(Updated: 2008-12-17)
There are wars, and there are “wars”.
The “war” on Christmas is not a war, and if there was a “war”, most of the people up in arms about it would be fighting on the wrong side.
X-Mas
“X” didn’t begin as an “X” it began as Greek Chi which is the first letter of Jesus’ name.
It’s an abbreviation.
Should you have to know this? Yes.
Are there plenty of people out there who don’t know this? Yes.
Should you be obnoxious and tell them all about it? No.
But before you go to “war” you ought to have your facts straight.
“X-Mas” is not taking the Christ out of Christmas. It may mean being ignorant that Christ is *in Christmas* but that’s not what people are really fighting over, are they?
“Happy Holidays”
There are those who object because people don’t say “Merry Christmas” they say “Happy Holidays.”
This objection is also strange, given that even Christians celebrate New Year’s (Eve) which is another holiday. So there is more than one holiday, so what are we supposed to say “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”? Really? Every time you pass someone in the street? The same people you ask “How ya’ doin’?” during the year, never really pausing for an answer and kinda secretly hoping they won’t really answer with anything other than the meaningless “fine”?
Those are the people you’re going to say “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” to?
“Holiday”
Oh, and if we’re arguing over words, should I point out that you shouldn’t even being saying “holiday” at all? It’s a contraction of “holy” and “day” so you ought to be saying “Happy Holy Days”.
If you think your God is left out of “Happy Holy Days” then you’ve really got some explaining to do.
Merry Christmas
Surely someone will say:
But that PROVES that we shouldn’t say “Happy Holidays” we ought to say “Merry Christmas!”
Yeah, except that “Christmas” is also a contraction of “Christ’s Mass”.
As in the day that you went to Mass to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Are you going to Mass on December 25th?
If no, then aren’t you violating the “true meaning of Christ’s Mass”?
“Christ’s Mass” didn’t originally mean Protestant services on 24th because it’s more convenient than going to church on Christmas Day, when really you have a lot of things you’d rather do, like stay home, unwrap presents, over-eat and watch football.
If you’re going to go to “war” over the words “Merry Christmas” shouldn’t you know what you are fighting for?
What are you fighting for?
War
There are too many real wars in the world, with real people—men, women, and children—getting really hurt and/or really killed.
Let’s ease off on the fake talk about fake wars until we start talking about the real wars, and what we can do to keep innocents from getting killed 365.25 days a year, rather than some not-really-a-war on words which, at their best, no longer really mean what they once meant anyway.
Not Jesus’ Actual Birthday
No serious scholar believes that Jesus was born anywhere near December 25th. Most likely he wasn’t born on the year “0 a.d.” either.
Some have made the argument that Christmas was located where it is because of its proximity to the winter solstice: the shortest day of the year, when the days have stopped growing shorter and start growing longer.
Or, to put it another way, when the darkness begins to fade and the light begins to grow.
Makes sense, right? We have this religious leader who we talk about in terms of the triumph of “light” over “darkness”. We have this time of year when “light” triumphs over “darkness”–um, except without the “” marks (well, except maybe around the word “triumphs”).
The date was not meant to be exact, it was meant to be symbolic. From the beginning.
Holy Day or Holiday?
Is it a religious holy day or a secular holiday?
Well, the post office is closed. The banks are closed. Public schools are closed. Sounds pretty secular to me. We’ve gotten the two fairly intermingled, haven’t we? Not so easy to say that it’s a purely religious holiday.
If you want it to be a truly counter-cultural religious holy day, why don’t we fight to make sure that it doesn’t appear to be a secular holiday, and have the post office open, banks open, and public schools open.
Then, if you want to show your devotion to your faith, you can make a sacrifice by using a vacation day to take off from work to show that it is important to you. Take your kid out of school to teach her that sometimes our commitment to faith comes before everything else.
Then again, the Sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest, but I see plenty of Christians running around 52 Sundays a year as busy–if not busier–than they are the rest of the week, so maybe we’re not so good about the whole “counter cultural” part of faith any more.
“Do you hate Christmas?”
No, I love Christmas. I love everything about it, especially because I do most of my shopping online and therefore don’t have to fight the crowds.
What I don’t love is this whole fake outrage over a wrong argument with little or no actual substance.
Especially when there’s way too much real stuff going on to get truly upset about.
Like men, women, and children being actually killed in real wars.
Like men, women, and children who are homeless, or don’t have enough food to eat.
Let men and women who are working two jobs to barely keep their heads above water, and who are thankful they’re not one of the many men and women who can’t find even a lousy job (never mind a fulfilling one) to keep food on the table and a roof overhead.
And don’t even get me started on the state of healthcare in this country, or the infant mortality rate, or any of the dozens of other honest-to-God tragedies that go on each and every day.
When that is the world we live in and you’re blathering on about some fake “war on Christmas” I look at you the way that I would look at a clown dancing around the parents of a dead child in the emergency room: a ridiculous distraction with absolutely no common sense or common decency.
Enough already.
Post Script (2008-12-17)
I was reading Henry Sloan Coffin’s _Some Christian Convictions_ today and came across this near the end of chapter 2 (page 49 in my copy):
To found a Bible Defense League is as unbelieving as to inaugurate a society for the protection of the sun. Like the sun, the Bible defends itself by proving a light to the path of all who walk by it. The only defence it needs is to be used; and the only attack it dreads is to be left unread.
Seems to me that thinking that Christmas could be defeated is a sign of disbelief in God.