Is there a war on Christmas?
For several years, I have been adamant in answering this question with a
big “NO!” After all, as an educated, southern liberal married to a Jewish woman,
I would certainly have inside information if there was a war on Christmas.
Weren’t the conservative Christians accusing the liberal elite of stopping them
from saying Merry Christmas? I am
inclined to identify myself with the very people that the poor Christmas-loving
victims have accused of attempting to rob them of their Holly-Jollys. If there
were such a plot, I would know. I’m on the inside. I would have been brought
into the fold on this conspiracy. But alas, no one ever asked me to attend a
secret meeting in which we plot to overthrow Santa Claus. However, I have concluded
that the war on Christmas is real. Only it’s not the politically-correct
liberal elite that have conspired to rob us of real Christmas joy.
In the eyes of the conservative Christian, the biggest piece
of evidence presented that battle against all things snowy-and-white is real,
is the inclination of some people to be inclusive in their Holiday greeting.
According to the Christmas-defenders, saying Happy Holidays is a clear attack
on the Christian Christmas. They say that Happy Holidays is politically-correct.
You can almost hear them spitting the words “politically-correct” off their
tongues, disgusted how those words taste as they say them. After all, they
would argue, this is a Christian country and they have the right to not have to
worry about offending people. I often wonder why it is that Christians seem so
hell-bent on their right to offend people. As one defender of Christmas said, “I’m
gonna say Merry Christmas whether you damn well like it or not. Have a f@*%king
Merry Christmas.” Take that.
But if the liberal elite are not waging the War on Jingle
Bells and HoHoHos, then who is? In my estimation, the war on Christmas is much
older than the political correctness movement. In fact, the real war on
Christmas is plotted in secret meetings behind closed doors all over this
country. The people responsible are all around us. They work with us, they
teach in our schools, and live in our neighborhoods. And get ready for this…..they
even go to our churches! Gasp! What??
Churchgoing folk might really be anti-Christmas plotters. Presbyterians,
Baptists, Lutherans, and Catholics are diligently working to take the Merry out
of Christmas? From my perspective, it
looks more like they are trying to take the Holy out of Christmas. And by “they,”
I mean us. All of us. All of us Christians.
Yes, I am Christian. Baptist, to be specific. But, I don’t believe in flying my religious
flag so that everyone can see just how damn proud I am to be Christian. Pride in being Christian is counter to being Christian. To have pride in your righteousness is
to lose your righteousness. And isn’t the desire to shout Merry Christmas from
the mountaintops just that? I’m not talking about genuinely wishing someone a
Merry Christmas. No one wants to take
that right from anyone. Please, by all means, say Merry Christmas to those you
love, to the hungry, to the homeless, to the refugee. But say it because
you mean it. Do not rant about your right to say Merry F’ ing Christmas to
whoever you want. That, my friend, is just an exercise in smugness and
pomposity.
Now, back to the real war on Christmas. We recently watched
my younger daughter’s performance in her school Christmas program. They did a
reader’s theatre version of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” She played Lucy. As
you know, Lucy was obsessed with “Nickels, Dollars, cold hard cash!”
Admittedly, this was the most convincing line my daughter delivered during
her performance. She could relate. And I
believe that we have all been conditioned to relate to Lucy’s perspective on
the value of Christmas. We are pummeled with the capitalist idea of Christmas constantly.
Most of our economy is dependent upon the Christmas spirit filling us with
fervor to rush out to stores, go online, and descend upon malls to shop, shop,
shop. We must have the latest gadgets.
We must out-decorate our neighbors. So, we buy blow-up santas, snowmen, and
even manger scenes. We shine spotlights on our decorations and feel happy. “See!”,
we shout with our flashing snowflake lights, “I am the biggest celebrator of
Christmas on my entire street.” Christmas tradition has become a Christmas competition.
Or vis-versa.
So, our fellow churchgoers are secretly meeting behind closed
doors and plotting against Christmas. They do it in special rooms, seated
around fancy tables in cushy chairs. They plot their war on large screens using
Power Point presentations. Power Point is the most devious of tools at their
disposal. They use it to make graphs, and charts, and even funny memes to
convince those at the highest levels of corporations across this country that
Christmas is fundamentally commercial in nature.
Cold, hard cash is the real
enemy of Christmas. To paraphrase Reverend William Barber, we celebrate
Christmas in the “spirit of Caesar, not the spirit of God.” And then we ourselves become the real soldiers
in the battle to destroy Christmas. We buy into the whole thing. We become more
concerned with the giving and getting than we do with the birth of a savior.
The war on Christmas is an American war. It has USA written
all over it. In fact, the very idea that saying Happy Holidays is somehow bad
would only happen in America. We are a nation of egotists. It’s all about us.
In “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, it’s Linus who reminds us of the true meaning
of Christmas. And he does it in the simplest way, he just recites the story of
what happened in the City of David. Holding his blanket, with the house lights
turned down, he says that on this day a Savior was born. It is the quietness of
that moment that stands out from all the commercial cacophony. There is a
stillness that happens during the Linus scene that is deeply moving. I believe
it is in that stillness that we can save Christmas from the real war it faces.
Every year the drumbeat leads us to the inevitably,
increasing volume of Black Friday. Black Friday, becomes Cyber Monday, and the world
loses itself in a mindless rush to make each Christmas bigger and better than
ever before. The growing sounds of 24-hour Christmas stations, decorating
parties, and jingling santas sounds like a symphony headed for a crescendo without
their conductor. The noise reaches an unbearable point, nearly shattering the
glass that protects the real Christmas. But
then, it happens.
Every year. Without fail.
Joy to the world.
