Leaving Christ out of Christmas?

For Christ's sake, leave Christ out of Christmas

I dearly love it when self-professed Christian liberals cite all the reasons why Christmas should not be a religious holiday.

I will grant that everything the woman who wrote the above piece is true, but that misses the point. Christmas is about the birth of the Christian messiah.

Ok, the date is wrong … so what? Neither she nor any other professed expert can say with any real certainty when Jesus of Nazareth was born in the town of Bethlehem.

Actually, no one really can demonstrate by other than the Bible that Jesus even was born, lived or died. Sorry, but the historical record just isn’t there and besides, assuming that someone found a Judeo-Roman contemporary secular record somewhere that references some Jewish rabbi from Galilee who got himself crucified by the Roman authorities at the request of the Jewish Sanhedrin in Jerusalem during the administration of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, how many people would accept it as fact.

No, the Bible is taken on faith (as is about every other historical document that predates those people currently alive).

Since it taken on faith, then does it really matter what day Jesus was born on? Not to a Christian. What matters is that he was born; he lived; he died; and he was resurrected. His death absolves us of our sins on judgment day, if we accept him as God’s representative on Earth and try to follow his teachings.

All the other traditions are merely eye-wash. Yes, they have come from various pre-Christian European cultures, but so what? It takes nothing away from the reason for the season.

So it is with all traditions. There is no “American” tradition, when you want to look at it. Nor is there a North American tradition (since Canada is inextricably linked to the United States on so many cultural levels). All our traditions, no matter the holiday, reflect the multitude of cultures that have melded in make the common core of the culture we accept in North America.

However, as Christians, we have chosen to celebrate the birth of our Savior; and by centuries of tradition, that celebration has occurred in December. You don’t like that; then don’t celebrate Christmas, or more accurately, Christ-Mass.

The spirit of Christmas, the beginning of faith, is not tied to some particular day, unless you are really narrow-minded. For example, for years, I often have been unable to celebrate “Christmas” on Dec. 25. For one reason or another, the tradition of exchanging gifts has fallen on other days of the month of December. Does that mean I am not Christian? Or does that mean I haven’t celebrated the Christ’s birth? I don’t think so.

So, those who want to separate Christmas from the religious holiday, they can do so, but why not give it a new name. Why hijack the Christians’ celebration and turn it into some secular event, divorced from the reason for the season.

In the United States, we have done so much to take Christ out of the season already, it is no longer funny. It truly has, as the leftist Christians say, like the author of the linked article above, become a non-event as far as the faith is concerned. It has become some narcissistic exercise in which the object of the holiday is forgotten.

Why do we give gifts – exchange gifts? Is it just so we can get some material wealth that makes us feel good for the moment? That is not the spirit of Christmas in my book.

From my perspective, and you are welcome to disagree or denigrate it at your pleasure, the offering of gifts is in recognition of the gift of salvation that the Christ gave us on the cross.

We often hear that it is in the giving that we should be most grateful. Not in what we have received but in what we have been able to give others, to put smiles on their faces and to give them feelings of warmth and love.

So, those of you who want to pick apart the traditions of Christmas … it ain’t no skin off me, as the saying goes.

If you want to point out the traditions observed in the United States (and Canada) are an amalgamation of the many different cultures that make up the populations of both great nations, then is that not a reflection of incredible kaleidoscope that is the culture that we share here. I think it is, and I think it pays tribute to the diversity of the people who live in North America. Should we not celebrate that diversity with the acknowledgement that the reason for the season really is religious and keep that thought in mind.

I, for one, think that those who want to take the Christ out of Christmas can do so. I only ask that they pick another name for their holiday.