Don't Let Secularisation Destroy Christmas

Can you hear it now? Is your radio on? Or are you walking among the shops?

Khen Lim




Image source: therooftopblog.wordpress.com

At this time of the year, Christmas songs are playing everywhere. From glitzy departmental stores to commercials and media ads to online shopping sites, the Christmas aura is so consuming that even the blind can see and the deaf can hear. Some Christmas songs have been done to death for decades, so bashed and rehashed that you just want to shut your ears walking past the shops. But with all of that, you just know Christmas is around the corner!

It seems even non-believers get into the swing of Christmas. There’s something about this day that revellers are aplenty throughout the world. While Malaysia isn’t the best example, Singapore sure is, with Orchard Road’s more vibrant atmosphere resplendent with colourful decorations, dazzling sprinkling lights, church choirs going on public carolling and the splendour of giant Christmas trees.

In New York, Christmas in a cold December winter is white of course. Lately there have been nonsensical calls for the huge Christmas tree traditionally in front of Rockefeller Centre in Midtown Manhattan every year to be known as a ‘holiday tree’ instead but other than that, this is one of the most iconic Christmas signatures anywhere in the world.

Image source: catholica.com.au

And with all these visual rituals, it’s hard not to miss the symbolism but this is where, for some, the ‘reason for the season’ have taken leave of senses. The Rockefeller Centre example is just one of thousands I can cite. Here are some others, if you’re not up to scratch:

-        Christmas cards, signs and wrapping papers emblazoned with sterile ‘Happy Holidays’ markings

-        Starbucks renaming their Christmas Cups, calling it Red Cup

-        Commercialisation of Black Friday shopping deals in deference to any emphasis on the birth of Christ

-        Banning of Christmas celebrations because it offends or traumatises the ‘sensitivity of Muslims’

-        The widespread use of the expression ‘War on Christmas’ to denote the media offensive against all Christmas-related ‘controversies’

-        The preference of calling Christmas a ‘December solstice holiday shopping season’

-        Wishing shoppers ‘Happy Holidays’ rather than ‘Merry Christmas’

-        Calling Christmas ornaments ‘Holiday Ornaments’ instead

Christmas is under attack and it has been for decades if you haven’t noticed. Anything Christian is actually becoming increasingly an offence to many these days. Christmas in particular is persistently in the cross-hairs of atheists, anti-Christians, progressives, liberals, Muslims, leftists, secularists and the cultural devoid. So what should we do? How should we respond? Where do we go for help?

For now, I can think of three broad things we can do. I’m sure you can think of more but I believe this is as good a start as any:

Firstly keep faith with the original story of Christmas even as the world forces its secularised consumerisation upon us. Remind yourself that Christmas is far more than just getting the latest PlayStation or having a swanky dinner at Maxims mixing it with high society. The truth of Christmas must be found more than 2,000 years ago when baby Jesus was born in a manger as prophesied in the Old Testament.

Although the gifts and the revelry are all part of the celebration, remembering the theological significance will help safeguard its importance. It will help us to underline the fundamental gist of Christmas. And like most things, going back to basics enable us to appreciate what it is in the first place.

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Secondly, resist from being drawn into disputes arising from deliberate misinformation about what Christmas is and isn’t. It’s surely not worth it. There is much that has been written about Christmas being Saturnalia, a Roman-based ancient pagan festival on the very same day, which is December 25, on which the deity Saturn is revered.

Some others also point to the very fact that Jesus wasn’t even born on this day and in fact, certain churches eschew the celebration of Christmas as a result. The truth is we may know the year of His birth but not the actual date but is this an ample excuse for not recognising that Christ was born?

Atheists of course love to direct us to the elements of adulteration in Christmas that makes it meaningless such as Santa Claus, Yuletide, eggnog, Christmas tree and so on. And consumerism has great attachment to all of these, turning Christmas a special spiritual event into Christmas, the commercial spectacle.

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All of these are seriously distracting and they draw us into time-wasting disputes that go nowhere. Inevitably, we end up upset and Christmas this year might turn out forgettable to some of us. I have a better idea – instead of all that, let’s reflect on and be grateful that Christ was born. Paul the apostle would say, use the time to be spiritually productive – go and be a real witness for Christ!

Thirdly, please go and share the Gospel. As God has bestowed upon Christ, the Name above all names (Php 2), you and I should therefore celebrate the Gospel just as we celebrate Christmas. Let us all wear the Gospel in our hearts! Let us not be thwarted by those who try to bend our will to join in the secularisation of Christmas. Jesus says, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and life up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Lk 21:28).

What you can do is find someone who may have nowhere to spend Christmas and no one to share it with. Why not invite him to your church. Pick him up and bring him along. Then share the Good News with him. Tell him what Christmas truly is and why it is important for him to know it.

Lastly, the more the world wants to hijack Christmas, the more we must embed it deep in our hearts, that the birth of Christ remains what it is meant to be. For all that is said and done, Christians must learn to be patient; indeed as patient as God Himself is. God indeed is (very patient) and in fact He is to the extent that He has allowed secularists to have their say.

And that in itself is what the true Christian meaning of tolerance is. However the secularist will forever attempt to muzzle our message and they do so by using their brand of false ‘tolerance,’ which suppresses all views in which non-believers disagree with or find offence with. Still the Christian message is insuppressible and here’s why:

Early Church Father, Tertullian recorded that even in his days, envious secularists were already persecuting Christians because their faith in Christ was so unrivalled against their Roman paganism and therefore, the more they suppressed, the more the message flourished.

Christianity’s glory shines best not only because of its true tolerance amid diversity but especially when the chips are down. Through the impenetrable greatness of principles enshrined in Christ, Christians shine in the light of good cheer, knowing that as we stand up for Jesus’ way, light and the truth, we can celebrate His birthday no matter what the secularists throw at us.

To all our readers, have a wholesome, safe and spiritually meaningful Christmas.