12-12-05
Christmas
Chaos and The Christian Consumer
Target and Wal-Mart remove
"Merry Christmas" from their vocabulary in favor
of "Happy Holidays!". As if this isn't
enough, Coca Cola is removing Santa Claus since he is a
"Christian symbol."-news the thousands of
Christians (Yes, Saint Nicholas is a historical person,
but the man who wears red and white, lives at the north
pole, has elves, keeps a list of good and bad boys and
girls, and delivers presents to the world in one night is
not only fictional but has no connection to either the
historical St. Nick. or to Christendom.) Christians,
feeling the heat of anti-Christian sentiments, threatened
a boycott. Wal-Mart recanted.
What are Christians to make of all
of this. Is this the sort of repression which
Christians should fight or should they view it as a
problem contained and benign?
I believe that Christians are
viewing-and responding to-this issue with fervor that is
perhaps misguided. The word "Christmas"
definitely has Christian connotations, but when spoken by
Wal-Mart or Target, removed from all Christian content, it
is no more "Christian" than the phrase
"happy holidays." Is "how are
you," when used as a greeting, actually an inquiry of
status? No! If the reader wishes to make this
emphatically clear all he needs to do is to give an honest
reply next time someone asks. The inquirers' shock
should be evidence enough to prove that "how are
you" is the equivalent of saying
"hi." So it is with the phrase "Merry
Christmas." It is merely a seasonal
greeting. The same as saying "hi" it
December. Retailers are no more Christian for saying
" Merry Christmas" and neither are they less
Christian for omitting it. If we boycott retailers
over terminology-and terminology, not worldview, is being
discussed here-then what is next: do we mandate and
approve theological statements before
shopping?
Before Christians are excessively
quick to remove the proverbial speck from the retailers
eye we need to first consider ourselves.
Debates concerning terminology are
unproductive. Victory does not grant any greater
measure of Christ-likeness than does loss any lesser
measure. This means that to boycott retailers into
submission over terminology does not make them more
Christian and it does not make in any more closely related
to Christendom. Thus, terminology wars are futile;
victory is really non-victory, a mere diversion from the
facts and the true task at hand: the conversion of the
lost. While Christians are ready to have a standoff
with retailers, are they willing to share the gospel with
those who need to hear it? More often than not, the
answer is "no." Christians must also face
the facts concerning materialism. When Christians
spend the gratuitous millions that they do on gifts, food,
and travel related to the holiday they must be faced with
the waste of resources. Just consider the dollars
spent on holiday trappings verses the dollars spent on
missions and the truth is evident. While not
dedicated to the task at hand, Christians are willing to
spend time and money [or not spend money but at places
which cater to them] on a side issue which accomplishes
nothing Christian. This does not mean that we should
look at how much we spent on gifts and then, through
guilt, match that in missions giving. But we must be
aware that while calling retailers anti-Christian, we
ourselves are guilty of watering down the meaning of
Christmas.
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