Sunday, December 24, 2017

Peace on Earth


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.

The whole country stops and takes a breath. You can feel it. It’s that quiet stillness that only comes when the house lights are turned down. The moment that a simple story of weary refugees giving birth to a savior, using a manger as a makeshift bed, brings a holy hush over our lives. In that quiet moment, we sit with loved ones, notice the beauty of the stillness, and rediscover the true meaning of Christmas. Love.  It’s the greatest weapon in our arsenal. We can win the war on Christmas. 

Joy to the world. 


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