Keep Christ in Christmas!: Kevin H

Keep Christ in Christmas!

For many years now we have heard this refrain repeated far and wide.  Of course, we are just now finishing up another peak season for the use of this phrase.  As Christians scurry about, taking part in many facets of the consumerism and commercialization that have come to define the holiday that is supposed to celebrate the birth of our Savior, a good many still take the time to scold the culture at large of what Christmas is supposedly about.

How dare anyone say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” or write “Xmas” instead of “Christmas”!  Great shame and threats of boycotts and protests are besieged upon department stores, civic organizations, and political circles that have the nerve to celebrate the “holidays” with no mentions or depictions of Jesus.  Offense is taken at any individual who succumbs to the evils of our culture and wishes us a “Happy Holidays”.  We are warned this is all one more sign of a society that is going to hell in a handbasket!

The message pictured above was delivered by a man to whom many Christians clamor as they believe him to be a savior of sorts, fighting for us and our faith and with a spirit of “Keeping Christ in Christmas”.  Surely, if such a powerful world leader is standing up for Christianity and is revered by so many Christians, such a Christmas message would be in step with the faith and the person of Jesus of whom the holiday celebrates.  Surely, it would be a message filled with grace and humility, hope and love, forgiveness and reconciliation.

So please tell me, in the “Christmas message” pictured above, how is that in any way a representation of or a celebration of Christ?  Painfully and obviously so, it is nothing of the like – all the more so, rather than being Christ-like, it is instead in many ways anti-Christ.

Now, I expect nothing more from a man who has consistently demonstrated depraved behavior and attitudes his entire public life and whom has said he has never done anything for which he needs to ask God for forgiveness.  My main concern is not with a man who gives no real indicators that he is a fellow believer in Christ….. why would I expect a heathen to act like a Christian should, if they indeed are not a Christian.  Rather, my main concern is with the behavior and attitudes of many of my fellow believers who have adopted such a man as a champion and hero, and continue to excuse, justify, and even applaud his un-Christ-like behavior and attitudes.

“Keeping Christ in Christmas” should not be at all about making people say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”. Why in the world would any Christian be concerned that a secular organization or a non-Christian person say “Merry Christmas” if they don’t believe in Jesus or represent the Church in the first place?  What great accomplishment for the Kingdom of God does this bring about by having people say “Merry Christmas” when they still are not following after Jesus?  Why even if a person or organization is Christian, and yet they are addressing a broader culture that includes all kinds of people of other religions, beliefs and non-beliefs, do we feel such a need for them to force a “Merry Christmas” upon the broader group or upon another person who believes differently?

Instead, “Keeping Christ in Christmas” should be about those who follow after Christ, doing their best to faithfully represent Christ in their words, actions, and attitudes not just during the Christmas season but in all seasons.  It should be about Christians demonstrating the love, humility, grace, and peace of Jesus.  It should be about Christians unpresumptuously displaying and pointing our culture towards a much deeper meaning of Christmas than the rampant consumerism and commercialization that has become so typical of it.

So for many American Christians, “Keeping Christ in Christmas” may need to start with a humble confession and repentance for trying to gain and maintain power in order to coerce and enforce the broader culture into meeting their religious standards, especially during the Christmas season.  It may start with renouncing, rather than applauding, the words of a man they have clamored to and claims to be fighting for them, when he gives a “Christmas message” and so many other messages that are utterly antithetical to the ways of Christ.  And just maybe it starts with an honest and deeper reflection of what it means to be in the world but not of it, to not be conformed to the ways of the world, and to be transformed by the renewing of their minds so they can discern the good and acceptable will of God.