happy CHRISTmas, merry hanukkah, or season's holidays?

a few years back, when i was still but a young, aspiring seminary student, i had an encounter with a store clerk that stuck with me, yet i had all but forgotten about it until recently.  one day during the CHRISTmas shopping season, i begrudgingly went out into the chaos that is the CHRISTmas rush to purchase a present for someone at work whose name i had drawn in the secret santa game.  while standing patiently, but teetering on the edge of madness, i found myself two shoppers back from the register, and i began to see light at the end of the tunnel that i would make it out of the store with my sanity somewhat still intact (for those of you that know me, you will know that is relatively speaking, of course!).  when what to my wandering eyes should appear?  a very well dressed lady, who took it upon herself to break into full three points and a poem sermon right there in the line, with her congregation being the unsuspecting clerk.  i can almost still hear her treacly inane tone as she smugly commented, "i know you can't say it anymore, but i can, so merry CHRISTmas!"  her tone then descended into one that can only be considered toxic as she berated the current state of society and the materialism that it had degraded into (nevermind the hundreds of dollars of presents that she herself had just paid for with her visa gold card) and that the stores were trying to persecute CHRISTians by saying "happy holidays" and "season's greetings".


i say this, because i recently received an email from afa (american family activists, er, association) with their latest cause they were championing and calling CHRISTians to action on, which happened to be the saying of "merry CHRISTmas".  as i thought about it, i began to get angry.  ghandi once said, "i like your Christ.  i do not like your CHRISTians.  they are so unlike your Christ."  who are we to try and force our religion down others' throats?  this does not lead to converts.  it leads to opposition.  we have seen what happens when a religion is forced on people, from examples of theocracies forcing subjects to choose between conversion or death, to religious extremism we currently see today in many of the muslim nations around the world.  it does not lead to greater support of, nor eager disciples of, your particular flavor of religion.  it only creates disdain and animosity towards religion and anyone who practices it.  so what shall we make of the "say merry CHRISTmas" campaign?

first off, let me say, that i absolutely love CHRISTmas.  i am not some scrooge who just can't wait for it to go away.  i look forward to it every year, and i enjoy saying "merry CHRISTmas" to those that i meet.  however, there are those today that somehow believe that our very existence as CHRISTians is threatened if we do not say "merry CHRISTmas" and force others to do the same.  after all, "america is a CHRISTian nation and blahbitty blah blah".  those people end up sounding like ricky bobby in talladega nights when he stated, "this is america!  we speak american here!"  ok, for those folks, newsflash:  america is NOT a CHRISTian nation founded on CHRISTian principles!  read your history books!  i know carman has the song that says otherwise, but it's just a song.  can't place much historical value on it!  truth is, america is a moral nation founded on masonic principles, as most of our founding fathers were masons.  true, many of them were CHRISTians, and each lodge within the masonic rite usually takes on the religious principles of its populus.  so yes, many of our laws were founded upon CHRISTian principles, filtered through the religion of morality practiced by the masons!  true, america was settled originally by those seeking freedom to worship Christ as they saw fit, but when it came down to establishing our country as a sovereign nation, that was only a part of the equation.  not all the founding fathers who wrote the original documents that defined our nation, such as the declaration of independence and the constitution, were CHRISTians.  so when they said, "freedom of religion", they meant just that: freedom of religion, not freedom of religion as long as that religion was CHRISTianity. 

now that our history lesson is over, let us return to the subject at hand:  CHRISTmas and the holiday season.  first off, Christ is still Lord, whether we pray in His name, or whether we say "merry CHRISTmas", or not!  as CHRISTians, we should not feel threatened that the mall has signs that say "happy holidays".  we should not feel like our faith is collapsing around us if we see a menorah next to a CHRISTmas tree (oh, and by the way, that tree, that everyone has their little CHRISTian parallels to its aspects, is pagan!  that's right, it's a carry over from the days of the festival of yule, the worship of the tree gods, and was assimilated into CHRISTianity during the missions to northern europe!)  the simple truth is, the retailers are catering to their greater population!  there are many other holidays (holidays=holy+days, present in all religions) that take place during december, and many of which involve gift giving (another pagan practice at its source, no matter how much you dress it in the story of the magi) such as hanukkah, kwanzaa (yes, i know it's a made up holiday), winter solstice (from wicca, where we get our practice of gift giving in december), etc.  so it behooves retailers to try and capitalize on the month and peddle their wares to everyone of every religion that shops in their stores.  so happy holidays (and since it starts well before thanksgiving, we can include it in the said greeting as well) is a very encompassing approach.

i will admit, that i do have a problem with the ones that go uber-pc and try and label things that are blatantly CHRISTian as "holiday", such as a "holiday nativity setting", etc.  of the holidays, CHRISTmas is one of them, and let's face it, is the major one of the month, no matter that 90% of those celebrating it have little to do with Christ or His Church.  so i say to them, "get over yourselves, acknowledge that CHRISTmas is there, and label things correctly!"

so what should we as CHRISTians do?  first off, say "merry CHRISTmas" to as many people as is prudent.  but do it with a smile!   show people that Christ who lives within you is the most important part of your life, and not just in december!  actually look like you mean it when you say it.  penn, the atheist from the popular magician duo penn and teller, made the statement that he has no respect for a CHRISTian who does not share his faith, as he had just had a "delightful" encounter with a gentleman who in a very polite, but non-pushy way, gave him a Bible.  he said, if you truly believe what you say you do, and people are going to an eternal hell, you would be arrogant and selfish if you kept the way out to yourself.  but you have to show that the Christ who lives within you is greater than anything this world has to offer.  however, if you know someone is a different faith, try and show some couth and greet them with the appropriate greeting for their faith!  for example, whenever i see rabbi sherwin on base, i will say "shalom" to him, and at hanukkah, i do not say "merry CHRISTmas" to him, but rather, a cheerful "happy hanukkah"!  it's not because i am ashamed of my faith, but rather that i am respectful of his.  and i have found that if you treat people with dignity and respect, and acknowledge that they are of a different faith than you, as paul did at mars hill, you open the door for future dialogues with those people where you can possibly show them what you have in your faith that is worth their pursuing! 

as i approached the counter of the clerk, i first apologized.  i apologized if i had a look of disdain on my face as i do not enjoy the shopping experience at the height of the CHRISTmas rush.  i then apologized for the rude customer who just launched into a verbal tirade on her.  after she rang my purchase and i paid, i told her that my Christ was about more than just a simple collection of words.  she was not a CHRISTian, but she told me that she would entertain coming to a church that i attended, but would no way in a hot place go near the church that the self-proclaimed "CHRISTmas greeting police" attended.  i then gave her my email address and told her that if there was anything i could ever pray on her behalf, or if she ever had any questions about CHRISTianity, that she could email me.  you know what?  she did!  we exchanged a few emails, and her and her husband actually visited our church a few times, but i lost track of her when she moved out of state for her husband's job.   i'm not sure if she ever became a CHRISTian, but i do know that she was exposed to the gospel and had a much better chance than if i had not been there to counter "sister bertha, better-than-you's" attack.

this year, be true to your convictions.  say "merry CHRISTmas" with all your heart!  but do not try and force your convictions on others.  a good friend once told me, "expect lost people to act like lost people".  that includes during the holiday season.  but be that light that draws others to the "peace on earth, good will toward men in His favor!"

please, no cutting allowed in the holiday line

wow.  my lovely bride pointed out that it has been almost a year since i posted on here!  looking back, i have no good excuse.  i have plenty of excuses such as no time, can't access my blog at work, etc., but no good ones!  well, there've been a few things bugging me here in the last weeks, so i decided to dust the old soapbox off and get a few things off my cyber-cyber chest, so to speak. 

my first post of the group is on the holidays.  many of you who have spent any time around me know that i have a strict policy concerning thanksgiving.  while it may be popular for retailers to decorate for CHRISTmas immediately following the fourth of july, and our neighbors may already have their lights and trees up, i remain adamant:  one holiday at a time!  much to the chagrin of my bride, who would love to follow suit and have our CHRISTmas decorations up (after all, we are only allowed to keep them up until january 15th, according to our housing agreement), i remain steadfast on my commitment to observe one holiday at a time.  i have been called scrooge, old-fashioned, and even silly, but until today, i was never questioned as to the reasoning for my stand, and i had never really had to answer it. 

so, what was my answer?  i know that is what you are thinking as you shiver with antici..........pation. 

while at first, my resistance was simply out of nostalgia for the past that i remembered as a kid, the magic in the air following thanksgiving and leading up to CHRISTmas day, but now, there is far more substance to my resistance than mere memories.  before i state my case, let me first say that i am not against CHRISTmas.  i believe as scrooge said in his tale, that CHRISTmas should be kept in our hearts all the year long.  what i am against, is the CHRISTmas rush that is forced upon us by over-amorous retailers trying to make money.  why am i against the rush?  it has to do with two principles that are in direct conflict with each other:  thankfulness and greed.

the problem with the current relationship of thanksgiving and CHRISTmas is that the rush starts earlier and earlier and thanksgiving becomes nothing more than a speed bump on the way to CHRISTmas.  in today's society of greed and entitlement, thanksgiving is not something that should be neglected or taken for granted.  yet every year, we are faced with a barrage of commercials and advertisements designed to initiate want and desire in us for things that we don't have, and usually don't need.  by the time the retailers are done, our desire for "stuff" gets misconstrued in our minds into need.  so instead of focusing on what we have and what we should be thankful for, we focus on what we don't have and become materialistic and selfish.  the stores know this, and throw their materialistic gasoline on the public's fire of desire for stuff, to the point that many stores now are opening at noon on thanksgiving for black friday sales.  thanksgiving has become nothing more than another shopping day. 

in the 1800s, the average kid received one, maybe two presents, which were usually something useful, such as new clothes for school.  today, we have families calling our marines working "toys for tots" with a list of extravagant items their kids want, and even have the audacity to get upset when they don't receive what they want!  we have truly become what the apostle paul prophecies, when he says in the last days, that men will be selfish, loving themselves more than God.  we have stripped what should be one of the most sacred holidays in the christian calendar and turned it into an occasion for one of the seven deadly sins:  greed.

i admire nordstrom for taking a stand and saying that they will not begin their CHRISTmas rush until after thanksgiving.  i had a friend from overseas tell me upon driving past a mini-storage facility, "americans have so much stuff they have to rent extra space to hold it all.  they have no idea of what it means to be in need!" 

so i choose not to focus on all of the propaganda and the allure of the lights and the decorations that serve as distractions from a time that should be focused on being thankful for the sometimes countless blessings that we have been given by God.  so this year, at thanksgiving, enjoy your turkey and football, and the time with family, and take a moment to take inventory of all of the things you have to be thankful for.  and especially be thankful for Christ, who was sent at CHRISTmas (which, by the way, was more than likely in the spring rather than in the winter, and sure not december 25th!), to die on good friday, and rise again, so that we could experience true freedom.