A person I work with sent out an all-staff e-mail today to tell us to go to this site. To be absolutely blunt this morning...this is stupid. What is stupid is that whoever made this video is trying to put the Christ back in consumerism. But there is no Christ in consumerism, just the functional savior that we continually make our stuff into. They are upset that this holiday season, when Americans spend enough money to end world poverty but buy gifts instead, stores are not calling it Christmas but "holidays".
What if Jesus is pleased not to have his name mingled with such blind greed and selfishness?
What if this is itself a small act of God?
God bless America...right?
Peace,
Matt
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6 comments:
Well said, Matt. A couple of years ago I heard a Focus on the Family radio show making much of the same arguments as the video -- at least they're consistent in their message. I had a similar response to the radio show as you had to the video and I wrote this:
"On December 2, as I drove to the hospital for my chaplaincy internship I listened to, 'Keeping it a "Merry Christmas",' a Focus on the Family radio broadcast. In the piece Dr. James Dobson and Alan Sears discussed the removal of Christian symbols from the public arena’s celebration of Christmas. Dobson implored listeners to demand managers of stores where they shop to wish them a “Merry Christmas” rather than a generic, 'Happy Holidays' if these stores wished to keep these listeners' business. This emphasis to 'put Christ back into Christmas' seems misguided to me. As I listened to Dobson, I thought, 'This is the culture war we’re fighting?'
"Dobson referred to a recent Gallup poll that said 96% of all Americans celebrate Christmas. That does not mean, however, that those 96% of Americans worship Jesus on December 25. They seem to be celebrating our society’s cultural expression of Christmas"
The whole post is here.
Blessings to your family as you celebrate Christmas this year. May you feel the presence of Christ especially as it is the first Christmas without your father. I'm praying for your family.
Wow. That was the worst thing i've seen all day. thanks jerk. Merry Tossmas matt, and God bless us everyone.
My thoughts exactly. Let the holidays be the holidays. Christmas still is and will always be a choice for followers of Christ to celebrate the day Love came down.
Now if I can just get that iPhone that I've been wanting...
Well what do we do about it? How about starting with asking the person on staff who sent the e-mail why it's meaningful to them? How about trying to understand them first and then maybe even blogging about how to share another viewpoint with Christians who may support things like that video. I'd be interested in what you would say, pray and do in response to that person after all that. I'm excited to hear about what you learn and hopefully what they learn. May you treat them as a brother or sister and not on "The other side." May God go with you as you challenge people on probably one of the most offensive sins in the world right now...the commercialization of Christ.
Okay. I just left the anonymous message (Colin) and I couldn't watch the video at first but then I got it to work. Just speaking for the video specifically......wow that was horrible. I'm continually pushed to begin to embrace the idea of being a follow of Christ in america as an exilic activity. When it comes down to the Ceaser's of our day don't really care whether it's called Christmas or Holidays as long as he gets his money and power over us. Our souls don't get any healthier based on it being called Christmas or Holidays as we fill up on our insatiable need for more during this time of year.
Anonymous/Colin,
You are assuming that I didn't have a conversation with this person. Unfortunately, the conversation was not very interesting or productive, and it is much easier for me to have these conversations after blowing off steam in a way like writing.
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