The Land — “I think there must be something wrong with me, Linus. Christmas is coming, but I’m not happy. I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. I just don’t understand Christmas, I guess. I like getting presents and sending Christmas cards and decorating trees and all that, but I’m still not happy. I always end up feeling depressed.”
“Charlie Brown, you’re the only person I know who can take a wonderful season like Christmas and turn it into a problem.”
Linus Van Pelt may have been speaking the truth back on Dec. 9, 1965, when Charles Schulz’ “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first aired on CBS, but today the season has plenty of problems.
Some of the troublemakers, sadly, are Christians themselves.
Christian activist groups have created lists of businesses deemed insufficiently “pro-Christmas,” encouraging their followers to boycott them. The companies are accused of offenses ranging from airing TV ads that acknowledge several seasonal religious holidays, including Hanukkah, Eid and Kwanzaa, alongside Christmas ... to requiring that their employees share generic “Happy Holidays” greetings with customers rather than “Merry Christmas” ... to not incorporating Christian themes into marketing promotions, such as having a “2-Day Holiday Mega Sale” rather than “2-Day Christmas Mega Sale.”
Part of the problem is a sense of persecution — a sort of underdog status — held by many Christians, that the numbers say is unfounded. According to the Pew Forum’s 2007 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey, 78.4 percent of U.S. adults identify themselves as Christian (about half of all Americans are of Protestant denominations; one-fourth are Catholic). Less than 5 percent were of non-Christian faiths (including 1.7 percent Jewish, 0.7 percent Buddhist, 0.6 percent Muslim, 0.4 percent Hindu). Those who consider themselves atheists (1.6 percent), agnostics (2.4 percent) or “unaffiliated” (12.1 percent) round out the survey.
When your group comprises 78 out of 100 persons, you’re no underdog. For such a sizeable majority to feel threatened by TV ads because the religious observances practiced by a mere three of those 100 are mentioned, just doesn’t add up. In the United States of America, the most religiously diverse country in the world, it’s counter-intuitive for the recognition of a variety of faiths to be deemed offensive.
A more recent national poll found that 72 percent of adults prefer to hear “Merry Christmas,” as compared to 22 percent who are happy with “Happy Holidays.” Meanwhile, 100 percent of American consumers, regardless of what is said to them in the checkout aisle, are free to return whatever polite greeting they desire, with about a zero percent chance of offending anyone. When someone says “Happy Holidays” to you, simply say “Merry Christmas” if you wish; there’s no need to tell anyone off.
And despite all of the statistics in their favor, Christian shoppers shouldn’t assume those they meet at Walmart or Target or Best Buy or Radio Shack or Hy-Vee or Home Depot or Sears or Macy’s are fellow Christians. Neither should they make assumptions about your faith. There are many holidays, religious and otherwise, between late-November and early January that traditionally bring family and friends together to celebrate — and only one of them is Christmas.
How certain Christians become upset over a lack of religiousness in advertising is particularly difficult to understand, as it runs counter to the heart of what Christmas is all about. One boycott group’s watch list puts a business among those “marginalizing Christmas” if they only “refer to Christmas infrequently.” Just to clarify, they’re complaining that the birth of Jesus Christ isn’t being commercialized enough.
Secular and corporate motivations have differentiated Christmas from the other Christian seasons — Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost — turning it into the materialistic, tree-decorating, Santa Claus-jingling, animated-light-up-deer-in-the-front-yard extravaganza we all recognize, and in which three-quarters of us participate in some way.
One is missing the point, it seems, to demand that others respect Christmas as a sacred holiday, when we ourselves actively or obtusely take part in the very sacrilege we decry.
“And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’”
“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”
Tom Royer is the assistant editor of The Land and may be reached at troyer@thelandonline.com
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