Don’t
Eat the Plastic Fruit:
Avoiding
Manipulation in the 'Silly Season
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“In the United States
Christmas has become the rape of an idea.”
--Richard Bach
This
time of year there is a lot of talk about the real
meaning of Christmas, and that can get very confusing in a
culture that has abandoned truth and sterilized meaning.
It is in this ‘silly season’ we yearn
the most for real
meaning, not some commercialized, petty sales pitch, and
(unfortunately) no other time is so full of whimsical market slogans.
It is like the starving man who eagerly sinks his teeth into an apple
only to find out it is made of plastic. It
is not surprising that depression and suicides are rampant around the holidays.
The
Problem
I am pretty
sure I know one big reason why.
As a culture, we have destroyed our ability
to find meaning.
We are told in school that we are the result of a colossal accident; we
are a meaningless conglomeration of molecules that came together purely by
chance. We
are then taught that we have no reason for existing, there is no purpose to our
lives and when we are gone, the world will not care.
Naturally that will not produce the happiest people because human beings
need to have meaning.
We need purpose and direction, a reason for our existence that explains
why things are the way they are and answers our deepest questions: (Who
am I? Why am
I here? Where
am I going?)
Whether
we know it or not, we all adopt a World
View that addresses these issues,
and then get along as best we can with the one we have.
These world views are filters that determine what we value, how to
explain what we see, and by what process we are to get along with our neighbors.
When they come in conflict with each other, these systems will try to
persuade each other of their own correctness, and as a result, some people end
up changing their world view. There is nothing wrong with that.
In an open discussion, when the hard questions are asked, one can come to
see the merits and demerits of a system fairly easily, and it quickly becomes
apparent that not all world views are created equal.
Ideally, this is how all discussions would take place, in an honest,
objective manner.
Wrong
Solution # 1
Some people
however, do not play well with others.
If they cannot persuade you by argument or evidence, they will convert
you by jamming their ‘Reason for the Season’
down your throat. By
now I’m sure most of you have received at least 10 emails from various sources
about how we should boycott a company for changing “Merry
Christmas” to some non offensive phrase like “Happy
Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings”,
so I’m not going to bore you by focusing on tired ground.
That being said, I have no problem whatsoever with someone championing
their beliefs.
(Or
lack thereof)
If someone approaches me with a Kwanzaa greeting card, I am touched an
appreciative, and have no desire to fight them.
If I go into a store and see a Happy Hanukkah sign over the cash
register, I don’t get upset and vow never to shop there again; I understand
that we live in a diverse culture and I smile and get on with my life.
But there are
those who object to the open practice of my faith,
and seek to censor my dangerous Nativity decorations, my unthinkable mention of
Jesus Christ, and my intolerant use of the word Christmas.
Some Christians object to Santa, reindeer, Christmas trees and the like.
If they have a problem with those things, then they are free not to hang
stockings or put a plastic St. Nick on their front lawn—nobody has a gun to
their heads.
Wrong
Solution # 2
Unfortunately,
there are those that spend entirely too much time thinking about how to get
offended so they can force their beliefs on the rest of the public.
They want to live in a world in which they will never have to face
someone that practices any form of traditional religion.
I am sorry, but that world does not exist.
Where were their objections during Halloween?
(I guess they only
have a problem with certain religions…and isn’t that by definition
discrimination?)
So
they methodically seek out every last vestige of anything Christian and
(like
the Grinch) remove it, not because they are being hurt, but because they
are uncomfortable. To
them I say, “May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and keep
you in this time that celebrates His birth.”
Hey, what makes them so special?
I am uncomfortable with a lot of things in society, and I am told not
only that I have to take it, but that because of my religious belief, my views
are not welcome at the table of public policy making…I guess that is a fancy
way of saying ‘Do as I
say not as I do’.
If it is wrong for me to violate someone’s free will by forcing beliefs
on them, then it’s wrong for everyone else, too.
“In the old days, it
was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it 'Christmas' and went
to church; the Jews called it 'Hanukkah' and went to synagogue; the atheists
went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say
'Merry Christmas!' or 'Happy Hanukkah!' or (to the atheists) 'Look out for the
wall!'"
--Dave Barry "Christmas Shopping:
A Survivor's Guide"
Wrong
Solution #3
Still other
people want to redefine Christmas into something it was never meant to be.
You hear people say things like,
“Christmas isn’t a
season, it’s a feeling.”--Edna Ferber
or
“Christmas, children,
is not a date. It is a state of
mind.”--Mary Ellen Chase
That is a noble
sentiment to be sure, and a great attitude to have during the holidays, but it
has nothing to do with Christmas. When
I saw Bill Murray in Scrooged expound about a
giving spirit and opening your heart unselfishly to the needs of those around
you, I totally agreed with him. That
is a practice that everyone should adopt, but
it is not the true meaning of Christmas.
To use it as the solution to the problem of a culture that can’t find
meaning is like using a band-aid on a brain tumor.
Christmas is
tied to a specific faith (Christianity) and marks
the time we celebrate His physical arrival on Earth.
That is neither a feeling nor a state of mind.
Who cares if he wasn’t born on December 25th!
That was a date chosen so that new converts who were used to a
celebration around the Winter Solstice could still party.
I don’t have a problem with that—it’s as good a date as any.
I love Christmas trees, and I don’t care that they started with the
druids. Christmas is God’s gift
of Himself to us. It should inspire
an attitude as reflected in Scrooged, It’s
a Wonderful Life and countless other holiday movies, but
without the gift of Jesus, it just isn’t the same. It
is a response to something that was first done by God.
No one says
that the true meaning of Hanukkah is having charity in your heart; no one says
that the message of Kwanzaa is putting others before yourself; and if you
don’t like the idea that Jesus is the central reason we celebrate Christmas,
then that is your choice. But that
is what Christmas is. The gift of
His sacrifice in our place in order to reconcile us to a Holy God speaks
directly to meaning. It means we
were created by God for a specific purpose.
He knows each of us better than anyone and He loves us so much, He
personally took care of our sin problem. He
made up for the fact that we weren’t perfect by being perfect Himself, then
taking our punishment upon Himself. If
we accept that gift, He will call us co-heirs.
Now that is meaning!
“Christmas began in
the heart of God. It is complete
only when it reaches the heart of man.”
Darren Turney
20
December 2005