Confused Christmas To All…

I find it slightly laughable that modern Evangelicals have decided to make a controversy over the phrase “Merry Christmas” over the last few years. There’s even an organization called Operation: Just Say Merry Christmas. While I recognize that we’re really trying to do something good here, let’s stop for a moment and analyze this.

At first, I got caught up in this wave, thinking that it was a legitimate gripe. Since then, my perspectives have broadened and I’ve educated myself. I know many different Believers that belong to many different branches of this thing we call Christianity…of our faith. We’ve applied all of these different labels to ourselves in an effort to identify our ideas, and, as a result, there are all sorts of Believers who love God that fall all over the denominational spectrum. That means that not all of them celebrate Christmas. Many Believers celebrate Advent, or Hanukkah, of Boxing Day, depending on their country and ethnic origin. So, in my mind, instead of it being somehow “anti-Christian” to use the phrase “Happy Holidays,” it actually seems more prudent, because it is inclusive of everyone’s semantics. For those of us in American Christianity (shallow as it may be), “Happy Holidays” can include Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day as well, so, again, its more logical.

Of course, there’s also the age-old controversy of writing “Merry X-Mas” instead writing out the word “Christmas.” Growing up in the restrictively conservative type of religion that I did, I was always told that this was an evil idea, to “remove Christ from Christmas.” First of all, Christmas was originally a pagan holiday: it just so happens that we choose to use it to celebrate Christ’s birth today because the Roman Catholic Church made some decisions to this effect a long time ago. Secondly, in the Greek language (in which the New Testament was originally written), the “Ch” sound in “Christ” is spelled with an “X.” Therefore, “X-Mas” is actually just an abbreviation of “Christmas,” because it is essentially an Americanized way to shorten the Greek name, “Christos” (transliterated here).

Seriously, there are a lot of Believers out there who need to educate themselves. I appreciate their passion, I truly do, but they’re permitting themselves to get caught up in petty things that aren’t worth the time, and giving us all…and, worse, Him…a bad reputation for it. We could be spending our time, money, and energy on so many more worthwhile things.

Of course, if you’d rather spend the money on “Just Say Merry Christmas” bracelets than on a gift or assistance for an orphan or widow in distress (James 1:27), be my guest. But honestly, I wonder if God wouldn’t rather you just kept the money to yourself in that case. Just a thought.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Advent, or Merry Boxing Day to you all.

…and to all a good night.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.