Happy Chrismukkah?

Merry Secular Observance: For many years I have heard the Christian community complain about the secularization of Christmas. Honestly I never joined in such complaints because as a matter of history we were the interlopers.

It should be well known that Jesus was not born on December 25. Our celebration of Easter would be much closer to his actual birth in the Spring when Shepherds tended their flocks at night. Rather our early church fathers wanted a way to combat the pagan rituals of the winter solstice and so that is how Christmas became celebrated December 25. While many people may not celebrate the winter solstice there certainly are other secular rituals which take place against which the birth of the Christ child can truly serve as a light in the darkness - "the true light that gives light to every man" (John 1:9).

Season's Greetings. I was disturbed when while in College the United States Supreme Court went to great lengths to contrive appropriate constitutional seasons greetings. In 1984 the Court decided the case of Lynch v. Donnelly, where the city of Pawtuckett Rhode Island erected a manger scene in a private park. The scene was surrounded by many of the figures and decorations traditionally associated with Christmas, including, among other things, a Santa Claus house, reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh, candy-striped poles, a Christmas tree, carolers, cutout figures representing such characters as a clown, an elephant, and a teddy bear, hundreds of colored lights, and a large banner that reads "SEASONS GREETINGS." A divided court came up with the now so-called 'reindeer rule' stating that because the creche was part of a much larger display it did not advance a particular religion and was appropriate.

Part of the argument in Lynch centered around political divisiveness - now more positively phrased, political correctness. Justice O'Connor was a true prophet when she wrote: "In my view, political divisiveness along religious lines should not be an independent test of constitutionality. Although several of our cases have discussed political divisiveness under the entanglement prong of Lemon, we have never relied on divisiveness as an independent ground for holding a government practice unconstitutional. Guessing the potential for political divisiveness inherent in a government practice is simply too speculative an enterprise, in part because the existence of the litigation, as this case illustrates, itself may affect the political response to the government practice.... But the constitutional inquiry should focus ultimately on the character of the government activity that might cause such divisiveness, not on the divisiveness itself. The entanglement prong of the Lemon test is properly limited to institutional entanglement."

Happy Holidays. This brings us to the craziness of 2005. Why can we no longer call a Christmas tree a christmas tree? Why can a store employee no longer say "Merry Christmas" and why can't schools have traditional Christmas songs as part of a holiday celebration? Several years ago X-mas was a popular phrase eliminating Christ from Christmas, but in our pluralistic society of today we simply eliminate any identity with Christ and instead have holiday programs and holiday trees and elevate new holidays like Kwanzaa - a non-religious celebration of family and community invented in 1966. And the newest holiday appropriately called Chrismukkah the merry mish-mash holiday.

There is nothing constitutional or proper about removing Christ from the holidays. Employers, government and schools attempting to be so politically correct have wound up creating political divisiveness where none needed to exist. There is no place in our holiday jurisprudence for such created divisiveness and we would be wise to return the pendulum to the middle where it belongs. Let the secularist enjoy only Santa and rudolph and let Jews celebrate Hanukkah, but let Christians celebrate Christmas.

Merry Chrismukkah. I attended my sons school holiday program and enjoyed the Hanukkah music and dances and the newly created Kwanzaa music and traditional secular Christmas songs, but why couldn't I hear a traditional Christmas song as well? Out of nearly 30 songs only one - Go Tell it on the Mountain - mentioned the name of Jesus and that apparently made the cut because it was an African Spiritual, although only the first verse was allowed because mentioning sinners would certainly be taboo. There is simply no room for Jesus.

Merry Christmas. Before we get too politically divisive ourselves let's realize that from the very day of his birth there has never been room for Jesus. How can there be room for a God-man who calimed to be the truth and only way to the father!? The name of Jesus made demons shutter, politicians quake, and created division among people. There is great power in the "name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." So if people don't want to make room for Jesus then I simply remind myself that He is still Lord and I smile, say 'Merry Christmas' and move on singing or whistling Joy to the World. One day there will only be room for Jesus as earth receives its king. And that will be a Merry Christmas indeed!