Church

How to Win the War on Christmas: Stop Fighting It

by Jonathan Merritt

Retailers in Texas who celebrate Christmas better shout it from their garland-wrapped rooftops lest they incite the anger of local Christians. Conservative mega-church First Baptist Church in Dallas (FBCD) has just launched a web site with the expressed purpose of keeping Christmas “everywhere.” By logging onto www.grinchalert.com, shoppers can place businesses on the “naughty” or “nice” list depending on whether or not a business acknowledges Christmas.

“When companies use misplaced political correctness to halt the celebration of Christmas, they belong on the ‘Naughty List,’” the website says. “We also want to know which companies are celebrating Christmas with excitement and meaning–especially those who keep Christ in Christmas where He belongs!”

Everyone recognizes, of course, that the holiday most people are celebrating this time of year is indeed called “Christmas.” According to Rasmussen, 92% of Americans say they celebrate Christmas. However, 58% of those who celebrate Christmas are more likely to wish a casual acquaintance “Happy Holidays.” FBCD Pastor Robert Jeffress claims he intends the website to combat such political correctness in a way that's “fun.” But some don’t seem to be enjoying it quite as much as he is.

Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis of Congregation Kol Ami said, “Rather than honoring Christmas, this kind of campaign feels meant to remind me and people like me we are second-best members of this society . . . I realize every movement needs an issue to rally around. How about ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’?”

The Rabbi makes a good point, but his call for a Christmas ceasefire will likely fall on deaf ears. At least as long as Christian culture warriors like Jeffress see Christmas not just as a sacred holiday, but also a critical battleground. In the "War on Christmas," lines must be drawn in the December sand to make sure that the famed greeting “Merry Christmas” isn’t replaced by its evil half-brother “Happy Holidays.”

Without fail, certain radio and television personalities devote a significant amount of time to this so-called “war” each year. A few years ago, Fox News' John Gibson released the book, The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Holiday is Worse than You Thought. About the same time, Focus on the Family began their “I Stand for Christmas” campaign, which included a site where consumers rate retailers based on how “Christmas-friendly” they are. Last year, I found a stack of “I Say Merry Christmas Bumper Stickers” in our church mail room. Beginning around Thanksgiving, you can hear the sounds of clips being loaded in churches and Christian homes across the country.

The more I watch this holiday holy war, however, the more convinced I am that many American Christians have not fully thought through the issues at play. For example, we claim that we want Jesus to remain “the reason for the season,” but our actions belie a different focus. As I wrote in The Huffington Post last Christmas:

Most of us spend a paltry amount of time reflecting on Jesus compared to the massive amount of time we spend shopping at the mall, attending parties, wrapping and opening gifts, and eating huge meals. We might spend an hour at church on Christmas Eve holding a candle and singing "Silent Night" but we likely spent four hours at the mall the day before. Sure, we may gather around grandpa for a stiff five minutes and listen to him read a chapter from the Gospel of Luke, but we hardly listen. We are licking our chops at the mountains of presents behind him. In reality, Christmas for Americans--and yes, even the Christian ones--is shaped more by Currier and Ives than Joseph and Mary.

I often wonder what Jesus would think if he returned to earth at Christmas and surveyed the way all of his followers were celebrating his birth. What would the one who "has no place to lay his head" think about our gaudy decorations and lavish presents totaling over $400 billion in America alone? Would Jesus be pleased to find us remembering his lowly birth with materialism and gluttony?

It is nothing short of hypocrisy for American Christians to force others to “keep Jesus in Christmas” when we helped kick him out of the holiday long ago.

[For ways to curb Christmas consumerism, see Advent Conspiracy.]

Additionally, we need to think through what we’re asking for. By waging the war on Christmas, we are pressuring many people who don’t actually trust upon Christ to verbally acknowledge him. In so doing, we may be actually promoting a limp cultural religion that fails to promote radical gospel-centered living. How much true value is there in forcing those who aren’t Christians to use the name of Christ? As church historian Steve McKinion has pointed out, such things “may very well be at the heart of ‘using the Lord’s name in vain.’”

If we want to win the war on Christmas, we need to stop fighting it. Enjoy the season, reflect on Christ, break bread with those you love, and look for opportunities to meet the needs of others. Such things will seem more authentic to a skeptical world and scream “Merry Christmas” in ways a retailer never can.

Comments

Bruce Robertson

well said

Henry Brown

i concur with bruce, well said.

and add you echo some of the thoughts i've had since i first heard about FBCD's campaign. thanks for sharing

Linda Church

Well said. Enjoyed the article.

Daniel

Wow, "Q" has proven to be a healthy challenge for this 50 year old ministry veteran. Johnathon's comments are well stated and stinging.

I question the statement by Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis that this issue makes him feel like a second-best member of society. I feel confident in conjecturing that Pastor Robert Jeffress and many Christians feel the substantial efforts made by the mysterious omnipresent "They" to replace "Christmas" with "Holidays" (amongst other societal issues) has indeed made many believers feel like second - best (or third or fourth . . .) members of society. A healthy balance to Rabbi Dennis would be Ben Stein's well traveled statements about his positive view of Christmas (even though he is a Jew). His words have been verified as authentic at Snopes.com

Personally I don't want to fight a war of any kind. It's a complex issue though. Many boomers get it that society changed on our watch. We even participated both passively and actively. Many of us feel the tension to do something to "fight" back. Two years ago I probably would have liked Pastor Jeffress website. But after reading books like UnChristian; United by Faith; Radical Reformission; The Hole in our Gospel amongst others my view of being salt and light has and continues to change radically. God's word is amazingly fresh and insightful with words I have read dozens of time now jumping off the page to impact me.

Although I believe Jonathon has oversimplified the issues I ultimately agree that war's of any kind come at too high a price. The collateral damage is devastating. We will do far better to follow the Apostle Peter's advice and "live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us."

Ed Stych

I completely agree with Merritt's comments regarding consumerism and how many Christians have largely removed the holiness from Christmas.

But the rabbi protests too much and is whiney. We Americans bend over backwards to try to honor Jewish and Muslim holidays, especially anything that occurs close to Christmas so they don't feel left out of the "main" celebration.

Yes, I want to hear Merry Christmas. No, it's not a hill on which I'm willing to die. But "Happy Holidays" is an irritant that comes along with the increasing secularization of our culture.

Marty

Oh, the proverbial nail on the head - thank you so much! Not so many years ago, we Christians were lamenting the commercialization of Christmas. Now we are mad when it isn't observed by the great malls of commerce. We can't have it both ways.

Even if the rabbi is whiny and the complaints of religious minorities are petulant, in my opinion they don't hold a candle to our arrogance and lack of love - the love which "came down" at Christmas.

Jeff Guthrie

Thanks Jonathan Merritt, for a thoughtful take on what should be a non-issue. Christmas is a cultural construct at best, certainly not a biblical mandate. It has at least as many secular (and even pagan) roots as sacred, and was shunned by many Christian traditions over the centuries--including the Puritans who were the first of the American Christian communities.

I'm a bit shocked by the "yes, but..." nature of some of the commenters who still seem to want to hold on to their offended sensibilities when others who are involved in the commercial aspects of the season don't kowtow to their personal beliefs and values. As if Christianity is so fragile that the greeting from the Wal-Mart clerk will somehow affect the well-being of a 2000 year old faith tradition. The most "whiney and petulant" perspectives I've seen are coming from the Christians.

By the way, those who believe that the "irritant" of Happy Holidays reflects some passing of a golden age of Christianized American culture don't seem to understand that the world is always secular--by definition--and we believers are not of this world. The axe that Pastor Jeffress and others grind is political, not spiritual. Time for these folks to shed a little more light and a little less heat.

Wolfgang Fernandez

Yes!

Ed Selby

"Happy Holidays" fits this time year perfectly. There are many religious and secular festivals celebrated by people various faiths and cultures during this time of year. Christmas is by far the biggest and most brash, but it is hardly alone or even unique.

I do like the sentiment of this post. There is no war on Christmas. There is just Christmas - a holiday and celebration with roots and traditions older than Jesus, and one that has withstood more slings and arrows than have been tossed at it in the past 15 years.

https://thewaronchristmas.wordpress.com

Christopher Noyes

This is a great post.

To comment on those who find "Happy Holidays" as an "irritant": I work in retail. I am a Christian. I say "Happy Holidays" to my customers. But even before I said it in a sense of respecting others' traditions, I said it in the sense of encompassing the season -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years (all holidays that most Christians, I believe, celebrate). So I do not find the use of the phrase "Happy Holidays" as a secularization.

It's, unfortunately, just one more instance of "Christians" misplacing their passion for their faith. If, as the post suggests, we placed more emphasis on something like the Advent Conspiracy, it would be a greater witness to our faith than saying "Merry Christmas."

Hogwash. This is total hogwash. "Stop fighting (standing up) for what you believe in." No way on earth I'm gonna do that.

The author never really discusses how "Stop Fighting It" will successfully keep Christ as the center of Christmas.

I smell an AGENDA!

Dave Taylor

RP, the author spends the time and space he has to criticize the idea of fighting a war on Christmas. This is one blog post. But he probably feels, as many of us do, that a Christ-exalting and -honoring lifestyle for the other eleven months of the year is more important than a war of words from Thanksgiving to Dec. 24, especially in contrast to the materialistic excesses of the season.

The 'Wag the Dog' war on Christmas http://disjournal.blogspot.com/2010/12/wag-dog-war-on-christmas.html

RP, did you even read the post? This is not "Hogwash", is called "Truth". I agree with Dave, if we (Christians) are so dead set on fighting the "War on Christmas", then why are we not fighting it 12 months out of the year. Honestly, its embarrassing. Get off the band wagon.

Great post. Well said...and thank you.

Seven Star Hand

The only way to win the so-called War on Christmas is to finally prove the truth and force religious leaders to cease and desist from their lies and exploitation. I have published comprehensive proof that the symbology of these canons is based on advanced science and natural observations that completely expose pivotal ancient lies. Here's my latest press release on the topic.

http://www.i-newswire.com/seven-star-hand-unveils-death-blow/79007">Seven Star Hand Unveils Death Blow in War on Christmas

Telling lies about me for two millennia has dire consequences, and now I intend to collect on what is due.

Here is Wisdom...

Darren Maybee

Hey RP you are right! What are these guys doing? Just giving up on any tradition we hold dear? We can't even say Christmas? This whole website is nothing but a disguised liberal and progressive "soft" Christian website preaching the social gospel! They are just trying to portray "soft" Christianity to get on websites like the Huffington Post and ABC News so people will like them. Funny, if you actually tell people that we are all sinners and can only go to Heaven by accepting the blood of Jesus Christ, you may not get as many interviews on CNN!

Troy Konicki

Thanks again JM for an awesome post. I pray that we would continue as a church to find Christ-centered ways to "keep Christ in Christmas" through sacrifice and charity rather than grandstanding and "Us/Them-ing."

Phil Miglioratti

What does "Merry Christmas" mean in the first place? It seems to me it is a genuine but polite greeting not much different than "Happy Valentine's Day." I am not equating the truth nor the purpose of Valentine's Day with Christmas. I am only recognizing that even when we Christians say Merry Christmas to another believer, we are at least in some measure encouraging them to enjoy family and food. Faith is foundational for the history and reality of our faith in Christ but our observance of his arrival is far from a completely religious observance. Try suggesting that next year, in order to completely focus on Christ, your family (or congregation!) will not endure the frenzy of purchasing gifts for people who are already in the fold; you will devote time off to loving neighbors and caring for the poor.

The past few years, rather than switching to Happy Holidays or demanding strangers hear me say 'Merry Christmas, I have been saying: "Have a blessed holiday,." In that way I am being socially sensitive but also offering the hope that whatever holiday or holy day they observe, they will look for God's blessing.

Maybe the issue is that we have a choice between exerting our rights to say whatever we divine well please or learning from the sermons on the mount and Mars Hill.

Phil

www.Philsblog.net

Phil Miglioratti

Just ran across this from colleagues Eddie and Alice Smith -

Christmas Prayer

Dear God, deliver me from the phony Christmas, the

one that reaches its materialistic tentacles out to capture me and rob me of the real thing.

Deliver me from the mania and madness of harried schedules, from frantic shopping...the acquiring of goods for people who don't need them, don't want them, won't wear them and can't use them.

Save me from the folly of mood changes brought on by holly, mistletoe, wreathes, boughs and eggnog. For once, O Lord, clear my ears of the ringing of the cash register and in their place let me hear the angel's song.

For once let me fill my soul with the reading of the Christ-child, the wisemen, the angels, and the star instead of feeding my body on fruit cake and caloried candies and cakes.

O God, don't let me fall prey again to all the trappings of the season to the point that I miss the real event. Lord, deliver me from over fondness of food, a yen to party, the urge to spend with the plastic cards, and the temptation to overdo it in every department.

And Lord, in the giving and exchanging of myriads of gifts, let me not forget to give a worthy gift to Him whose birthday it really is. Amen

Dr. Bob Moorehead

---------------------------------------------------------

Have a very Christ-filled holiday with lots of joy and love for all your family. Let 2011 be a year of great kingdom fulfillment.

Love, Alice & Eddie Smith

http://www.prayerbookstore.com/

Galen Hershey

The article sounds good at first read. But a very serious problem remains. If nobody fights the war against Christmas and its traditions are all effectively removed over time by liberal activists so that Christmas is no longer celebrated (and that would happen); if Christians allow Christmas to die and replace its traditions with a mantra of “Love your neighbor as yourself”, the one holiday that had once been observed on a nearly worldwide scale of recognition of Jesus birth will be forever lost.

True, the real meaning of Christmas is lost to many anyway. But is that a reason to let the whole tradition die? Will we also let the tradition of celebrating the resurrection die at Easter also? Is there any Christian tradition worth fighting for? Maybe since there is so much opposition to the traditions of marriage and the family we should not fight for them either and simply adopt the new focus of “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

If Christians do not take a stand against the continual attacks of the enemy against the God given freedoms, remembrances, and traditions of the Christian faith, then the enemy will prevail against them, at which point he will undoubtedly come after our focus of “Love your neighbor as yourself” until we let that one die also.

Mary G.

When my in-laws were still living, my husband, daughter and I would travel to their town to observe the Holy Day commemorating the birth of the Holy Child with them.

My husband's siblings would always flood us with gifts, even after we begged them not to, requested they make charitable donations in our names instead, or to spend the day being of service with us in a soup kitchen or some other appropriate venue. All of these were refused in favor of spending LOTS of money in the name of commemorating Jesus' birth.

My own little family would spend a week making our gift plans, then go buy all the ingredients, and spend day after day baking piles of goodies for each family. My daughter and I would uniquely decorate a big bag for each family, then fill each one with home made breads, cakes, cookies, candies and other treats. This was the only gift we gave each family, including our parents.

Two weeks before Christmas, my family and I would drive to the Grandparent's home and help them decorate their tree, and put up all the traditional family decorations and ornaments. I have a photo from every year of my daughter and her Grandparents posed before the newly decorated tree, smiling in delight at the results of our joyful day of loving service to her Grandparents.

The only "holiday decorating" we did at home was to set up two Nativity sets (one large and more detailed, and a "toy" one for my daughter to play with and rearrange endlessly). On Christmas morning, we would pile all the bags of goodies into our car, carry our Bible with us, and on the hour long drive to Grandma and Grandpa's, we're read through the Gospels for all the bits and pieces of the stories of the Birth of Baby Jesus, reminding ourselves of the importance of the special Day.

The funny thing about all this, is that WE (my husband, daughter and I) are not even Christian, while our "Christian" family were solely focused on the material orgy of "stuff". Go figure. So it seems to me the only "war on Christmas" is being perpetrated by the Christians themselves, by being consumed by greed, all the while calling it "being generous". Yeah... right.

Kent W.

The word 'Holidays' is derived from a contraction of the words 'Holy Days'. What's so Un-Christian about that?

@Galen: We Christians have never been called to fight a culture war or to preserve a tradition. We are called to spread the good news about Jesus and the salvation and new life we have available in Him. There is no amount of secularization or paganization of our culture that can stop us from being faithfull to that call. God doesn't need us to protect our culture for him, the battle belongs to the Lord and he will preserve what he wants to remain. When we mistake cultural preservation for faithfulness to the gospel, we risk alienating the very people he has called us to share his love with. How can they know him if we don't tell them using love instead of building brick wall.

Daniel

While I agree in part with the above sentiment, the primary problem is not wishing one another 'Merry Christmas' vs 'Happy Holidays' It's more when retailers go out of their way to sell "holiday trees" "holiday lights" and have "holiday sales"

To have the policy that "we as a retailer wish customers 'happy holidays'" is fine but to call what is clearly a Christmas tree a holiday tree is absurd and should be addressed. I respectfully submit that while you have a point, anyone who thinks 'happy holidays' is the point of contention (or a problem) misses the point.

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How to Win the War on Christmas: Stop Fighting It

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