, I want to go on record to the world that today I am not just offended, but very offended. I may even stomp my feet and hold my breath!

I’m offended that everyone is so panicky about offending Muslims, Methodists, and Manichaeists but consider it open season on Fundamentalists. From Atheism (which is a religion although it doesn’t have any holidays except April Fools’ Day) to Zoroastrianism, everyone seems to be very “touchy.” Well, I’m also “touchy” and I want everyone to know about it.

I’m offended that the God Haters (note the shameless use of the title of my eBook!) are offended by a manger scene while I can’t be offended by movies and television shows that present fornication, adultery, and perversion as accommodating, affirmative, acceptable, if not admirable; and at politicians whose first and most important qualification seems to be the ability to lie? I mean, I’m really offended.

I’m offended by homosexuals and the media who bully, badger, and blackmail decent people to accept, even approve, perversion?

I’m offended that perversion has been accepted as normalcy and those of us who believe it is wrong (as sane people have believed for thousands of years) are considered to be abnormal and haters.

I’m offended that radical leftists can spew out vile, violent, vicious vitriol with impunity against Christians but a Christian like Phil Robertson gets fired from a television show for stating his opinion about immorality. (I think it was not only opinion but facts, but then leftists can’t deal with facts.)

I’m offended at megapastors and television evangelists who distort, denigrate, and even deny the Bible to build a personal empire while living as drunks, deviates, and dopeheads!

I’m offended by loosey-goosey Evangelicals who polish Obama’s apple trying to make him look “religious” while they pretend to wear the mantle of Old Testament prophets.

I’m offended by educators who threaten children who bring a toy gun the size of a quarter to school and expel students who only draw a picture of a gun!

I’m offended at stupid educators who arrive at school each day and park their brains at the door along with their common sense.

I’m offended by the incredible incompetence of public educators from Kindergarten through graduate school.

I’m offended that over a million unborn babies are butchered annually in America and those of us who want to protect helpless children and women are considered cold, callous, and cruel!

I’m offended that an animal-rights group has filed a lawsuit seeking “legal personhood” for chimpanzees in the state of New York, the state with the nation’s highest abortion rates!

I’m offended that robbers, rapists, and racketeers walk our streets while the bandits, boozers, and bunglers in Washington are praised, pursued, and pampered.

I’m offended by PETA and other animal fanatics for trying to shame me for believing that animals are not children when PETA kills 2,000 dogs and cats each year!

I’m offended that the media and self-seeking politicians have made Nelson Mandela into an international icon when he was a Communist terrorist and traitor to his own nation.

I’m offended that politicians quickly lead our nation into foreign wars that are no threat to us and then are not called to an accounting in their desire to force “democracy” upon uneducated, uncouth, and unresponsive people.

I suppose I am naïve to think that there is an antidote for my offense-propensity and no doubt it is silly to think decent people will be treated fairly by others. But I’m a believer. I also believe Muslims will actually become peaceful; the Middle East nations will become Gardens of Paradise where civility, kindness, justice, and biblical principles will prevail; Obama will be impeached, then become Born Again and become a missionary to Pakistan; Taiwan will retake Red China; Pepsi will sell for a nickel again and any day they’ll find Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Parker and Amelia Earhart playing Monopoly in a Bronx yogurt joint?

Yes, I’m as easily offended as anyone and I’m not going to take it anymore. You ask, “What are you going to do about it?” Well, I’m not sure but I’m offended that you asked.

And to the drooling New Atheists and the God Haters (there, I did it again) out there, I wish even them a Merry Christmas and if that offends them, too bad. They’ll get over it.

http://bit.ly/1iMLVfY Watch my eight-minute videos of my lecture at the University of North Dakota as I challenged New Atheists to put up or shut up.

Copyright 2013, Don Boys, Ph.D.