Wilms: Christmas is our holiday

Remember the "War on Christmas" some years ago? Because of the changing culture and the trend toward being offended at just about anything, some people who didn't like religion, in particular Christianity, reacted angrily at being wished a Merry Christmas. (They were fine with "happy holidays," which is ironic since the word holiday comes from the Old English for "holy day." But I digress.)

Once this caught on, businesses started to tell their clerks not to use the phrase Merry Christmas. They didn't do this because they cared all that much about offending anti-religious people; rather, they thought they could protect their bottom line if they stayed ahead of the newest issues in political correctness. Heck, if they thought they could make more money telling their employees to say "Jesus is Lord," they'd do that instead. But for the moment they were trying to follow the culture.

It was kind of a Bud Light moment, in other words – there was backlash. Christians didn't take kindly to the obvious muting of the word Christmas, and it was on. Conservative media dubbed it the War on Christmas, and liberal media reassured everyone that there was nothing to see here. Since then the public has had other fish to fry and flashpoint issues have a fairly brief shelf life anyway, so that whole tempest in a teapot has gone the way of all the earth, it appears.

But to be fair, I'm not sure the reaction of the anti-religious people was all that bad for believers. At least they were taking the holiday seriously, because they thought WE were taking it seriously. Anti-Christian folks don't understand us or our faith very well; instead, they think of us in terms of caricatures.

This was illustrated recently by the editor-in-chief of Mother Jones magazine complaining about a flight attendant wishing her a "blessed night." The editor interpreted this as a sign of lurking "Christian nationalism." She had no idea that phrases like that may not imply Christianity or any other religion at all, although her reaction did reveal her Christo-phobia. For many folks it's just a way of saying a gracious thing. The same goes for "Merry Christmas." But the negative reaction to such phrases should remind believers that their faith is, or at least should be, a very important matter indeed. If it is true that God gave His Son to die for our sins, and that trust in this amazing news is connected with a meaningful life here and eternal life in the age to come, and that it started with the Babe in Bethlehem, then saying "Merry Christmas" to someone who abhors that message should have an impact, and rightly so.

Frankly, I'm partly on the side of the anti-Merry-Christmas complainers. Not that I mind religious greetings at all. If a Jewish person wished me a Happy Hanukkah, I'd say "thank you!" and wish them a Merry Christmas in return. You know – be a good neighbor. But the real meaning of Christmas has dimmed a lot in Western culture over the years. For many, maybe for a majority, it is more of a seasonal time of getting together, partying and eating a lot, and maxing out credit cards to meet the oppressive expectation of buying gifts. Why call that "Christmas"? Instead, I'd be fine if we used the term Winter Festival instead. Christmas is for believers – it is OUR holiday, not the wider culture's. Let us have our faith and wish each other a Merry Christmas, just as the adherents of other religions wish each other a merry whatever-is-important-to-them, and let Hallmark start a new line of Happy Winter Festival cards. At least it would be more honest.

Pastor Mark Wilms serves Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Royal.