‘Stand up for Christmas’?!

by Eugene Cho 12-17-2009

Here’s a post from one of my favorite blogs titled, ‘Stand Up for Christmas?’. I don’t think that she’ll mind me sharing her post in its entirety (below) — it’s too good of a read not to share.

I’m sharing this not because I’m trying to throw Focus on the Family under the train. Believe it or not, I have a lot of respect for the big picture vision of their ministry. Hate them or love them, they are doing some things that not many dare even engage. We can often rant, complain, (and blog), but they’ve been doing work to build up one of the cornerstones of a healthy society: Family.

But when they miss the boat on occasions, they really miss the boat and I think this might be an occasion they missed the boat. Let me also say that I recently had the privilege of meeting the new president of Focus on the Family (Dobson resigned this past year) and I was appreciative of our time together…

Why can’t we get behind another campaign like this one that shows that so little of what we earn can bless so many around the world? For example, $100 can radically impact a woman in Eastern Congo impacted by war and gender violence.

I’ll warn you though that there’s some profanity in her post. I don’t know who her pastor is but he should probably have a talk with her because he would never use profanity in his blog.

Read the post below. I get what Focus on the Family is trying to do but read what the author is trying to say. Agree? Disagree? Both? Thoughts?

I’ve been trying to blog more positively this month, but I can’t resist taking a shot at this one. Focus on the Family’s “keep the Christ in Christmas” initiative. You get to rate retailers on how Christmas-friendly they are (aka whether they say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” when you walk in the door). Stores can be rated as friendly, negligent, or offensive in terms of their Christmas spirit. That way you can be sure your holiday spending gluttony goes to the retailers who are appropriately catering to your view of how secular retailers are supposed to celebrate a Christian holiday, at least while they are selling you Christmas crap.

Really? The thing Christians are supposed to care about is whether or not a secular retail chain says the word “Christmas”?

The last time I checked, spending lots of money at Christmas wasn’t a big priority of Christ. Neither was all of the hoohaw about saying/doing/looking holy from the “religious” people in his day. Christ cared a lot about the oppressed, poor, neglected, and rejected. He didn’t give a sh*t what the most religious people of the day said was important; in fact, he called them a bunch of hypocrites (and got killed for it).

One thing I’ve been reading about a lot lately is modern-day slavery. (This blog is a good start.) There is a lot of slavery in our world. Slave-made products are everywhere, and as many as 27 million people are enslaved in various industries worldwide.

If we’re wondering what Christ would have cared about, let’s start there. Let’s start rating companies on whether they DO Christ-like things, rather than on whether the under-paid clerk says “Merry Christmas” as you’re checking out.

Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.
~ Amos 5:23-24

The godly care about the rights of the poor; the wicked don’t care at all.
~ Proverbs 5:7

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
~ James 1:27

You know what offends me? It’s not whether someone says “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.” It’s when I read that L.L. Bean, Pier 1, and Walmart are known to be actively and intentionally using slave labor in their products. I don’t give a sh*t how many “Merry Christmas” signs they have in their store, as if that makes one flying f*ck’s worth of difference when they are participating in the enslavement of women, men, and children who are created in the image of God. Focus on the Family gives them 12-14% offensive ratings, and 52-71% friendly ratings. No mention of child slavery. No mention of beating or firing workers trying to unionize to protect themselves. No mention of the workers who have died at the factory making the cheap furniture you bought at Ikea. How does “Standing for Christmas” have ANYTHING to do with Christ?

Truly He taught us to love one another
His law is love and his gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
and in his name all oppression shall cease.
~ “O Holy Night”, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, 1847

* 2010 Sweatshop Hall of Shame
* Jason Boyett’s blog on this same topic
* Petition for the Association of Christian Retailers to adopt anti-slavery standards
* Where to find Fair Trade gifts
* Department of Labor list of slave-made goods

Merry Christmas.

Eugene Cho, a second-generation Korean-American, is the founder and lead pastor of Quest Church in Seattle and the executive director of Q Cafe, an innovative nonprofit neighborhood café and music venue. You can stalk him at his blog or follow him on Twitter. He and his wife are also launching a grassroots movement, One Day’s Wages, to fight extreme global poverty – which was recently featured in The New York Times.

Categories: Economics, Human Rights, Spirituality

Tags: America, Amos, Campaign, Children, Christmas, church, class, dobson, Fair Trade, Focus on the Family, global poverty, Holiday, Holidays, hymn, hypocrites, image of god, justice, Labor, Ministry, money, neighbor, one day's wages, oppressed, oppression, orphan, peace, Poor, Poverty, Privilege, Religion, slave labor, Slavery, target, Trade, Trafficking, union, wages, Walmart, Women, Workers

sadiestjohn

Maybe to take a little sting out of the phrase, holiday is simply an alternate form of HOLY days which refers to days where religious observance preceeds other obligations and celebration of Christ's birth absolutely qualifies.

letjusticerolldown

I think the FOTF project bears criticism. But I don't know that the theological argument is pointless.

This is a battle over public theology which crops up a thousand ways. Do we identify Christmas, December 25, 2009 in the Year of our Lord has anything to do with Jesus of Nazareth? Do we identify our public life as in any way related to Jesus?

From my standpoint I don't really have interest in demanding anyone use our Lord's name in a vain or empty way. I also don't think a strident secularism offended by a Merry Christmas is any more free than a harsh fundamentalism

WaveTossed

"The 'fight' is bigger than what you are seeing. It's a fight against the secularization of America, a nation founded on Christian principals."

Good Lord, why would you (or anyone else) want to be involved in a "fight" at all??? 'Tis the season to be jolly, it's the miraculous season of our Savior's birth. Why in the world should wishing someone a Merry Christmas become a political statement against "the secularization of America?"

I usually say "Merry Christmas" in accordance with my own religious beliefs. If someone else says "Happy Holidays" or "Joyful Soulstice" or "Seasons Greetings" or "Merry Hannakah" or "Peaceful Ramadan," I'm not going to get bent out of shape over any of this.

Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth!

WaveTossed

"Can't a person protest something like 'Happy Holidays'"

Why is anyone protesting anything?

It's the season of joy, the season of Our Savior's birth. I usually say "Merry Christmas" to express my spirit of the season. If somone else says "Happy Holidays" or "Joyous Winter Solstice" or "Seasons Greetings" or "Merry Kwanzaa" or "Peaceful Ramadan" or "Happy Hannukah" I'm not going to be offended at all.

I long for the days when wishing someone "Merry Christmas" was neither a political statement nor an invocation to any sort of "fight" against "the secularization of America."

Merry Christmas everyone!

WTF?

"The "fight" is bigger than what you are seeing. It's a fight against the secularization of America, a nation founded on Christian principals".

Which Christian principle was enacted in the stealing and enslaving of human beings from other continents, and the genocide of the people who already inhabited the land "we" discovered. One of the main principles we were supposed to be founded on was religious freedom, including the right to practice faiths other than Christianity, or to not have to practice any at all. But when I was in public grade school we began each school day with the Lords Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. Noone ever asked me if I wanted to participate, it was just expected that I would. And lets not forget whose calender we all live by in this country, and who's holiday (the pagans) we stole and manipulated to turn it into our day of observing Christs birth (aka winter solstice). (Very few biblical scholars would even attempt to argue the fact that Christ was born anywhere near Dec. 25th.) And then we have the audacity to tell them they cant even acknowledge their traditions anymore? And for those who would argue we live in a democracy where majority rules and the minority should acclimate or get out, we do not! We actually live in a democratic republic where the majority has a certain amount of power but not to the extreme that the rights of minorities are ignored. We are a country that at our best provides voice and power to the few! Thats what makes us great and respected and envied in the world!

jingreet

I'm a 27 year-old American who's been living out of the country for most of the past five years, and in that time I've come to a few realizations about our country and the concept of America. In general, I've moved away from the cynicism towards our nation I felt as a college student and developed a deep appreciation of what an amazing place (made up of extraordinary people) America is. Of course, I still feel outraged when I see or hear of injustice in the US, but somehow I feel more aware now of the existence of "another option" (even though I've been a Christian for a long time). I encourage you to take a wider view of the country you live in, embrace the good, and figure out how to responsibly act on the bad. You live in a place where this is not only possible, but is ingrained in most citizens as standard operating procedure. You have also been blessed with a Christian vision of what can be. The way our country works means that pretty much everyone (even your "foes") is faced with stumbling blocks from time to time, but I'd argue that they have rarely (maybe never?) been excuses to be cynical about the promise of our circumstances.

BlueDeacon

They are simply fighting the secularization of Christmas and the notion that businesses promote that it's a holiday void of Christ and it's all about stuff... material things and buying them.

Well, Christmas actually was a secular holiday before the 4th Century church got a hold of it, and the Puritans actually banned it in this country because of their contempt for Roman Catholicism.

yoop1

Can you believe the energy we're spending on this?
Shouldn't we be more concerned with what we are "doing" with a feast that celebrates the birth of our Saviour instead of what we call it. Furthermore -- There is a huge portion of our culture that is simply having a "holiday" this time of year. Their celebration is not connected to a faith: Christian or any other faith celebrating this time of year. If we insist that they use Christ's name when referring to their secularized holiday doesn't it degrade the name of Christ. People who may have denounced Him or simply don't know Him, do we want to insist that they too use Christ's name in their celebration?

BlueDeacon

That is not how you fight "secularism." In fact, you don't promote "Christian" principles by abandoning them at the first moment when someone challenges them -- which shows a lack of real commitment and character. That's why many of us are upset with Dobson, who frankly has made a career out of that.

BlueDeacon

Wallis has always been about politics -- since the 1970s. At least he's always been honest about where he stands.

BuckeyeDon

Respectfully, I disagree. There's always been tension between the "world" and the Christian church--at least the authentic Christian church. This is no different.

And America has always been a secular nation. After all, God isn't mentioned in the Constitution. That was deliberate, by the way. It was intended that way so that religion could grow and thrive.

To me there are much bigger fights than how people greet me at this time of year. I receive either greeting with gladness, and I greet people with either greeting, depending on circumstances. I would rather the Christian church put forth more effort to helping the poor, the outcast, the alien, and the forgotten, and far less effort into these cultural battles that don't solve anything and just make Christians look foolish.

shirley2010

"So campaigning to limit all that to only "Merry Christmas" is a phenomenal waste of precious time and resources -- because the campaigners are spending time & resources which could be applied to feeding the homeless or other mission to make their neighborhood better. Give us all a break."

How much time do you think they spend on this? I can tell you. Not that much. I get emails from various family organization who are a part of it, and they are nothing major... not a huge time or resource investment.

They are not spending money on this, nor are they devoting a ton of time to it. But I guess if we are going to judge others and how they spend their time and money, let's start with each other. Isn't blogging and shopping and watching t.v. and all the other things we surely devote much of our time and resources to keeping us from helping the poor??

Let's look at our own bad selves instead of judging others.

shirley2010

After reading more comments here, I can only think "how sad." It's more like a Dobson-bashing fest than anything else. Whiile it's so horrible and wrong for him to talk about "Keep the Christ in Christmas," it's perfectly acceptable and fine to bash him and slander him.

Wow. Sad. Hypocritical. Wrong.

shirley2010

No one is "ignoring what they do." Can't a person protest something like "Happy Holidays" and ALSO protest what they do? If you know anything about Focus on the Family and other organizations who "protest" businesses that don't acknowledge Christmas, you'll know that they in no way "ignore" the evils done... but you know, there is a whole heck of a lot of evil done in this world, by certain businesses, by politicians, by world dictators, the list goes on.

Also, they do not believe that it's "not really Christmas unless Walmart says so." They are simply fighting the secularization of Christmas and the notion that businesses promote that it's a holiday void of Christ and it's all about stuff... material things and buying them.

shirley2010

The "fight" is bigger than what you are seeing. It's a fight against the secularization of America, a nation founded on Christian principals. Ultimately, that's what Dobson and others are "fighting." It's also about Christians voicing their beliefs, something that is becoming more and more "politically incorrent" in this twisted, screwed-up nation.

shirley2010

Rather than condemn or gripe about your fellow brothers or sisters for something that is pretty understandable, maybe you should try to understand where they are coming from. Show compassion and grace instead of condemnation and annoyance. As Believers, isn't that what Christ would call us to do?

I wonder how they'd feel knowing how you've spoken of them and your class here. If it bothers you that much, it'd be a lot better to speak to THEM personally about it rather than to talk about it "behind their backs," don't you think?

shirley2010

If James Dobson or anyone else is upset over this, what is it to me or anyone else???

Seriously, can you not find more important things to gripe about?!

Dobson, and other's, motives are keeping America free. He is fighting against secularism, our nation's fastest rising religion, and it makes sense he would do so because our nation was founded on Christian principals.

So, again, I would ask, what's it to you? The amount of anger/cussing of the blogger is completely inproportionate to the "crime?" What is the "crime" again?

Sometimes I think we really are just a bunch of busybodies who get riled up over people we don't like (Dobson) doing things we don't like.

Faydine

I believe Charles Schultz best addressed the war on Christmas in his Christmas special. And until they pull that from airing, there is still hope.

jackvanfossen

IN the grand scheme of things, there are bigger fish t fry than worrying about what Holiday salutaion a store offers. I would hazard a guess that FOTF is trying to stay relevant by attracting people to their site with this lame survey. I stopped buying into their theology, methodology long ago. Was the best think I ever done!

Charles Kiker

I made at least one guy think about it. Really I can understand the nostalgia. Our town used to be almost totally WASP. Now it's 40% or more Hispanic and about 7% black. Hispanics are a majority in the school system. So it's not just prayer in school and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays. It's a sea change in the culture. And people wish it could just be the way it once was. But of course it can't.