In recent days I've heard what I consider a somewhat
odd argument in the American Evangelical Christmas wars. It's funny you can
almost always spot an Evangelical working in retail because you get a very
aggressive and forced Merry Christmas as you finish your purchase. And I usually
get a very vexed expression when I reply, "Thanks, have a nice
weekend," and walk away.
Society should acknowledge 25 December as Christmas, and
retailers should say Merry Christmas because...it's a Federal Holiday and marked
on official calendars as "Christmas." That's a supplemental argument
I keep hearing. They seem to feel it adds more weight and legitimacy to their
position.
The government says it's Christmas....
Christmas is a Christian holiday, the government affirms
we're a Christian nation...therefore it's improper to say Happy Holidays.
Besides being really quite juvenile, this whole argument is
misguided and perhaps dangerously so. Dangerous I say? Bear with me.
Here are some considerations...
First, I think it sets a particularly bad precedent for the
Church to start looking to the state for vindication of practice. Regardless of
what the state says, does, or thinks, we the Church need to be about our
business. Our approval comes from the Lord, not the state. This trend of the
Church looking to the state to define concepts for them is to say the least a
little confusing, and at most can prove destructive. We're a long way from the
Caesaropapism of the Orthodox world where the state, whether it was Byzantine
Emperor, Tsar, or Red Tsar dictates policy to the Church.
However, in Western Christendom there's a long standing
error of the Church calling on the state to reinforce its teachings. In the
Middle Ages this might mean laws concerning compulsory attendance at Mass, or
calling on the state to persecute heretics. In the American context it has
meant the Church calling on the state to control individual behaviour, like in
the case of Prohibition, or asking the state to define marriage, and holidays.
And that's just a few examples.
With this idea comes the reciprocal concept that if the
state gets it wrong, the Church itself is harmed. For example if the state errs
in defining marriage... somehow that destroys our marriages.
This is the essence of Sacralism, the Church calling on the
state to help in building the Kingdom of God...thus defining (or dragging down
from my perspective) Kingdom issues in tangible categories that can be dealt
with politically, militarily, legally and so forth. The state becomes a weapon,
a vehicle, to bring about Kingdom goals.
Is it any surprise the Kingdom is redefined to fit the
limited capabilities of a state?
Not only do you end up with a mutated Kingdom, you end up
with a Church fighting battles that pertain to this mutated form rather than
the true battles of the Kingdom...and they are quite real.
The Church is painfully distracted.
So in America why does the state recognize 25 December as
the Christ-mass or Christmas?
Is it simply a nod of the head, a tacit acknowledgement of a
social reality. Most of society celebrates the day, so the state goes ahead and
shuts down on that day.
In which case...and this is important to understand...then
it follows that in Dearborn Michigan, the state (I'm using the term
generically) might shut down for Eid. In the various Chinatowns across America,
local governments might shut down for Chinese New Year. Maybe whole sections of
South Florida and Long Island should shut down for Hanukkah?
Many Christians don't seem to have a problem with people
celebrating their holidays, but they often balk if the government acknowledges
it. They don't like for Christians to have to take a day off because some other
religion's holy day is being acknowledged.
This belies the reality that for most Christians it's really
about Establishment of religion. They have a specific narrative, hope and
expectation for the government of the United States...and Christmas has become
the hill upon which to die, a symbol of this larger cultural conflict. As long
as Christmas is THE holiday and not any other...they feel they have standing
and legitimacy.
Now the Constitution of this country explicitly forbids a religious
Establishment ...and ironically many Christians who claim to be strict
Constitutionalists would if given the chance change this. Even more ironically
and perhaps self-defeating, the Dominionist dominated Constitution Party if
elected would immediately move to change the Constitution!
There will be lawsuits in the future to change 25 December's
official Federal designation to something other than Christmas...or to add
other Federal holidays which pertain to religions other than Christianity. Either
way this is an assault on Christian Sacralism's model for America.
I'll let others argue about the Constitution. From a
Christian standpoint let me be blunt and plain...I don't really care. The
Constitution is not a holy document. It's part of Babylon's heritage, not the
Church...despite the fact that the Church I attend, meets in a Christian school
and I can see the children have incorporated the framing of the Constitution in
with the major events of Church History! 1789 is just as important as 1517.
That may be true in terms of overall history (or not) but Church History?
Theologically, the Evangelical position is at the least tacitly
and often explicitly arguing for Christian Establishment...our modern term for
Constantinianism. They may not want a tax-funded Church patterned after
Britain, but they do what the government to officially acknowledge and promote
Christianity. We could call it a soft-Constantinianism if you prefer. There are
those, like the Theonomists, who have a more shall we say, draconian view of
what applied Constantinianism would look like.
So assuming the rejection of Sacralism is not only
theologically correct but an imperative for Biblical Christians, then we would
not be upset if 25 December was removed from the calendar. It's also ironic
that past generations of Reformed Christians or other Protestants would have
been horrified at the thought of 25 December being marked as a state holiday.
To them it would have marked a Popish incursion, an enshrinement of theological
error!