Contact: Wesley Strackbein, Vision Forum, 210-340-5250 ext. 222, wesley@visionforum.com

JAMESTOWN, Virginia, Mar. 8 /Christian Newswire/ -- As America turns 400 this year with the founding of Jamestown in 1607, officials leading America’s 400th birthday commemoration have banned the term “celebration” in conjunction with their efforts and sought to discredit the Christian influence of the Jamestown Colony in keeping with politically correct dogma. Countering the claims of the Left, Vision Forum Ministries is hosting an alternative event on June 11-16 in Virginia’s historic triangle that will celebrate God’s providential hand in the founding of America four centuries ago.

“For nearly two centuries, our leaders have recognized the importance of celebrating the providential goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ through our nation’s birth at Jamestown in 1607,” observed Doug Phillips, President of Vision Forum Ministries, “But this year during America’s Quadricentennial, officials are intent on belittling our nation’s Christian past and painting the Jamestown settlers as blood-thirsty cannibals, environmental terrorists, and worse. They have even gone so far as to ban the word ‘celebration’ because, after all, as one official stated, ‘You can’t celebrate an invasion.’”

The Jamestown 2007 is hosting ten signature events as part of their year-long effort to commemorate the Jamestown Settlement. Their two most recent events -- The State of the Black Union Jamestown Conference and “Voices from Within the Veil” -- both held in the month of February, featured divisive commentary critical of America’s founders.

“At the State of the Black Union Jamestown Conference, Rev. Otis Moss -- as part of a panel discussion with the Rev.’s Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson -- invoked a highly charged comparison to Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan, declaring that the Jamestown settlers were guilty of a mass ‘holocaust’ and ‘lynchings,’” noted Phillips. “This leftist spin coming from event organizers and their featured guests concerning the legacy of Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, and the rest of the Virginia Company is grossly misleading and utterly irresponsible.”

As an alternative to the historical revisionism of the Jamestown 2007-sponsored activities, Vision Forum Ministries is hosting the Jamestown Quadricentennial in Virginia’s historic triangle on June 11-16 to celebrate America’s four hundredth birthday. This national event will include orations by some of America’s leading Christian historians and teachers, Faith and Freedom mini-history tours, dramatic reenactments, fife and drum music, boat and balloon rides, a memorial dedication, and more. The week-long event will culminate with a large celebration event on the grounds of Fort Pocahontas -- located a short distance from Old Jamestown Island, where the original colonists settled in 1607.

“Unlike the politically correct scholars and outspoken revisionists who are at the center of the Jamestown 2007 events, we are not embarrassed by our nation’s Christian heritage,” remarked Phillips, “And it is our prayer that grateful Americans from sea to shining sea will join us in Jamestown this June as we offer hope to this generation, even as we honor the memory of our faithful forefathers.”

To learn more about the Jamestown Quadricentennial: A Celebration of America’s Providential History, visit www.jamestown400th.org.