The war on Christianity in the United States has become increasingly overt in the past several years. Christian schools and Christmas parades are being targeted by left-wing lunatics, and pro-life advocates are being arrested in front of their children.

The first of three attacks in this season of Advent concerns the baby Jesus in a keffiyeh manger scene at the Vatican, where Pope Francis prayed in front of it.

The keffiyeh scarf is used as Gazan headwear. Since the 1930s, the keffiyeh has symbolized Gazan anti-Jew sentiment. Today, it has been used to symbolize anti-Israel protests around the world. While the keffiyeh covering the manger at the Vatican may have been an attempt to symbolize Gazan Christians, that was not made clear. Ergo, viewers were left to sort out the meaning for themselves — and right now, the keffiyeh symbolizes pro-Hamas to most people. The political statement it made to the world wasn’t a good one.

The appropriate backlash to the display prompted it to be removed. Jesus came to redeem people all around the world, and the political arguments of this timeframe should not sully that message.

The second attack is far more sinister. Netflix has a new animated movie marketed for kids called “That’s Christmas.” The film is set in a small fictitious English town called Wellington-on-Sea. The children decide to write their own version of the Christmas story, which they describe as a “vegetarian, multi-cultural fun fest with lots of pop songs and stuff about climate change.” While that should have parents quickly changing the movie, what happens during the Christmas play is far more offensive.

In one of the scenes, Jesus’s mother, Mary, is holding Him — a watermelon with a carved face on it — while singing Madonna’s “Papa Don’t Preach.” That 1986 pop song is about a teen girl who gets pregnant and has to make the choice to keep or abort her baby.

The scene gets worse. In case you didn’t get the abortion joke reference before, the writers make sure you do. The scene concludes with one of the children accidentally knocking watermelon baby Jesus out of Mary’s hands. The audience gets splattered with red guts, then cheers. Absolutely revolting.

Desecrating the Christmas story — the Savior Himself — in this way is truly beyond the pale. However, sacrilege directed at Christianity is considered safe because we will protest, complain, and even boycott, but Christians also accept that the world is going to hate and mock them as part of their following Christ. You wouldn’t catch Hollywood directors going after Mohammad in this way — mainly because a Muslim would probably kill them for the offense.

Finally, Iowa’s Satanic temple wants to do its own anti-Christmas “celebration.” Last year, the Satanic temple erected a Baphomet statue in the capital — which one brave Christian knocked down and destroyed. This year, the Satanists sought to have a whole event complete with Krampus — a demonic Christmas character— and their own version of Satan Carols. Thankfully, Iowa’s Department of Administration Services (DAS) ruled that this event could not take place because some of the events would be harmful to minors.

The Satanists’ whole position is anti-child, so this was a very appropriate call by the DAS. Satanists celebrate abortion and gender confusion and elevate self-worship.

Regardless of the attacks, Christians are waiting in hopeful anticipation for the moment at midnight on Christmas Eve when the last candle is lit, and the mystery and miracle of a virgin birth and a perfect Savior are celebrated. When we see the attempts to use Christmas to pervert and destroy that message, our mission should be clear: Proclaim the good news louder. The King is born. God and sinners are reconciled.