I heard recently that the government (local, regional, national, Texas?) has been offering businesses extra money if they choose to use the word Christmas instead of the word Holiday in their greetings this year.
Take a pause here and consider this. The GOVERNMENT is giving MOOLAH to companies so that they will promote a SPECIFIC RELIGIOUS IDEA. And not even that…to promote Christmas, which, quite frankly, is hardly a religious idea anymore, as it has been hijacked by a fat, jolly guy, a reindeer with a cold and millions and millions of presents (e.g. how far will this language change even get you, religious folks?).
Anyway: the government…offering money…to promote a language shift?
Is this true? Can anyone confirm for or against this?
Because…really? Isn’t it the point of our country that government and church are two separate things?
Maybe some of you are thinking that if our government subscribed to a religion (in particular, Christianity), it would be a good thing. But think it through. Governments through the ages have taken on religions, and what happens to them? The religion is forced to serve the interests of that government…not the other way around. Think about the Crusades, people. That’s not something the Jesus I’ve read about would be excited to attach his name to. But greedy men wanted to take over the world…and what better way to pacify the uneducated masses than to say that God wanted this? Ditto what all the explorers did to the natives across the Americas.
In fact, the reason our forefathers separated church and state is because they had experience, they understood that it is the state, not the religion, that gets its way when the two are intertwined. And that leads to the kinds of things they were running from–persecution, stunted ideas (Galileo must be evil!), even death.
As Don Miller says, anyone who wants their way claims the support of Jesus. Our government already does too much of this. I mean, George Bush, Bill Clinton…everybody claims Christianity. Yet these leaders behave vastly differently. And Christianity, like it or not, is a religion of behavior. When Jesus talks about the end of life, he says he will separate the good and bad–not according to who prayed a “sinners prayer,” but according to who fed the hungry, clothed the naked, healed the sick.
Also, since when did paying people off make them believe something different about the world? Has anyone ever walked down the street planning nefarious deeds and stopped in his tracks when he saw a Merry Christmas sign…falling to his knees and begging for forgiveness right then and there? Unlikely.
Instead, paying people to promote a certain ideology, a certain meaning, a certain holiday, does something that Jesus–the “reason for the season” according to all of the rhyming, cliched cards I’ve gotten so far–never did. In fact, when Jesus saw people using the temple as a place to buy and sell and cheat and exchange money, he flipped over the sellers’ damn tables. It’s the one time I remember from the Bible where Jesus really freaks out. John even says that Jesus made a whip and drove them out (something, by the way, that I would have liked to see). He was incensed that they had turned a place that was supposed to be about God, about worship, about love, about goodness, into a “house of merchandise.”
His message was leave it all behind. Sell all you have and give to the poor. Take care of each other.
The point is this, people: people should use whatever language they want. They shouldn’t be be forced to be politically correct just like they shouldn’t be forced or incentivized to promote one religion. And if you are a Christian and you want to see the world change, pour your energy into changing circumstances and hearts–not language. A billboard is less effective than a hot meal. A listening ear gets you farther than a bunch of jargon.
