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This article was downloaded by: [University of California, Riverside Libraries] On: 21 October 2014, At: 21:39 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Homily Service Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uhom20 From the Sacristy • The Christian War on Christmas Jason Byassee Published online: 22 Oct 2009. To cite this article: Jason Byassee (2009) From the Sacristy • The Christian War on Christmas, Homily Service, 43:1, 168-170, DOI: 10.1080/07321870903287590 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07321870903287590 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content. This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,

From the Sacristy • The Christian War on Christmas

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Page 1: From the Sacristy • The Christian War on Christmas

This article was downloaded by: [University of California, Riverside Libraries]On: 21 October 2014, At: 21:39Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH,UK

Homily ServicePublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uhom20

From the Sacristy • TheChristian War on ChristmasJason ByasseePublished online: 22 Oct 2009.

To cite this article: Jason Byassee (2009) From the Sacristy • The Christian War onChristmas, Homily Service, 43:1, 168-170, DOI: 10.1080/07321870903287590

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07321870903287590

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all theinformation (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform.However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make norepresentations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness,or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and viewsexpressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, andare not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of theContent should not be relied upon and should be independently verified withprimary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for anylosses, actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages,and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly orindirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of theContent.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes.Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan,

Page 2: From the Sacristy • The Christian War on Christmas

sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone isexpressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found athttp://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

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Page 3: From the Sacristy • The Christian War on Christmas

From the SacristyThe Christian War on Christmas

A friend who’s serious about her Christian discipleship asked me what myfamily was going to do about Christmas. ‘‘What do you mean?’’ I asked.

‘‘Are you going to teach your children that the presents are from SantaClaus, from Jesus, or from their parents?’’ she asked. ‘‘If you say Santa,that sort of defeats the ‘Christ’ part. If you say they’re presents for Jesus’birthday, that’s better theologically, but they’ll be the only kid they knowwho thinks that. And if they’re just from you, well, where’s the magic inthat?’’ I did what anyone should do when facing such an irresolvabledilemma: I punted. ‘‘Our kids won’t be old enough to be damaged untilnext year.’’

We’re told by the High Priests of the Right that there’s a war onChristians going on. From my vantage having been in the evangelicalenclave of Wheaton, Illinois, it seems rather that Christmas is assaultingus. And not just the schlock of greenery, elves, and Claus himself.

I went into a local Christian bookstore seeking Christmas cards. InsteadI got an earful. A gaggle of college kids exploded into the store, andgiggled their way up to the counter, where one bellowed, ‘‘Can we singa Christmas hymn?’’ Well, how else is the owner of a Christian book-store going to answer? So they did. And, truth be told, it was beauti-ful—‘‘What Child Is This?’’—one of my favorites. But I wasn’t askedif I was up for a hymn, my ears were just crammed with joyful noisewhether I was ready or not. When I got to the counter I complainedat the lack of Christmas cards. The cashier agreed. ‘‘We’re one of theonly ones who have actual Christmas cards. Everyone else has thosegoofy ‘Happy Holiday’ cards.’’

How righteous. And how silly. Hallmark is entirely too savvy to let thebulk of the multibillion-dollar greeting card business go elsewhere. Themost troubling thing about the attack on ‘‘Happy Holidays’’ as ‘‘goofy,’’or as worthy of boycott or litigation, is that it smells vaguely ofanti-Semitism. Anyone who doesn’t say ‘‘Merry Christmas’’ will beridiculed in public discourse, spoken of as ‘‘goofy,’’ and boycotted and

168Homily Service, 43(1):168–170, 2010 Copyright Q The Liturgical Conference ISSN 0732-1872

DOI: 10.1080/07321870903287590

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litigated by Falwell and his evil elves . . . a little like they were in Germanyin the 1930s.

The most serious war on Christmas, then, is that being waged byChristians. They are not troubled by the same things as my friendabove—the consumerism, the cult of cute that revolves around gifts tochildren, the substitution of the Santa stories for the ones about thebirthday boy. On the contrary, they are those people Monty Python oncelampooned as ‘‘Consumers for Christ’’ who, despite sitting at the levers ofpower in all parts of our government and dominating its nationaldiscourse, still find a way to play the victim in a way reminiscent ofChristians’ worst hour of shame in the last century.

Alas, I don’t exempt myself when I say the real war on Christmas is beingwaged by Christians. Consumerism, the cult of cute, and Santa existbecause I want them to also. I’m not more given to generosity, worship,and love of neighbor than most others who are similarly harried this timeof year. And it’s not the fault of ‘‘the liberals’’ or ‘‘the religious right,’’ butrather is the fault of the worst of sinners—me.

The ‘‘good news’’ or ‘‘gospel’’ of Christmas is about God’s taking on offlesh precisely for the worst of sinners. Those who champion their ownrighteousness and put down others are like those who had no room intheir homes for the traveling family in Bethlehem, or worse, like KingHerod, who slaughtered the innocents to stop this invasion of a greaterpower in his realm. The only ones who ‘‘got it’’ that first Christmas mornwere a handful of local working men, an odd procession of astrologersfrom a pagan Eastern religion, a batch of cattle, a puzzled old man,and a virgin who’d just given birth. G. K. Chesterton described it thisway: ‘‘The hands that made the sun and stars were too small to reachthe huge heads of cattle.’’

The best descriptions of Christmas are those, like Chesterton’s, that stopus short, show us the paradox of an enfleshed God, melt our accusationsagainst anybody but ourselves, and draw us to worship. And worship thatdoesn’t make us more generous and loving toward outsiders and aid inthe building of a culture of beauty rather than ugliness—well, that’s noworship at all.

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The heart of Christmas is the same in theology as it is in popularpractice: the gift. When we give something of ourselves in gifts to thosewe love, we catch a glimpse of the God who gives the whole of Godselfin the gift of Jesus. Like any gift, this one can be refused, else it wouldn’tbe a gift. The effort legally and rhetorically to shame those who will notreplicate Christian language in this season suggests, irony of ironies, theturning of this gift into an obligation, with punishments attached forenforcement. And that, I suggest, is the most serious war currently beingconducted on Christmas. Or maybe it’s second—see above.

Jason Byassee

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