Introduction
I haven’t blogged for a while because of busy writing and speaking schedule. A friend’s Facebook has brought me out of my blogging hibernation. She asked the question, “Is anyone bothered by people saying Merry Xmas?” This is a good question. Typically Christians respond in three different ways to the perceived secularization of Christmas.
The Attack: Xmas a Pagan Notion?
The first approach to secularization of Christmas by Christians is loud and vitriolic rhetoric. Usually the argument goes something like this. “Oh, the damn secularists. They take away our Christmas by putting an X in the place of Christ.” Whoops, did I say “damn”? I meant “darn.” Seriously, “damn” probably expresses how their feel deep down inside (though such respectable folks would never use it in front of me).
What such angry folks do not know is that the “X” is not an English-X. It is the Greek letter pronounced “Ki” which stands for the first letter of Christos, the title for Jesus. “Xmas” is just another way of saying “Christmas”. This seems like a small point, but such polemic betrays a complete lack of cultural literacy even about our own faith. When we have this LITTLE biblical literacy, we can’t speak so proudly that we are some kind of Bible-believing Christians. I'm more bothered by such biblical illiteracy or ignorance than about the derisive usage by secular folks of the term "Xmas." Such polemical Christians are the perfect pawns in the hands of manipulative and often paranoid Religious Right of our country. I pray that none of that rubbish invades Hong Kong.
The Retreat: Secularist as the Christmas Thief?
The next approach is a bit more sophisticated but still remains quite negative and naive. The argument goes something like this. “I know X stands for Christos (then again, maybe the person does not really know but just pretend to know AFTER you tell him or her), but the secularist has already ruined that part and we must fight him by insisting that he removes the X from our Christmas.” This negative attitude is typical of those who take the “retreat from secularist deconstruction of our faith” approach.
This is nothing new. In the early parts of 20th century, the church had been on retreat from increasingly liberal institutions by the formation of Westminster Theological Seminary. The whole enterprise seems to be a cultural failure as the Christian voice is either weak or non-existent. Polemics clearly do not work in a culture of pluralism (of course, you can also decry pluralism, modernism and postmodernism or any other “isms” in your own Christian bubble). The historical reality of our secularized universities that were originally all Christian is the clear indicator of the failure in using the strategy of retreat. The fact of the matter is, such retreating Christians never read carefully enough in their Bible that Jesus and Paul ministered in a culture of diversity and paganism. They did just fine. In fact, Christianity did best before it BECAME a religion. The lack of understanding of how Christianity grows betrays yet another type of ignorance. Beating a path to retreat only shows how irrelevance Christianity has become instead of how secularized the world is.
True Spirit of Christmas?
What is the true spirit of Christmas? I think there’re more positive ways to reclaim Christmas rather than either attacking the secular approach ignorantly or retreating from the onslaught knowingly. Here are some suggestions.
First, we can simply spread the good news of Christmas by taking a positive approach without retreating. I’ve suggested using “Xmas” as a conversation starter, “Did you know what Xmas REALLY means? X actually means Christos. You know what Christos means?” It is really not that hard. I have had colleagues and friends who blog about the true meaning of Christmas in a pluralistic age. Two friends I can suggest are Dr. John Byron, a professor and friend teaching in Ashland Seminary, and Michael Halcomb, a PhD candidate studying under Ben Witherington III in Asbury Seminary. You can see their blogs here.
http://thebiblicalworld.blogspot.com/2010/12/more-on-why-we-dont-need-to-defend.html?spref=fb
http://michaelhalcomb.blogspot.com/2010/12/jesus-birth-in-context-12-posts-of.html
Second, besides using our words, we can scale back from the materialistic approach of Christmas. I find it almost unfathomable to watch Christians dive into the materialism of Black Friday year after year while so many in the world are starving. The same folks may be bragging about the "bargains" while decrying pagan usage of "Xmas." Years ago, a very close friend gave me a suggestion that has a continued impact in my life. She copied this story about a family foregoing their Christmas gift-giving to each other but have chosen to use the same amount of money to help the poor. I think that is closer to the true Christmas spirit because Christmas is not about materialism and giving gifts to those who already have almost everything. Christmas is about God’s gift through Jesus whose birth pointed towards His eventual death on Good Friday. Humanity needed the Son of God. So, God gave the gift through the Son. This is exactly why the incarnation cannot be duplicated. I see a lot of Christians getting caught in the shopping frenzies while decrying secularization of Christmas. Decrying how non-Christian celebrating the holidays merely makes us look like party poopers. Why not create a new party of compassion and love through helping the unfortunate?
Conclusion
From the above assessment, we still need to deal with some issues within our faith, including a glaring ignorance about Christian faith among believers. The churches are responsible for this problem. Seminaries also must step up teaching, not even in terms of sophisticated theology but also simple Christian literacy. Another issue deserves our attention is the basic fortress mentality Christians take, not just towards Christmas, but towards everything. The worst problem remains in the way Christian action speaks louder than words. The biggest problem is not just whether the X is in Christmas or what the X represents. Bigger issues than the name or semantics deserve our urgent attention. The problem is our willingness to engage in a pluralistic society by celebrating every challenge as opportunity for mission. On that note, I wish everyone happy holidays and Merry Christmas … or Xmas.