It has to be some devilish trick by the powers of evil. There is this great cry, this outrage among a portion of society about saying “Happy Holidays” instead of saying “Merry Christmas.” There is significant body of people who think there is some kind of “War on Christmas.” They claim that stories are no longer remembering that Jesus is the Reason for the Season. This element of the population that is very upset because the city council will no longer pay for the nativity scene to be put up in the town square. This army of devoted “Christians” who think that radios are not playing the Christmas Carols but are playing “Santa Claus is coming to town” too much. The crowd thinks that there is not enough Christ and the Biblical story in the secular culture around the holidays and they think that is horrible. But i think there is not enough Christ in their Christianity.
I am one who thinks that those people are working too hard in the wrong direction. From what I can tell from my observations the people who are the loudest and most active about putting Christ back in Christmas are desperately in need of putting more Christ back into their Christianity. If the recent votes against same sex marriages, if the recent legislation about transgender bath rooms, if the recent attacks upon the Muslims, if the demand that the “foreigners” get sent home; if the recent rebirth of white power, if the steady drum beat of “those lazy welfare people”; if the outrage of these people about women’s rights and responsibility for their own health, are their definition of Christianity, then I am positive that there is a great need for more attention to put Jesus, who is the Christ, back into their religion.
Jesus the Christ talked about loving and caring for the lost, lonely and wretched. It was the widows, the children, and the outcast, the Samaritans that Jesus welcomed and lived among. It was the “religious and righteous” that he called out as hypocrites and evil. The Christ came to give life and to give it more abundantly to all people. His sermon on the mount was a call for finding our joy and blessedness in making peace, in being merciful, and a deep contentment of life that was not rooted in capitalistic possessions, it was not based on race, and it was not even dependent upon religion.
In my view any Christian who could vote for Donald Trump with his litany of issues needs to have a serious “come to Jesus” meeting and put Christ back into their Christianity. Too many preachers have visions of power.