Thoughts on the "Christmas Controversy"

I was just sitting here with some time, ironically working on some Christmas gifts, and thought I'd jot down a few of my thoughts regarding the recent controversy over Christmas. If you'd paid any attention to the news, you're more than aware of what I speak, namely the idea that big retail outlets have opted more to say, "Happy Holidays", as opposed to the traditional, "Merry Christmas". Even a retail giant such as Wal-Mart has been lobbied against due to such a decision.

Now, I'm not a Scrooge or a relativistic, pluralistic, wishy-washy whatever. Rather, I'm a big fan of Christmas in almost all of it's incarnations. Our family celebrates Christmas first and foremost with the intent of honoring the birth of Christ, whom we acknowledge as our Lord and Savior. In the past couple of years, we've also added the observance of the liturgical celebration of Advent to our spiritual practice and have found that to be equally enriching. That being said, we also allow ourselves to partake of the more generic celebration of the holiday as we join in buying gifts for one another and our loved ones. This time of year is truly a joyous one for us.

I say all of that (and now that I read back over it, I'm really not sure where I was going there) to say this regarding my stance on the issue. One, yes, I agree that we ought to say, "Merry Christmas". I'm not particularly offended by someone proclaiming, "Happy Kwanzaa" or some other holiday to me and I'd just ask for similar support. Plus, let's be honest. Our modern incarnation of the holiday, meaning the roots that are inherent in it since the Christians appropriated the holiday from the pagans, are fairly clear. It's a celebration of the birth of Christ. But, that being as it may, I'd really like to see more Christians be more upset and moved to action at such things as, well, say, the AIDS crisis in Africa, the fact that nearly 80% of all deaths in developing countries is related to such a simple thing as bad water, or even the simple rate of homelessness and need in our own hometowns. My frustration comes at the fact that we try to stand our ground regarding points wherein we feel we're losing ground publicly but don't necessarily live out what that ground holds privately. It's time for us to not worry so much about labels and names (although for me and my house, we'll be greeting folks with a cheery merry Christmas!) and worry more about truly hearing the call and command of Christ and live it out incarnationally to all.

Just a thought...