‘Tis the season for Christian advocacy groups to come out of the woodwork defending your right not to be offended by pagans who refuse to recognize Christmas by wishing you a Merry one. Liberty Counsel just released its “Naughty and Nice” list of retailers so you can be a discriminating Christian and only spend your money where the C-word is liberally used. Focus on the Family is also helping you out by posting its annual “Christmas-friendly” shopping guide.
Ironic, isn’t it, that from its inception the Christian faith has discouraged the very thing that our consumer-oriented Christmas has become: the accumulation of possessions. Yet in its present manifestation the Christian faith is most concerned that we not spend our wealth or accumulate more stuff without someone recognizing Jesus’ birth at some point in the process. Which is more blasphemous: a retailer who refuses to wish you a “Merry Christmas” or a Christian who insists that his spending spree be blessed by attaching the name of Christ to it?
If the Wal-Mart associate fails to wish you a “Merry Christmas,” or your local municipality refuses to display a creche on the front lawn of your city hall, consider yourself among the “persecuted church.” Christian advocacy groups like Focus on the Family, Liberty Counsel, and the American Family Association stand at the ready to defend your right as a Christian NOT to be persecuted, even though the Bible clearly indicates that those who live for Christ will suffer.
But does not hearing “Merry Christmas” after you swipe your Master Card really equate to being ripped away from your family, placed in a “reeducation camp,” and tortured until you recant your faith, a scenario repeated daily in places like Viet Nam and Cambodia? Could anyone here please point me to one example of any real persecution presently being inflicted upon any Christian or group of Christians in the United States?
How about some biblical perspective from Sinclair Ferguson from his book, In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life
I took the hand of my toddler son (it was several decades ago now) as we made our way into the local shop on the small and remote Scottish island where earlier that year I had been installed as a minister. It was Christmas week. The store was brightly decorated and a general air of excitement was abroad.
Without warning, the conversations of the customers were brought to a halt by a questioning voice from beside me. My son’s upraised index finger pointed at a large cardboard Santa Claus. “Daddy, who is that funny-looking man?” he asked.
Amazement spread across the faces of the jostling shoppers; accusing glances were directed at me. Such shame – the minister’s son did not even recognize Santa Claus! What likelihood, then, of hearing good news in his preaching at the festive season?
Such experiences can make us bewail how the Western world gives itself over annually to its Claus-mass or commerce-mass. We celebrate a reworked pagan Saturnalia of epic proportions, one in which the only connection with the incarnation is semantic. Santa is worshipped, not the Savior; pilgrims go to the stores with credit cards, not to the manger with gifts. It is the feast of indulgence, not of the incarnation.
In the words of that great theologian John Lennon, “So, this is Christmas…?” If it is, you can keep it.
Isn`t the point more about how anything remotely Christian is a target. “Merry Christmas”, in point, may not be my main concern. However, it is just one more example of the war to sterilize our culture, of even a hint, of our Christian traditions. This is just a very small step, but it helps sustains the process, to the day that Christians will suffer in this country like those around the world.
Excellent post. Cuts right to the bone. Thanks for putting things in the proper perspective. Persecution appears to be a relative concept, whether it deals with Christmas in America or mere opportunities to worship in India. I think I’ll deal with the pagan retailers.
(Full disclosure: I don’t have to endure or even contemplate the Christmas friendly stores issue because for about 10 years now I’ve done all my Christmas shopping online.)
Happy Thanksgiving (and Merry Christmas).
I’ve always wondered what biblical justification Focus on the Family uses to support it’s crusade to protect “Christian Rights”…
Don’t tell them that “holiday” is a contraction between Holy + Day.
They might ban that as well.
Christmas is a Christian holiday, and therefore should be celebrated by Christians only; too bad that we made Christmas a cultural holiday.
If you’re an atheist you can have April 1st.
I love the entry from Sinclair Ferguson.
Just this past Wednensday evening, I took my 4 boys (Ages 2,3,5 & 7) to our local grocery store to pick up some milk. The store had a man dressed at Santa and they were inviting their kids to take a photo with him. My kids wanted to, and I obliged. After the photo though, my 3 year old looks at the man and says, “I know you are not real”. The man looks at him, then at me, and I just smiled. The people waiting in line looked at me simply mortified that I didn’t shoosh my kids about Santa being fake. Heaven forbid my 3 year old out them about their own lying.
Wow, another ahha moment that starts at the fringe and finally makes it to mainline Christian intellect… Now if we can just eliminate “Harvest Festivals on Halloween”(arrrgh) and the Easter Bunny…(No one even bothered to change the pagan name of Easter)…
Should we as Christians celebrate anything???? Now that’s just silly of course we can! Thanksgiving is a wonderfully classic example albeit many of us over do it here in the gluttony department…*: ) If we want to commemorate the birth of Jesus and the Resurrection…I’m all for it, but let’s put aside the pagan rituals when we do…keeping it all to ourselves at home, maybe not such a wonderful idea…after-all, we want to share the JOY in JESUS…*: )
Wow. Stop the presses. I think I actually agree with Paul here.
I wrote a column for the paper I work at a few years ago about this whole “War on Christmas” idiocy (Stephen Colbert actually addresses this better than anyone). It’s such a weird study in hypocrisy on both sides.
On the one hand, retailers like to say that they are not favoring Christianity over other religions, so they use the generic “Happy Holidays.” But how many stores have Hanukkah sales? How many Kwanzaa decorations or gifts are being sold? You don’t here a lot of Ramaddan carols on the loudspeaker. And the one day of the year the store ISN’T open is Dec. 25. So the corporation makes millions off of Christmas but refuses to acknowledge the holiday.
On the other hand, I know people who angrily make a comment if they aren’t wished Merry Christmas and do so in a way that belies the gentleness and love they are supposed to display as Christians. People get frustrated and angry in long lines at a time of year when we are supposed to be celebrating the great peace and reconcilliation of the Gospel. And there is no other time of the year when we are more stressed, in debt, greedy and downright worldly as at Christmastime. So many of the same people who demand “Merry Christmas” are actually ignoring the holiday with their actions!
And on another matter, I actually work part-time at a Christian bookstore on the weekends. And during the holidays I’ve actually been yelled at customers for saying “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas. It was not a conscious thought and nothing was intended…I simply said Happy Holidays as a way to encompass Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s…which are all holidays that occur during that same period! So people still get bent out of shape when there’s nothing negative intended by it!
I think we have much more important issues to get our choral robes in a twist over. This is a stupid battle that really needs to be left by the wayside. It’s not worth fighting over because it’s all just semantics (and I’m always up for semantics).
This issue is a prime example why nonchristians scoff at our stance on issues. Unreal how shallow these folks are.
Yea,
How about I spend my money wherever I want and use His money in obedience to God and according to the precepts of His word. God rules over all things, and created all things good, whether it has a Merry Christmas banner above it or not. Thank you very much secular culture for turning a HOLY-day into a chinsy marketing event, I will keep my advent devotionals to myself at home and in the church!
Hysterical the stuff we get our dander up about!
You’re gonna get in trouble for that Lennon comment.
Wow. Fantastic post and what a poignant gospel decision before us: will we concern ourselves with the Christ incarnate or wholesale consumption.