Secularization Of 'Holidays' Must Be Stopped As Even 'Christmas'  Endangered

By Michael H. Brown

We urge Christians everywhere to take up an immediate cause and do so with phone calls, letters to the editor, and missives to local, state, and national politicians. We also urge you to ask the participation of your bishops. You can find your congressman at  http://www.house.gov/house/Member. State lawmakers can be found at  http://www.ncsl.org/programs/pubs/eronline.htm. Your bishops can be found at http://www.catholic-church.org/cid/usa.html.

You are needed to contact these people. It is one time you have to be active. It is one time you have to act on behalf of your faith. Tell them how you feel, and that you want to hear from them publicly. You want action.

The cause is Christmas -- as in "Christ's Mass" -- and it is in danger. Matters have gone beyond the Sixties, when "Christmas" was shortened by many to "Xmas," and beyond the ensuing decades, when they took creches out of public areas. Now there is a full-scale assault to wipe out the very references to "Christ" or "Mass" in any fashion. We're sure you have your own local accounts of how this season is being transmogrified. There is a rapid trend away from even the greeting of "Merry Christmas." The same is true around the world: Christmas is under assault, and this is more crucial than you think, for if they get rid of the term "Christmas," they get rid of what is arguably the single greatest open display (aside from the cross itself) of our faith. It is a short step from there to outright suppression.

Yet this is precisely the trend. Witness the fact that in Australia kindergartens have banned Santa for fear of offending minorities, especially Muslims. In many schools, Kwanza, Hannukah, and the winter solstice -- an occult druid festival -- now command equal time with the Feast of the Nativity. "Christmas is becoming an endangered word in parts of Canada in a rash of politically correct behavior -- such as renaming a Christmas tree a 'holiday tree,'" reported Reuters recently. "Toronto city officials began the flap last week when they called the 50-foot tree set up outside City Hall a 'holiday tree.'"

Besides the trend toward taking away the very Name of Christ, there is also the issue of materialism. We must confront this too. It has ruined the spirit of Christmas -- which is supposed to involve the holy poverty of the manger. We are deluging ourselves with material, so much so that Christmas now includes a new idol.  Noted one report leading up to last week's Black Friday: "Bright and way too early Friday morning, the faithful will make their annual pilgrimage to gleaming suburban temples to begin their ritual worship. The high holy days of consumerism are nigh. That's how Dell deChant sees it, anyway. In a new book, the University of South Florida religious studies professor contends that the culture of the Christmas season has become a religion all its own -- with shopping as the primary source of spiritual meaning. It's a religion complete with mysterious and powerful deities (the economy, Santa Claus), houses of worship (malls), narratives (carols) and rituals (shopping and decorating), deChant suggests in his scholarly volume. 'Santa, not Jesus, is the savior of the season," says deChant.

We're not quite as concerned about "Santa" -- we see him as representing Saint Nicholas -- but we are concerned at how Christians, who make up more than eighty percent of the North American population, are allowing a small minority to erase our time-honored traditions. It is a "holy day" that's being replaced "winterfests" -- which hearken to pagan-like festivals and are imbued with an anti-christ-like spirit.

Write your congressmen, write a letter to the editor (a list of local newspapers can be found at http://www.ibiblio.org/slanews/internet/archives.html), and more than anything -- in combating the anti-Christmas spirit -- make December 25 a truly "holy day." Approach Christmas devoutly. Set the entire tone of this Christmas season in prayer. Have your mangers, Christmas trees, and other decorations blessed. Say a novena leading up to it. Attend Mass frequently. Call on your angels!

In the end, the most important thing you can do is make this season a time of joyful prayer and delve deeper than ever into a spirituality that can then be transmitted into the rest of society.