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Christmas and the Three American Religions

In the circles I travel there is a constant debate concerning the three predominant religions of America. One way to look at these three religions is to look at their respective views concerning Christmas.

The most dominant religion in America is Deism. Deism got its start in 1638 as a compromise between Calvinism, Lutheranism, and Catholicism. It effectively said that truth is not our goal in Western society but rather compromise or at least majority rule. It completely undercut both the disciplines of Theology and Philosophy. It did promote in their places modern science and what we call Democracy. In this religion the Goddess of Liberty and Santa Claus are equal pretend deities. The �high God� or �Higher Power� or some such laid down the �laws of nature� and left the world to run itself. Our job is through a serious of trials and errors discover and use these laws.

Desists like Christmas because it feels nice and it promotes a sense of harmony and capitalism. Deism is supported by a majority of Republicans and a shrinking number of Democrats.

The second religion that has been infected to one degree or another by the predominant Deism of Western Culture is Monotheism usually expressed through one form or another of Christianity. Christmas celebrations were originally wedged between Advent and Epiphany until a date for Christmas was settled upon. The Divine Condescension of God to us is a central teaching of the Church but the actual date of celebration is a Johnny�Come- lately. Nevertheless, if one really wishes to celebrate the Christian holy it won�t be done at the shopping mall. That�s the Deist celebration. It will be done at Church.

The third but growing religion of America is called Atheism. It has no use for Christianity at all and ridicules the Deist fantasy of Christmas as the worship of Santa Claus, trees, and the colors Red and Green. Atheists often criticize the Deist holiday by claiming it is Christian.

I like the �feel good� holiday of the Deist Christmas, but have we really lost anything by not having it spread by Wall Mart? I don�t know.

What bothers me more is the Deistic intrusions into our holy Churches.

What do you think?

Dan Lauffer

No one can take away the real Christmas from us.

People are, however trying to take away the Christmas traditions that immigrant Americans have brought here from their native countries and melded into a uniquely American kind of tradition.

What is sad about that is that as a country and a people we are not rich in tradition, since we are such a young country It would be a pity to see the 'American Christmas traditions' snuffed out by atheists and others. On the other hand, all this controversy might make the majority nominal Christians really think about what it is we are celebrating.

Curiously, when I first got married and my husband's job brought us to live in Athens as newlyweds, I was very disappointed in how undercelebrated and understated the hoilday was. It was simply a religious and family holiday, and some ex-pats and Westerners had Christmas trees in their homes, but that was about all I remember.

Today, Greece has emulated us and Athens has become probably far more festive than the States in Christmas displays. Besides ornaments, lights, Western Christmas carols, and trees are to be seen and heard all over the city, (even over supermarket sound systems) and creches are also allowed to be displayed on public property...thus reminding one of the real meaning of Christmas.

Without the nativity scene of yesteryear in this country, all the other traditions just don't seem as festive anymore, and, unfortunately, I do not see the nativity scene coming back any time soon, other than infront of people's homes.

All the controversy in the news about Christmas recently, in my estimation, has also put a damper on the 'season'...

Just some thoughts.

In Christ our Lord,
Alice

The first post is absolutely right. I wonder about those who would, for example, boycott Target or Walmart for saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". I mean, really, does it make a difference? "Holiday" is supposed to be "HOLYday", yet it is so worn out that it has now lost all meaning - apparently even to Christians. I prefer to keep Christmas free from that end. Instead of having these companies use "Christmas" as a marketing tool, why not reclaim "Holiday" to it's true meaning...

Another aspect that I find odd in using the term "Christmas" is that many who want these companies to use it do not believe in a Mass (Christmas = Christ's Mass), infact they emphatically reject it. These pseudo-"religious" types just like the words, but they don't even recognize the meaning behind them.

Dan,

Good essay. You asked for thoughts, so here are my 2 cents' worth.

For me, there is secular Christmas and real Christmas.

Real Christmas is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ ! -- in the world, in our hearts and in our lives !

Secular Christmas is a mixed bag. Some of it is rank materialism and hostility to religion (refusing to say "Merry Christmas" and insisting on saying "Happy Holidays" for example). All that revolts me.

However, secular Christmas can have a good side. I know because I remember when I was a secularist and the secularists I knew then. The good side to secular Christmas is when it emphasizes an (admittedly vague) "spirit of Christmas" -- peace on earth, goodwill among men, forgiveness, repentance and so on. The secularists can actually celebrate and practice those virtues at this time of year.

The secularists sometimes celebrate everything about Christmas except Jesus Christ. On the one hand, that is very sad. On the one hand, part of something is better than all of nothing, and I hope the little they do recognize about Christmas will be a vehicle for Divine grace.

So, I pray for them, the secularists, at this time of year that the grace of Jesus Christ will awaken them to Him and His infinite love for them. I also try to be a good witness of Jesus Christ especially at this time of year -- because I remember when it was precisely the daily witness of some Christians that eventually led me to Christ.

-- John

This American thing of 'the holidays' and trying to have avoid actually naming what holidays we are having and why, is hovering around in Australia. I refuse to say happy holidays to anyone. I dont think avoiding stores where staff are made to say these things helps but a conscious effort to say Merry Christmas when appropriate. Running away is silly fight back. send only religious Christmas cards and put nativity scenes in prominant places in Christian owned businesses and homes. It is the only reason there is a public holiday the 25th of December.

Greeting others with "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" is a copout.

Isn't "Christ is Born" / "Christos Razhdayetsya" so much more meaningful?

We Ukrainian and Ruthenian Christians have so many beautiful customs!

I certainly agree.

CDL

Well, it would be meaningful to other Ukrainians and Ruthenians. Everyone else would kind of look at you funny, in incomprehension due to unfamiliarity with that phrase as a Christmas greeting. But the phrase "Merry Christmas" is instantly recognizable to others here in the States as a Christian Christmas greeting.

-- John

Well, there are good reasons to boycott Wal-Mart. Chief amongst them is that we end up covering the company's real costs by having a more limited healthcare market for ourselves and subsidizing emergency care for their employees because those people generally make so little. The Biblical connection here is that God's preferrential option for the poor is being violated.

And in that connection, I don't know what Democrats (or Republicans) have to do with this.

Could it also be that the synaxis of the Trinity forms or creates a more democratic paradigm in which the Holy Spirit operates, giving us the possibility of democracy? And that, as something given by the Trinity and worked through the Holy Spirit, democracy is something to love, protect and extend to all walks of life? Ceding the issue to "deists" seems to give up too much. Moreover, it misses the theological moment we live in. Besides, if "deism" is the result of a struggle between faiths, then is it not true that that struggle remains unfinished? And if it is unfinished, what responsibilities does that leave us with? It seems like a kind of counter-cultural anarchism to address or respond to people only in terms we are comfortable with; it's as if we are a purist sect. Didn't Christ and the community of the Apostles work through the dominant cultural paradigm in order to evangalize? Didn't they enter into disputes within Judaism in order to extend the reach or concept of salvation? I think the answers are affirmative and provide a paradigm for us; work within the social contradictions in order to locate the theological moment and recognize and respond to the Holy Spirit.

Faithfully,

bob

The local Roman Catholic parochial school teaches the children that Santa isn't real when the children reach first grade. They tell them about St. Nicholas. And believe it or not the children actually favor the story about St. Nicholas.

Praise God !

Dear Professor Dan!

Being an Old-Calendarist stick-in-the-mud as I am , I grew up with a keen perception of Christmas being totally "secular" and having nothing to do with religion at all!

We celebrated Christ's Nativity on January 6th and 7th and that was wholly spiritual and religious.

But December 25th, for me and others like me, was a Santa Claus thingy where gifts were bought for their own sake, sleigh bells ringing, snow flakes flinging, business owners singing . . .

It was only much later in life that the subtleties involving two calendars were explained to me . . .

Growing up with the view of the West as being secularized, demoralized and de-Christianized came natural to me.

It also helped solidify my religious (and cultural) identity.

This is why the Administrator's views on becoming more "English" with the mainstream suggests to me, in knee-jerk fashion, that we should somehow give up the "moat" (Old Calendar) that separates us from the godless masses of the West!

Down with the pagan barbarians!!

Alex

Dear Alice,

Didn't the 'pilgrim fathers' ban the celebration of Christmas, as a vain memorial and Christian aberation?

Certainly the modern American feast we celebrate, is of very recent creation, and I don't think there is anything like it in the countries that immigrants came from.

the unworthy,
Elias

I copied this from a Traditional Catholic website:

"... (By the way, "merry" originally meant, and should mean to Catholics, "blessed and peaceful," not party-like as in "merry-making." For ex., the carol, "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" has a comma after the "merry" and addresses "gentlemen," not "merry gentlemen." It means "God keep you peaceful and blessed, men!"

"And on another note, the angel never said to the shepherds, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" as the King James version reads; he said, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men of good will" -- a vastly different sentiment that doesn't lead to the false idea that there can be peace among ill-willed men. ...."

Dear Tessa,

Yes, "Merry" was "Merryg" that meant "Holy" or something like that.

That's why one formerly wished another a "Merrie Hallowe'en" as well.

And "St George for Merry England" originally meant for "Holy England."

(What do you say, Myles?)

Alex