Happy Holidays!

Ok Pete, here's my rant. It's official, I am sick of it. Why are evangelical Christians making a fool of themselves by getting on CNN and FOX news to debate the phrase "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas?" People say that they are offended by those that are attempting to remove Christ out of Christmas. Well, I am offended by such evangelicals fighting for a word and not fighting for a life that follows Christ. There is something wrong when someone makes such a loud noise over a phrase while proclaiming that we should be killing dictators, or preaching a gospel of hate towards homosexuals. DO NOT, and I mean DO NOT preach to merchants about the use of Happy Holidays if you are not prepared to do two things. The first is to approach the store managers in love. What if we showered store owners with so much love that they said Merry Christmas out of respect for those that have shown so much love to them? I know, I know, what was I thinking. I guess I should get back to the debate at hand instead of bringing Biblical principles into the discussion since most debators are not willing to do so. Secondly, realize that Christmas is a day that points to 364 other days of the year. The announcement of Christmas is the announcement of a Messiah that has come in the midst of oppression to set his people free. Not to flaunt wealth by visiting every department store known to man. If Christmas is the high point of our year, then something is wrong. Each day is more important than the last when it comes to announcing the birth of Christ. Enough said on that.

Final two things. People are offended by the phrase "Happy Holidays." Here is what I am offended by: go to a target shopping center and look at the flags on the lightposts. (I do not know if all Target shopping centers have these, but the two in Huntsville and Birmingham have these. By the way, I had planned to take a picture of the sign to place on this entry so as to night bore everyone, but wouldn't you know it, my camera is dead.) What I am referring to are signs on the light posts that boast the phrase "Peace on Earth." Innocent enough...right? No! The phrase is paired up with the image of a dove holding a twig in its mouth. The dove carries itself through the air on a wing that is an American flag. This offends me. Peace on earth, as we have seen through the Iraqi blunderings of our country, does not come on an American flag wing. Peace on earth comes through Christ. This is something that we should be concerned about because Christians have bought into this lie without any question. GOD IS NOT AN AMERICAN!

Now, this brings me to the last point of this rant. I think that an appropriate phrase that all Christians should unite around during Christmas is found in scripture: "And on earth Peace to all on whom God's favor rests." Not Peace on earth through democracy, but Peace on earth through the gift of Jesus Christ, God incarnate. The sacredness of the phrase "merry Christmas" was lost the second the fundamentalists got on tv arguing for it. That's ok, no one can take away the sacredness of the angels' announcement of "Peace on earth."

May you and I take hold of this announcement and understand that Christ's life is a life that was lived to announce Shalom, Peace. In the same way, I pray that all Christians would begin to follow Christ and use their lives to announce; "and on earth Peace to all on whom God's favor rests."