Explaining My Previous Post on Christmas

It has come to my attention that my previous entry wasn't terribly well explained, and, perhaps, a bit extreme. My point, regarding some people/groups not wanting to acknowledge that the holiday they are celebrating is Christmas, is that, in my opinion, it's not as big a deal as I've been hearing people make it, and I'm getting kind of tired of, as Dr. Mohler called it, the "exceedingly thin skin" some Christians have developed. Again, to quote Dr. Mohler, "...it used to be that Christians were very concerned that Christmas was getting too commercial; now, there's some who think that maybe it's not commercial enough," and "if we as Christians are known mainly for complaining about "Happy Holidays" at the store, of all things, or out in the public square, then we're probably missing something."

I mentioned that I think it may be a good thing that the secular celebrations are becoming seperated from the sacred, and that the holiday non-Christians are celebrating isn't Christmas. I stand by that, but it does require some clarification:

1) "Christmas" is derived from the words "Christ's Mass". It is a holy day of obligation for traditional Christians (one of the two holiest days on the Christian calendar), a date which the Church long ago set aside to celebrate the birth of Christ*. As I explained in my previous post, Advent is the month leading up to Christmas in which the faithful prepare for the birth of Christ. The holiday is founded upon, and centers around, the central truth of Christianity: the Incartation, that mystery by which a holy God took upon Himself the flesh of men.

Many customs have grown up around Advent and Christmas, some as Christianized versions of pagan celebrations that occured in December, others as simply local traditions that spread to other cultures. Different cultures celebrate Christmas in different ways, but among the variations the point of it all is Christ. Without Christ, the celebration is no longer Christian, and it is no longer Christmas. Many good deeds may be done as part of the celebration, and good sentiments may reign over the hearts of every man, woman, and child, but if Christ is absent, it is not Christian.

Perhaps it is a little much to say that Christ is totally absent from our culture's celebrations of Christmas, although it has become harder to find Him (see, for instance, the television specials that proclaim that the meaning of the season is family/friends/loved ones). Certainly, many of the shoppers buying gifts at the stores and malls are doing so as a part of their celebration of Christmas, but many are doing so as a celebration of a cultural holiday which, as far as they are concerned, has nothing to do with Christ (or perhaps Jews celebrating Hanukkah).

Here's what I'm saying: if people don't want to celebrate Christmas, why not stop insisting that they still call it "Christmas"? Let them celebrate Festivus, or Generic-Nonoffensive-Holiday, and we will happily continue celebrating Christmas. This brings me to my next point.

2) I am not suggesting that Christians simply throw in the towel, pick up their toys, and go home. I am not suggesting that we simply say to the world, "Do whatever you want, we don't care." I am definately not suggesting that we, in any way, hide Christ from the world. Christ is the center of all that we do as Christians—He is what makes anything Christian. Rather, I am suggesting something similar to what Dr. Mohler said to his church: "Look, this is the deal: make sure that your Christmas cards have a Christmas message; make sure that your Christmas conversation is about Christ; make sure that you are focused on this. Use it as an opportunity for winsome witness, but I don't think it's really effective to say we're going to boycott a company because it has 'Happy Holidays' out front rather than 'Merry Christmas.'"

Christians should continue to engage non-Christians with the story of the Gospel, and Christmas is certainly a great time for that. However, I don't think that the way to go about it is to insist that non-Christians act like Christians and celebrate a Christian holiday that has no meaning to them. I also don't think that we should go around condemning those Christians who are trying to be sensitive to the fact that other people may not want to celebrate Christmas. Rather, I think that we need to take a step back and realize that we may have gotten things mixed up. To hear many "thin-skinned" Christians talk about it , it sounds like they believe that the way to change people's hearts is to change the culture (or to preserve the culture that is not a reality anymore). This, to me, seems akin to wanting a Porsche, and so taking your Geo Metro, modifying the body to look like a Porsche, and calling it a Porsche. It's not a Porsche, however well you may get it to look like one, because, under the exterior, it is still a Geo Metro. Rather, the way to change the culture is to change the hearts of the people.

So, in the end, let those who want to celebrate something other than Christmas celebrate it. Let us, as the Church, remember what we celebrate as we celebrate Christmas, and be always inviting those who will to join us in the celebration.

And a request for comments: does anyone agree, or am I just out of my mind? I know of a few people that read this—or, at least, have a subscription to it. Surely some of you have some thoughts, and maybe even better ideas on how to approach this subject. That's one reason why I post here; to subject my thoughts to the critique of anyone who may read them.



*I will note that not all Christians celebrate Christmas. The Puritans held to a form of worship that said that all worship must be explicitly from Scripture. As such, if I remember correctly, they did not sing hymns, but stuck only to the Psalms. They generally rejected the idea of "holy days," and, so, did not celebrate Christmas (however, they did, I believe, consider Sunday the Christian Sabbath, and, therefore, was set aside as a day of worship). In fact, when the Puritans came into power in England for a while, they outlawed Christmas.