Saturday, January 2, 2010

Putting Christ Back in Christmas

This is the last post on Xmas but I just found this & didn't want to forget this one.

This is from Russell King & he has an outstanding diary entry at Steet Prophets entitled "It's time to put Christ back into Christmas."

*When we insist that others join in our customs, use the words we like to use and participate in our celebration, we are violating the life and lessons of Jesus and ripping Christ from the heart of Christmas. When we force non-Christians to utter the name of Christ when they do not believe in Him, we are making mockery of the Christ in Christmas. When we take offense when others celebrate the season in ways that are meaningful to them, and are different from our ways -- especially when we pretend that respecting others' celebrations constitutes a "war on Christmas" -- we are ignoring the spirit of Christ. When we insist that our government join in our religious celebration, we are acting exactly like those who opposed Christ. When we insist that the tax dollars of non-Christians be used to celebrate our Christian holiday, we are ignoring Christ's teaching (Matthew 22:21) and tearing Him out of Christmas. When we put more emphasis on the word "Christ" than on the message of Christ, we are making a mockery of Christmas and the one whose birth we celebrate (we don't do salvation by syllables). When we make a fuss over "Xmas," we show that we don't know much about our own religion's history: In Greek, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ, and it, or the similar Roman letter X, has been used as an abbreviation for Christ since the mid-16th century. Xmas has been used for Christmas, by Christians, for centuries.

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2 comments:

Diane J Standiford said...

What a great post! I have felt this for years, but wasn't sure what I was feeling. I'm so glad he did not let this pass. Next year I will have the best Christmas ever, thanks to reading this post.

Stephen Fox said...

Short note; cut and paste this link. Think you'll like it
http://www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=8130

New Look at "Christian America"