Name: Tess Thompson
Home: St. Louis
Putting the Christ Back in Christmas
The Advent season is upon us, which means that Christian conservatives have started whining again about being wished "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that conservative groups are pressuring stores to have Christmas-centered advertising campaigns instead of holiday ones.
The article prompted a colorful, profanity-laced rant to my husband, which I won't reproduce here. But this kind of thing make me furious, for many reasons. (My husband merely noted, "Things like this make me glad I'm no longer a Christian.")
For one thing, why why why do these religious people care what the merchants say? Yes, stores want to take your money, and yes, it's mostly due to Christmas. But Christians have been complicit in the commercialization of Christmas. If all Christians successfully kept the focus on Christ instead of gifts, the advertising campaigns would have little effect, and the merchants would soon stop them. I find it disgusting that some Christians think it worth their time to lobby retailers to have "holiday sales" called "Christmas sales"; that implies that this rampant commercialism is an integral part of celebrating Christmas, instead of a distraction from it. I don't believe we should be looking to consumer culture to validate our religious beliefs.
Some groups are trying to put nativity scenes on state property and have holiday trees called Christmas trees. Why why why are they looking to the state to validate their religion? Courts have ruled that nativity scenes are allowable if they are part of a range of symbols, including Santa Claus and candy canes. Baby Jesus with a candy cane? Personally, I wouldn't want to make that compromise. I think nativity scenes are lovely on private property; in fact, we have a small one on our bookshelf.
My views about the separation of church and state are partially shaped by my stint in Godless Europe. My first year at Oxford, I was shocked when the Principal of my college read from the Bible during a Christmas celebration. But you know what? Because religion is state-sanctioned, people tune it out. Ninety-four percent of Americans believe in God, while only 76% of the British do. Most of my American friends at Oxford went to religious services; most of my European friends didn't. Living in England, I became convinced that religion has flourished in the U.S. precisely because of the separation of church and state.
You want to put the Christ back in Christmas? Go right ahead. Give money to the poor, care for the sick, visit prisoners. Pray. Put a nativity scene on your lawn or church, and shine a spotlight on it. Or vow, as Scrooge does at the end of A Christmas Carol, "I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." But don't look to the merchants or the state to keep it for you.
Origami Nativity by We Are CS on flickr.com.
posted by Tess | 5:00 AM
9 Comments:
Great post! I was beginning to think it was better to just ignore this whole ridiculous manufactured crisis over Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas and hope it would go away. But I'm persuaded by your thoughtful comments that perhaps we can use it to engage with important and deeper issues. Such as: Why do so many self-proclaimed defenders of Christianity in public focus on such trivial, purely symbolic--and, as you point out, possibly counter productive--issues as pressuring merchants to invoke Christmas in their sales campaigns, keeping up copies of the Ten Commandments in public, forcing children to recite religious language every morning in school, etc.? Could it be that we as Christians are failing to live up to that much harder challenge, the "narrow path" of Jesus's gospel, of actually caring for the poor, resisting oppression, pursuing peace and justice, and (most important for this immediate issue) holding up spiritual values over material ones?
I think you have a valid point. I especially like how you point out that it's ridiculous for Christians to look to the state or federal govt. to validate their religion. Personally, I couldn't care less what the stores call those evergreen trees with decorations on them. The thing about most Christians is they fail to keep the main thing the main thing. They get drawn into all these side arguments about what to call Chistmas trees and stuff. Instead we should be sharing the Gospel with everyone by our words and our actions. I'm not sure Jesus would get so bent out of shape that Christmas trees are being called "holiday trees."
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jesus wouldn't buy a tree.
jesus would only go to the mall to hang out at the food court and talk to the teenagers who are skulking around in a disaffected way.
ok, so really, i'm the last person to have any authority on what jesus would do. but i still don't think he would buy a tree.
some of the people involved in this nonsense want (shortsightedly, even from the their own point of view, i think) the usa to be a "christian nation." these are seen as easy ways to advance that agenda exactly because it seems trivial and therefore easy to get in a huff about without there being much in the way of consequences.
but most of the people involved probably wouldn't like the way a "christian nation" would work, if they thought about it--they just find it easy to get into huffs without thinking much about it.
anyway: tess, you go girl.
cheers,
tom
[reposted. reason: spelling.]
Very well written. I think you have a valid point.
My husband, from England, said the same thing about the difference between religious observation here versus in Europe. I was surpised, when looking through some of the elementary school stuff his mom kept, to find illustrated Bible verses. How odd! The idea that a kid in this country would do something like that in public school is just unthinkable! And yet, Keven is one of the least religious people I have ever met. For him, growing up, the church was just state-organized background noise.
The same is true for my (most likely) future sister-in-law who is from Italy. Is she Catholic? Sure. She breathes, too. It's just about that integral to her person, but she's not a "CATHOLIC!!!!!" like you can get over here (folks walking around Cincinnati with ashes on their forehead every spring, like gang colors :)
Keven's theory is that because the USA has no state-sponsored or sanctioned religion, church leaders here have to go out of their way to fill their churches for worship (and fill their coffers). With competition between churches comes extremes of ideals, symbolism, etc. as they struggle for the attention of an often apathetic populace. But as christian_left suggested, it seems that the narrow path just isn't flashy enough - and it's certainly a much harder idea to sell!
Go download this video clip from The Daily Show :)
Thanks for making me hysterical with laughter! I love Jon Stewart. He's the only thing that makes me regret not having cable.
Very eloquently put Tess. I agree with everything you said. I have some articles on my blog as well about religion and the holidays, but I am not quite as civil in my delivery as you are.
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