I know this is a little late being that Christmas is now over and all, but I just got around to reading the Christmas Day edition of the newspaper. Still, I found it interesting and thought I’d share it today in lieu of thinking up anything clever myself.
Christmas Long Has Been About Contrasts
by William McKenzie, editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News
“Let’s just get this out of the way at the top: Christmas has pagan roots.
All those Christmas trees we bring home have no connection to Matthew or Luke. Same with Yule logs and old Saint Nick, which trace to Old World pagan traditions. The Puritans were so appalled at the season’s rites they didn’t even celebrate Christmas.
You may have heard this before, so excuse me for bringing it up again. But this fact keeps eluding those in contemporary America who see secularism’s attack on Christmas as something akin to a broadside on the very doctrines of the faith.
I’m talking here about the likes of the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Fox News Channel talkers Bill O’Reilly and John Gibson. They’re wrought up about liberals and other fellow travelers taking the “Christ out of Christmas.” They even went after President Bush for his Christ-less “holiday card.”
I understand their point. We shouldn’t ignore the spiritual reason for the season. But they seem to forget the season is not all about purity on Earth. Instead, if offers a wonderful metaphor for Christian living. If you look closely, Christmas is about the sacred and the secular living alongside each other.
Go back to the original stories. We have the babe whom the world so rejects that his parents can’t even find a place to sleep. What more do we need to conk us on the head? Can’t we realize that Christmas has always been about the contrast between the Christ child and the world around him?
When I was a teenager, my brother had a Simon and Garfunkel 8-track tape that wonderfully summed up this duality. I loved to listen to its quiet rendition of “Silent Night,” foiled against accounts about Vietnam, racial strife and the rest of the day’s bad news. Talk about a contrast between sacred and secular.
It remains with us today. Some of us are ready again to kneel at the altar, sing wonderful hymns and weep once more at the mystery of the season. All the while, the sins of the day won’t leave us alone. We have man killing man in the streets, neighbors lusting after each other’s goods and husbands and wives betraying each other.
How can it be?
I bet that’s what drives the crusaders for Christmas wacky. And it will keep making them crazy until they realize that Christmas’ duality is no accident. It is an informative part of the Christian struggle, which is all about living out one’s faith amid a sinful world.
To be fair to the Falwells, O’Reillys and Gibsons, many Christians have missed this point over time, and not just about Christmas. They have wanted their faith to triumph over the larger culture.
The triumphalists, as they are known theologically, want to save society so they, in turn, can save individuals from destruction. The problem is, no amount of society-saving will radically change humans because, well, sin stains us all. And it will until Christ comes again.
At least that’s what Christian theology teaches. So it beats me how today’s triumphalists think they can save us from ruin if they just put Christ back in Christmas or get rid of abortion clinics or get everyone praying in schools.
They’re repeating the mistake liberal church folk made back in the 1930s. Some thought they could pass this New Deal program and that one and, presto, mankind would emerge into a new state of being.
Unfortunately, there’s this little thing called sin.
I’ve always liked those believers who simply want to engage the culture. They’re every bit as worried as the triumphalists about, say, filth on television. But they don’t possess the same instinct to create some new kingdom on Earth.
They live instead with the sense of doing right in a sinful world. Their mission may be simply loving their neighbor as they love God and themselves. It may be acting as a steward of our planet. Or it may be showing compassion for the least among us.
They have a healthier appreciation of our fallen world and seek to change it, not triumph over it.”
Thoughts?
Know what’s even MORE scary about these people?
They think they are actually doing “God’s Work”
Comment by WashLady — December 29, 2005 @ 5:24 pm
Interesting take, and some reasonable points.
Speaking only for myself, my gripe isn’t with the point of being inclusive. If we’re to win souls for Christ, we SHOULD be inclusive. Christianity isn’t an exclusive faith, though some portray it as such.
My main complaint is the fact that other faiths are allowed to practice publicly, but so many laws are being enacted whose intents are to bannish the use of Christian terms and practices. These times are predicted to come about in the Bible, but that doesn’t mean we should just roll over and accept them.
What is happening is we are being told we can’t say things such as “Merry Chrsitmas” because it infers a connection with Christ, which offends some people. It all boils down to accepting the world’s proclamation that it is politically incorrect, but he who is of the world is not of Him (paraphrased; don’t ask me where that scripture is LOL).
It is written that whosoever denies Him, He shall also deny before God, and I won’t take that route, no matter how many names I’m called, how self-righteous I’m accused of being, or how I’m told it offends other people. I’m not an in-your-face kind of Christian; I prefer to be approachable rather than preachy.
There’s so much more to this debate, but it’s not my wish to start a blog war on your site or make this comment any longer than it already is. It’s a good topic of debate, and what’s sad (IMHO) is that those who [I think] judge Christianity (and perhaps God) by the flawed human beings seeking to follow Him try to remove all vestiges of Him.
That isn’t the answer.
Comment by FTS — December 29, 2005 @ 8:56 pm
FTS-My thoughts and feelings run along pretty much the same lines as yours. I do believe we are to do more in this world than simply exist, hence, the Great Commission. We just have to walk a fine line of balance and not allow ourselves to become exclusive.
My family is healing from exclusivity. We were heavily involved (lay leaders, even) in a church for 11 years that talked a good game, worked tirelessly to “win souls to Christ”, but when it came down to it….it was an exclusive little club with a mentality that was closer to ‘yes, we want to save your soul, but you aren’t like us so we don’t really want you in our church.’ The horror stories I could tell.
I also agree that the laws are becoming more and more unfair. Muslim, Hindu, Buddist? Shout your faith from the rooftops! Christian? Don’t you dare say a prayer. It offends me!
Comment by Stacy — December 30, 2005 @ 1:09 pm