[soc.religion.christian] Mammon and "Christmas".

tony@nexus.yorku.ca (Tony Wallis) (11/25/89)

This year the "Christmas" decorations went up in a local department
store in the last week of October - before Hallowe'en !  For me, that
was the last straw.

It is probably not necessary, in this newsgroup, to belabor the point
about the crass commercialisation of Christmas.  [C.S. Lewis wrote an
excellent satire on the issue many years ago when he compared Christmas
(the real thing) and Exmas (what is happening, by and large, in the
local mall).]

There are responses to this on the individual and small group level.
What I suggest as a corporate Christian response is that we acknowledge
that Mammon has occupied the *word* "Christmas" and let us, therefore,
cease to use it.  We retreat from the letters c-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s and
rejoice that we have left our flag in the form of the prefix "Christ".
If the enemy secularises the name to Seasons or Holiday then let us
rejoice in our enemy's honesty at least.  We will not have retreated
from the spirit nor the meaning.

This would require us to use an alternative term for the Dec. 25
festival celibrating the birth of Christ.  One obvious possibility is
Christ Mass (pronounced differently from Christmas).  Another is
Nativity.

--
Tony Wallis   tony@yunexus.UUCP    (York U.  Toronto  Canada)

geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen) (11/30/89)

Tony Wallis (tony@nexus.yorku.ca) suggests that we should acknowledge 
that "Christmas" is a secular holiday and come up with a new term to 
describe the celebration of Jesus' birth.

>This would require us to use an alternative term for the Dec. 25
>festival celibrating the birth of Christ.  One obvious possibility is
>Christ Mass (pronounced differently from Christmas).  Another is
>Nativity.

I like to write it CHRISTmas, to emphasize what the holiday is really
all about.

--
Geoff Allen                  \  Since we live by the Spirit, 
{uunet|bigtex}!pmafire!geoff  \  let us keep in step with the Spirit.
ucdavis!egg-id!pmafire!geoff   \                    --  Gal. 5:25 (NIV)

jerry@altos86.altos.com (Jerry Gardner) (12/04/89)

In article <Nov.25.04.21.08.1989.12556@athos.rutgers.edu| tony@nexus.yorku.ca (Tony Wallis) writes:
|This year the "Christmas" decorations went up in a local department
|store in the last week of October - before Hallowe'en !  For me, that
|was the last straw.  ...  We will not have retreated
|from the spirit nor the meaning.

Thank goodness we have separation of church and state in this country...

-- 
Jerry Gardner, NJ6A					Altos Computer Systems
UUCP: {sun|pyramid|sco|amdahl|uunet}!altos86!jerry	2641 Orchard Parkway
Internet: jerry@altos.com				San Jose, CA  95134
I don't speak for Altos, they don't speak for me.       946-6700