Christ-free Christmas in the Cards

Current! In Carmel - #7 – Christmas Cards
Spirituality column – Dec. 26, 2006

Christ-free Christmas in the Cards
By Bob Walters

“It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.” —Calvin Coolidge

If you think the reverse of this statement would rightly be, “when men don’t worship, they don’t grow,” you might agree that where the Christmas holiday season is concerned, our mates across the pond have Scrooged themselves.

From Albert Mohler’s Dec. 18 Christian blog, via Jeff Jacoby writing Dec. 13 in the Boston Globe, reporting on a Dec. 8 column in London’s Telegraph, describing a recent survey and report issued by British employment law councilors Peninsula, we learn that 99 percent of “Holiday” cards in the UK not only don’t mention Christmas, angels or Jesus, they don’t even refer to the holiday traditions – Christmas trees, Santa Claus, etc. No Peace on Earth. No Silent Night.

Further, the survey informs, nine of 10 British firms don’t have Christmas parties for fear of being sued by their offended employees. One in 15 Brits attends church.

They can’t be afraid of losing God. He’s already gone.

Christmas-less England. The soon-to-be land of “Winterval.” Prince Charles, a couple years ago, mused that the British royal moniker “Defender of The Faith” should instead be “Defender of Faith” to remove the offending “The Faith,” referring to Christianity. This in a country where the monarch is head of the Christian church.

I wonder what his mum thinks.

Let’s not play Pharisee and Tax Collector (Luke 18:9-14) and somehow congratulate our American piety. We all have great reason for humility, but we mustn’t miss this very teachable and scary moment.

The good news on this side of the Atlantic is that most people in the U.S. – 80-85 percent – whether they go to church or not, think they are Christians ... and that's a very positive thing. Any believing, practicing, church-going Christian should nurture all those de-facto Christians and all the rest of our neighbors. We too often condemn them rather than needlessly and indiscriminately love them, as we would have them love us.

That might sound familiar (Luke 6:31 and Matthew 7:12).

Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims in a country of 60.5 million, just 2.6 percent, aren’t the problem. It is the Seculars, the post-modern “right and wrong is a matter of opinion” crowd, that destroys Christianity. Don’t think it isn’t happening in America, and don’t blame believers of other faiths. Christmas is up to you: resolve to be a better Christian.

Now, those Christmas cards still hanging in your house? Those are all from people who, to one degree or another, love you.

Do them the honor of making a New Year’s resolution to grow in 2007.

Walters, a Carmel resident, has never been to England but he kinda likes the Beatles. Contact him at rlwcom@aol.com.