During the season when we are all supposed to be a little kinder to each other and be full of good cheer, some religious leaders are getting really worked up over a few simple words. The Catholics Rights League, The Alliance Defense Fund, the American Family Association, and others are calling Christians to boycott retailers that refuse to use the word "Christmas" in their holiday promotions, stores and customer greetings, Even Bill O'Reilly, the TV commentator, has gotten in on the boycott bandwagon.
In recent years, some retailers have gone to using more generic terms like "seasons greetings" or "happy holidays" to avoid offending anyone who may not celebrate Christmas. While I understand why a corporation would do that, I don't know if it makes much a difference. Christmas has become fairly secular in this country. It is more about feeding our impulses as consumers and getting what we want than remembering the birth of Christ.
The "Christian" leaders who are calling for the boycott seem to be making a big deal about nothing. Most people would not consider shopping on Black Friday a spiritual experience. There are many things about Christmas that have little to do with Jesus. And I have often wondered if Christ would rather not be associated with the hype and excess surrounding the Christmas season.
While there definitely are things for Christians to fight against and boycott, the use of the word "Christmas" does not really seem to be one of them. Christians should express outrage over attempts to teach evolution as scientific fact in public schools or deny religious freedoms in public institutions. But this latest Christmas marketing debate appears to be nonsense.
Jesus would be focusing on meeting needs of the poor not protesting over the absence of His name in advertising programs. This reality has not been lost of the careful observers in the world.
David Waters of the Scripps Howard News Service wrote, "Christians buy things. Lots of things. Especially during the Christmas season when we celebrate the birth of the man who said 'give up your possessions and follow me.' So you better watch out, retailers. This isn't just the holiday shopping season. This is the Christmas shopping season. Patronize it. Profit from it. Commercialize it all you want. Just don't ignore it."
How could we have strayed so far from the heart of Christ? While I do recognize that there are many good things about Christmas including time with family, charity, tradition, festive celebration, community involvement, etc. Much of Christmas has degenerated into a free-for-all where people will fight over the last on sale item or buy things that they don't need with money that they don't have.
I will still call Christmas by its proper name and wish people "Merry Christmas" as I go through this holiday season. But I don't see why some religious leaders get so worked up when there are much bigger problems to tackle. You only have a limited amount of energy in this life. Why waste it on something as trivial and shallow as retail marketing?
