Banning Christmas

Posted by Christian St John in Faithblogs | 4 comments

I was reading recently about a group in America that is trying to ban the word Christmas, in essence banning Christmas as we know it (they want the word removed from cards, gifts, movies, songs, books, and so on). I won’t name the group but they are pushing their agenda politically, socially, in schools, in colleges, in shopping malls, and no doubt subversively too. The reason they want to ban the word Christmas is that it contains the word Christ. They said that this word is insulting to many people who don’t share the Christian faith including those of other faiths and those who have been hurt by Christianity both past and present.

I find it sad that this group, and many others like it, are trying to take away the very reason for the season. Let’s face it, we call it Christmas for a reason. There would be no logic in calling it Santamas, Giftmas, Snowmas, Wintermas, Rudolphmas, Frostymas, Memas, Youmas, or any other mas… it’s called Christmas because of Christ. It is a time of year where we take time to celebrate the birth of Jesus the Messiah. I know that this is foolishness to those who don’t believe and can be insulting to people of other faiths (1 Cor. 1:22) but celebrating this holiday is not mandatory.

The truth is you don’t have to celebrate this day if you don’t want to. Think about it, you would never have to buy gifts and no one would have to buy you a gift. You wouldn’t have to buy and setup all those flashing and glittering Christmas decorations. Your health would be better than most because you wouldn’t feel the need to overeat, and at least one turkey would live to see another day. You wouldn’t have the need to watch any Christmas movies or specials, or listen to Christmas carols. And best of all you wouldn’t have to entertain anyone meaning that you can be left alone to mutter “humbug”, eat your cheese and crackers, and watch those lovely anti Christmas movies Black Christmas, Santa Claws, and of course the classic The Night the Reindeer Died

Come on! Has it really come to this? No one is sending congress letters trying to ban the words Halloween, birthday, Mother and Father, or Valentine, and all of these special days must offend someone, somewhere. So why are people so adamantly trying to ban the word Christmas?

The cold hard truth is that if we allow these groups to ban the word Christmas then what’s next? And once we’ve lost the right to celebrate Christmas we will probably never get that right back. You’re just being stupid, I hear you say, it will never come to that! Well, I’m sure that people never thought that children would lose the right to pray in schools.

So, how do we fight this? Some of you might know politicians who you can talk or write to. Maybe you could write to your local newspaper about what makes Christmas so important. Some towns actually have a saving Christmas campaign, if so maybe you could get involved. Blog about it like I have. Use Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and whatever other social networks to which you belong to make people aware that there are people out there that would seek to rob the world of a special and unique time of year. Talk to teachers, pastors, students, and whomever will listen to clue them into the sad realities of what it would look like if the world lost the word Christmas… the effects would be far reaching indeed!

Yours in Christ, for Christ, and because of Christ,
Christian St John M.Div, BChM, ACS
November, 2009