I've been viewing with some bemusement the uproar this season about religion & Christmas. The blizzard of lawsuits over public displays of nativity scenes (pro and con), the move toward "Happy Holidays" as opposed to "Merry Christmas." And so on.
There is some validity to concerns about unequal treatment public displays - in cases where a Hannukah display is allowed, but a Nativity scene is not. Not an open-and-shut case of discrimination, as some argue that Hannukah is not a religious holiday. That's semantic games to me.
But in fact, Christians involved in this debate are generally attempting to stem erosion of historic Christian privilege and prominence in this country. This - like the lingering argument over prayer in schools - assumes a privileged place for Christianity in the United States. Whatever history our country has in this area (and those who claim this country was not founded on Christian principles are fools), that time is gone . . . and the sooner Christians understand and accept the world they live in, the better. That there is an assault on Christianity by a dedicated faction is without question. It's hard to imagine Christians in the United States ever facing the relentless persecution that our brothers face in other countries. But we are only fooling ourselves if we do not understand that we are going to lose all privilege, and even, to some extent, be driven underground. And at the very least, we can count on the fact that the future of the United States is a fierce secularism that will not tolerate public Christianity. Or even private Christianity that is too devout, too apparent.
To those concerned about this changing world, I'd say this: Be sure of what your faith is . . . and be prepared to pay the price for it. Whatever our Founding Fathers believed about a Promised Land where we would be free to worship freely . . . they also set up a mechanism by which those freedoms could be curtailed, and even quashed. At the very least, you should not rely on the City Council to help prop up your faith by erecting a Nativity scene on the courthouse lawn. Your response should not be to the court. Your response should be to erect the Nativity scene on every lawn of every Christian family. You should not be concerned about whether Wal-Mart employees say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Be concerned instead that there are people in prison and being executed this very day because they dared own a Bible or share the gospel.
Christmas itself is a bad battleground. It wasn't that long ago that the celebration was banned in parts of the United States as an "un-Christian" Catholic celebration (apologies to my Catholic friends). The religious significance we attach to Christmas barely rises through the din of cheesy reindeer songs and uncontrolled commercialism that begins weeks before Halloween and runs through the post-Christmas sales. Much of what Christmas is today was forged in Victorian times and refurbished by modern post-industrial capitalism. The religious aspect of Christmas isn't dead, of course, but more and more it's confined to candlelight services thoughtfully scheduled around the family gift-giving orgy. I wonder what would happen if Christians decided to drop out of commercial Christmas . . . made a conscious decision to make it truly a religious holiday. No tree. No gifts. No Santa. No reindeer. Just a family feast honoring the gift of the Christ Child.
I would challenge Christians to quit looking for a comfortable faith. We've been pampered and blessed, and now things are not going our way. It may well be that someday we will be forced to find out how much of our faith is real . . . and how much has been "easy grace." I've talked to friends in countries where Christians are persecuted . . . they pity American Christians, because they believe, and probably correctly, that we can never be sure how real our faith is.
And that, among several other reasons, is why I try my best to avoid christmas. We'll just see how christian the american christians are when things start to get really bad. I'm no hypocrit; I speak to myself as well, as I am...american...
Posted by: Crayon Violent | 2004.12.31 at 14:00