War on Christmas is a civil war as Christians try to remake Jesus into their own image

Published on AL.com on December 18, 2013 at 10:30 PM, updated December 18, 2013 at 10:31 PM

 

 

There is a war on Christmas. Fox News’ annual declaration of the war is as regular and predictable as reruns of “Frosty the Snowman” or “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” This is not the war I’m talking about. Yes, there are, and always will be, loud disagreements between committed, in your face, activist atheists and equally committed loud and in your face activists Christians over the placement of a crèche on a courthouse lawn, or the selection of Christmas carols in a public school pageant. These are mere skirmishes in the broader culture war, but both sides want to pretend that it matters so their victories will seem important.

In Texas, the legislature has protected teachers’ right to say “Merry Christmas.” It doesn’t appear that there was a large-scale movement in Texas to ban wishing a Merry Christmas, but big government conservatives feel the need to legislate, so feel free to shout “Merry Christmas” from Texas rooftops. In Chicago, atheists erected a lighted 8-foot-tall red and white “A” as a counter to a life-sized nativity scene there. Around here, the atheist meaning of a giant lighted red and white “A” would be lost – can I get a Roll Tide?

While many enjoy decorations of the season, I doubt that anyone will be converted simply because that lighted crèche is on the courthouse lawn instead of at a church, and I certainly won’t start seeing life the way the atheists want me to because they lighted their A.

I see a different war on Christmas, a civil war; Christians trying to remake Jesus into their own image for political or financial gain. The effect is to corrupt the image of Christianity, in particular to young Americans. “unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity ... and Why It Matters” is a 2007 book that reports the results of surveys of young people about why they do not attend church. In summary, they don’t go because they see church as the refuge of hypocrites, of people who are quick to find fault with others, quick to condemn behavior that many young people do not see as being wrong and slow to defend or help the poor and the powerless. But this sort of behavior is as old as the Bible itself. This Christmas season, many churches celebrate Advent by reading the words of Isaiah prophesizing the coming of the Messiah, but I offer you this from Isaiah 1: “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”

How many Alabama politicians run on a God plank? From local offices to State Supreme Court races, candidates fall all over themselves to up the God ante. So this Christmas season, think of all of those politicians, then celebrate the birth of the Jesus that said in Matthew 6:5 – “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.” 

Do our politicians show the love of God in the policies they pursue, or are they using religion as just another prop? 

 

Do our politicians show the love of God in the policies they pursue, or are they using religion as just another prop?

In this Christmas season, celebrate the coming of the Jesus who confronted the rich and the powerful. Celebrate the Jesus who warned them they would be judged for how they shared with the poor. Celebrate the Jesus of Matthew 25:34-46.

It is Christmas; not the Christmas of Black Friday sales, not the Christmas of inflatable snowmen. It is Christmas, not the celebration of an unrecognizable selfish Jesus who would have complained about the takers in society, the 47 percent, but a full-strength Jesus who confronted the rich, the powerful and the religious leaders of his day; a Jesus who partied with the sinners and called the “good people” hypocrites.

When you celebrate Christmas, which Jesus will you welcome into the world?