Happy Holidays...

…is what terrorists say. Christmas has been cancelled this year and instead we will be celebrating December 25th.  So Happy December 25th everyone!

I use to cherish the Christmas season; it was truly my favorite time of year.  Besides celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, it seems that it’s one of the only times during the year where most people are friendly and kind and where charity seems to be the rule of the day.  Now, however , I find myself irritated at the retailers who push purchasing gifts for that non-descript winter holiday which falls on December 25.  What’s more, any mention of Christmas has been removed from our government square.  Want proof?  Go to the Smithsonian website and check their hours of operations.  They are open “every day except for December 25”, I kid you not, right there in broad daylight on their website.

My fist question is why December 25?  I can almost hear their answer:

 “Well Sir, that’s Christmas.”

“Then why don’t you say, closed on Christmas Day?”

“Well Sir, that might offend someone”

“Then don’t close on Christmas”

“We don’t close on Christmas, we close on December 25.”

Okay, so here’s the breakdown of religious affiliation in the U.S. of A. according to the CIA World Factbook: Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4%.  So according to my underachieving high school education, more than 75% of Americans would claim to be affiliated with Christianity in some form or another.  Endo facto the overwhelming majority of Americans—one would think—support the celebration of Christmas rather than the celebration of December 25th.

Yet we continue as a nation to kowtow to the small minority of people who may or may not be offended that as a nation we celebrate Christmas.  Isn’t it true that we live in a democracy where the majority rules?  Yet the minority has hi-jacked Christmas and now my work is having a Holiday Party in the off chance that a Christmas party might offend someone.  If we followed this line of thinking out, shouldn’t have Romney won the election?  Shouldn’t the majority of voters be afraid of offending the minority of voters and concede? Ben Stein, famed presidential speechwriter, author, actor, game show host and economist wrote in 2005:

Next confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was  Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I would venture to say that it is a small percentage of people who are offended by Christmas.  But, they are the ones who are antagonistic about this whole thing and yet we buckle under their attack.   How can this happen, how can the majority of Americans concede that December 25 should be celebrated, but not Christmas?  How can we concede and say “Happy Holidays” when have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year covers the bases.  What’s the worst thing that could happen?

“I don’t celebrate Christmas L. Kyle.”

“Oh…okay, well have a Happy New Year.”

Do people really go home in a huff, kick their dogs and tell their wives “Well honey it happened four times today! Merry Christmas!  Where do they think they live? This is America, I’m calling the ACLU!”

Upon further investigation there appears to be other forces at work trying to steal Christmas.  For the sake of argument we will call this force “The Grinch” as people generally have an easier time believing in green men living caves above Whoville than they do believing in spiritual forces (either heavenly or demonic). 

The Grinch has devised a two-prong approach to steal Christmas from us.  The first prong is to attack the very day itself.  The Grinch has gotten people’s focus off of the true meaning of Christmas, which is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  Instead we are caught up in gift-giving and eating lavish meals to the point we forget that while the wise men brought Jesus gifts, they did so to worship Him.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy both the giving and receiving of gifts on Christmas morning.  But as a nation our focus is too much on the retail aspect of Christmas.  For Pete’s sake retailers are now open Thanksgiving Day rather than the day after Thanksgiving!

The Grinch has not only succeeded in getting non-Christian’s attention focused on gifts, but they majority of Christians put their attention toward decorating, baking, shopping and parties rather than celebrating their Savior’s birth.  It’s been an effective strategy for the Grinch.  Get people distracted with ancillary items so much they no longer have the strength to fight for Christmas.  If people are so busy shopping, and decorating  and cooking they won't notice that any mention of Christmas at Target has been substituted for “Holidays.”  Distracted people won’t notice that in a predominately Christian society one of their marquee holidays has been removed and replaced with some non-descript winter holiday celebrated on December 25th.

The Grinch’s success rate with this first prong is pretty dang high.  Sure there are a few hold-outs, some boycotts, but really at the end of the day the attack is too widespread, the Christmas supporters are too weak to fight (well with all that midnight shopping and what not).  The destroying of Christmas, however, is really just the by-product of the Grinch’s overall plan of eradicating Christianity as a whole from the public sphere in America. 

Oh come on L. Kyle, why would anyone want to take Christianity away in America?

Because Christianity my dear, is the only religion which claims to be the Truth and the Truth is a threat.  The truth threatens our very selfish way of life; it threatens our in-born desire to do what we want to do.  Christians get called prudes all the time because we seem to put a damper on people’s sinful behavior.  How many times, as kids were we willing to do something bad as long as our parents weren’t around?  That is what Christians are in the rest of the world’s eyes; we are the parent in the room disapproving of bad behavior.

Of course, adults are just grown up kids.  The responsibility level may change, but like kids, adults want to rebel against the moral good.  And that is where the Grinch is succeeding right now.  He’s lied to us.  He has said that temporary pleasure has no ill consequences.  And as a society we have bought into this lie and are rebelling against what we know (or should know) to be harmful all in the name of self-gratification, greed, lust and gluttony. 

So the Grinch’s plan is simple. Eliminate Christianity from America and do so, in part, by stealing Christmas and replacing it with a non-descript winter holiday celebrated on December 25th. 

So don’t be a terrorist, say Merry Christmas this year.  Keep the true Spirit of this Holy Day alive by telling people the real reason why we celebrate Christmas…Jesus Christ.

Leftovers, enjoy

L. Kyle