The mall is mobbed. The Sunday paper bulges with department
store ads. Charlie and Rudolph on TV, again.
Clearly, ’tis the season. And with it, the secularization of our nation continues.
This year I have a favorite new Christmas song, This is My Wish, by Kevin Ross. (Yes, you’ve heard it on the
commercials for Glade air fresheners.) It even quotes Scripture twice: Psalm
95, and Luke 2. Depending on the version, the ad shows happy families admiring
a festively adorned pine tree.
Why the celebration? Wherefore the Bible references, and the tree, and the snowy milieu? I don't know. They won't say.
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That’s right, people. Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, and so on. Or just show the warm-fuzzy visuals, and let the viewer interpret it as he chooses. This is the new, inclusive, kinder, gentler, winter season. But wait…why are celebrating anything at all in the last two months of the year?
In late November we have Thanksgiving, which recalls the experience of CHRISTIAN settlers who gave thanks to the CHRISTIAN god for taking care of them in a strange new land. Not some generic deity, not "The Universe," not some nebulous "higher power." It was an act of CHRISTIAN worship.
That’s right, people. Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, and so on. Or just show the warm-fuzzy visuals, and let the viewer interpret it as he chooses. This is the new, inclusive, kinder, gentler, winter season. But wait…why are celebrating anything at all in the last two months of the year?
In late November we have Thanksgiving, which recalls the experience of CHRISTIAN settlers who gave thanks to the CHRISTIAN god for taking care of them in a strange new land. Not some generic deity, not "The Universe," not some nebulous "higher power." It was an act of CHRISTIAN worship.
Next we have Hanukkah, a minor holiday that was barely observed anywhere until the 1970s. Even then, it’s in majority-CHRISTIAN countries, because of the calendar proximity to Christmas.
Then of course comes Christmas, which celebrates the birth
of CHRIST.
The following day marks the beginning of Kwanzaa, introduced
in 1966, and deliberately scheduled to compete with Christmas.
Conclusion?
Jesus is the reason why we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Jesus is the reason why we celebrate Hanukkah.
Jesus is the reason why we celebrate Christmas.
Jesus is the reason for the invention of Kwanzaa.
So why is it politically incorrect to say the word? You know, the "C" word? Why do my neighbors, and bank tellers, and grocery checkers, hesitate to say it? Why do we see Santa Claus on "holiday" cards? Why is the mall decorated with pine trees, showmen, elves, and a wintry motif? If not for Jesus, this "season" would be just another day at the office and we wouldn't know the difference.
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