The other day I heard another Christian complimenting a clerk on saying, “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.” There are even songs out complaining about “Happy Holidays.” I’m not inclined to take that road at all.
I think many professing Christians are just what I call “Bumper Sticker Christians.” They are into cute one-liners, but not much into thinking deeply about what it means to be a Christian. They are into public display of Christian symbolism, unaware that there must be much more than that. The Lord says, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules. (Matthew 15:8-9)
Many people believe we are a Christian nation because some of our founding fathers put religious words into some documents. But being a Christian is not about that — it’s about having our faith in Jesus Christ and emulating his life and following his teachings day by day. It’s about humility and patience and forgiving those who have wronged us, and even loving our political enemies.
Most of our society does not know or love Jesus, and never has. We are selfish, materialistic, racist and exclusionary. When we go into a business establishment we understand that they are there to make money, and that’s okay. Most of them are not people committed to putting Christ first in their lives. So then why does it matter what words they use when attempting to add cheer to our holidays?
When we put the expectation on presumably non-Christian people to give us a Christian greeting, we are asking for a non-genuine religious greeting in order to make us happy. How can that possibly be construed to be Christlike? We support leaders who are racist, sexual predators, ungrateful, unholy, greedy and selfish because they are from the “correct” political party. We say terribly offensive, hateful things on social media, and the we want nonchristians to act Christian. How foolish is that?
Our job is not to make society more tolerable to us; it is to introduce people to Jesus and help them to trust him and then live as he did. If that happens often enough, it will change society, but that’s not our goal.
by Ken McGarvey
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