Should Christians Fight in the War on Christmas?
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This morning, I was reminded of a Christmas-related episode I did on a former podcast of mine last year about this time where I somewhat discouraged Christians from getting too involved in the war on Christmas. You know what I’m talking about, right? About this time every year we start forwarding emails and getting really worked up about the way the secular world is trying to remove the Christian aspects of Christmas.
First of all, the fact the secular world would attempt to de-emphasize Christianity in any sort of way should be no surprise to anyone. Have we not been reading our Bibles? The world has always been generally opposed to Christianity. However, we in the United States have become so accustomed to being predominantly Christian that it sort of throws us off to realize that may not be the case anymore. At the very least, the powers that be are not acting in favor of Christianity.
The question is should we be fighting those powers that be? Well, I would turn your attention to a principle the Lord Himself taught. He said, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.” There is a distinct line drawn in the Bible between, not only the government and God, but the secular world and the God. Paul had this lesson in mind when he wrote, “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.” He was talking specifically about the government in that case.
Here’s what I think we can draw from this. Paul, of course, was not condoning the Roman government which very much against Christianity at that point. I believe he as well as Christ were trying to get Christian people to stop worrying about the secular world which was ultimately beyond their control. Instead, they should focus on much more important things. Who cares if Walmart doesn’t want to recognize Christ as the reason for the season? If anything matters when it comes to the Christmas holiday, it’s that we as Christians acknowledge Christ.
The irony is that we’ve likely brought a lot of this on ourselves. How can we complain that the world around us is taking Christ out of Christmas when the vast majority of our Christmas practices and traditions have nothing to do with Christ whatsoever? We decorate with lights and Christmas trees and pretend there’s a Santa Claus and other various things that have no roots in Christianity whatsoever. It shouldn’t surprise us at all that the secular world has also moved away from Christ being the focus of the holiday.
I guess my point would be that if Christians were really serious about taking back the holiday, we wouldn’t be protesting retail stores, we’d be eliminating all of the secular practices of Christmas we currently observe.
Second of all, even the celebration of the birth of Christ is not rooted in Christianity. Well, that may not be the best way to put it. This friend I was talking to this morning wrote a short blog post about Christmas referring back to what I had said last year. Here’s what he wrote.
In the past I have been very vocal when hearing about Christmas being taken out of the Christmas holiday. Challenges to public displays, stores substituting holiday for Christmas, etc. have always made me angry. A podcast last year by my friend Jeremy Sarber started me looking at it and I’ve pretty much done a 180 on the issue.
The birth of Jesus wasn’t observed in Europe until the fourth century and in the U.S. until the late 1800′s because the date wasn’t known and it wasn’t deemed important. His death, burial, and resurrection (Easter) is the defining moment that separates Christianity from all other religions.
I hate to give credit to athiests and separation of church and state activists, but it is true that the pagan Winter Solstice celebration was appropriated by Christians trying to win people over to Christianity and leave behind the sinful partying that had become commonplace.
I still believe that the First Amendment to the Constitution only applies to Congress, the federal government. If a city, county, or even state wants Christmas displays on public property it is not the business of courts to force removal. But I’m choosing to look at the big picture and let it go. Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.
Businesses should always be free to choose to celebrate Christmas or not to celebrate. Its customers can decide for themselves if they want to patronize the business or go where they can have their beliefs validated. I will still celebrate Christmas with family and friends but will no longer make a loud, public protest when a company leaves Christmas out of its sale advertisements. Christmas is an artificial holiday and refusing to acknowledge it is not a blasphemous offense.
Well said. A long time ago, the church grew very concerned about their members participating in this pagan celebration of the return of the sun god or something like that. It’s been awhile since I read my history on the matter. If I remember correctly, it was a week long celebration which was very sinful in nature. If I’m not mistaken, Romans actually offered a human sacrifice on the seventh and final day of the celebration.
Needless to say, this was not a good thing for Christians to be involved with. So, the church decided to celebrate the birth of Christ instead. Before that point, no one ever thought to celebrate His birth. They only celebrated His resurrection. However, their attempts to draw Christians away from the pagan festivities left something to be desired. Christians would still mingle with the pagans all week long. It’s just that they would excuse themselves from the last day to go be with the church for a Jesus birthday meal.
Long story short, I just don’t see much value in participating in this particular aspect of our never-ending culture war in this country. I respect the rights of any retail store that doesn’t want to acknowledge Christ. Lord knows I don’t want them coming to my church to protest the fact we are celebrating Christ. I don’t expect to convert the world to Christianity so I’d rather just live in a non-hostile environment where we do what we do and they do what they do.
“Christmas War | 082 Coffee & Cigarettes” Transcript
Why I’m not playing defense in the “war against Christmas” this year… | Chuck’s Empty Head | November 3, 2011
http://chucksemptyhead.blogspot.com/2011/11/why-im-not-playing-defense-in-war.html
About The Author
Jeremy Sarber
I'm the pastor of one of the most blessed churches in all the world. I'm married to the most wonderful woman to walk the face of the earth. I'm host of possibly the most unconventional podcast on the Internet. I am thankful because I deserve none of it. Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email
