Banning creches in public spaces has been happening for a while now. Just like dominoes falling, once one public official banned a creche from a public space, others followed suit.

The latest banning happened in Santa Monica, California. At tothesource.org, Troy Anderson reports the brouhaha surrounding the work of people leading the Freedom From Religion campaign. They have successfully gotten judges to side with them.

With every win, the atheists (we'll call them Grumps) have continued to steal a bit more of our religious liberty.

The Grumps' actions, however, are completely understandable. The creche is a symbol of Christ, and they intuitively know that Christ is dangerous.

Herod knew it--he sent his guards to destroy the baby Jesus. Throughout history other people have understood Christ's power to redeem, too. Instead of sending out guards to kill baby Jesus, they've have tried to stamp out His power by brutally maiming or killing members of the body of Christ.

Christ's action has changed the world. Our merciful Savior fought Satan and won. He offers us a way out from under our death-sentence. But He requires something from us--complete surrender of our sin-filled hearts. The Grumps know this means that we're required to relinquish all our idols; the biggest one is our quest to become gods ourselves.

I've got news for the Grumps--outlawing creches still won't stop Christmas. Christ already won. Regardless of whether Americans continue to enjoy religious liberty, we will always have the most important of freedoms, Christ's redeeming act.

Ultimately, the Grumps sent a powerful message of their own--they acknowledged how powerful Christ is.

To help you prepare your hearts and minds for Christmas, I suggest you purchase a copy of our Advent series, "He Has Come!"