Holiday Mania

Hey Christians, how 'bout we do something different this year and not freak out about merchants saying "Happy Holidays" instead "Merry Christmas"? I started thinking about it while preparing to teach a Bible School class tomorrow. We've been talking about issues over which Christians disagree (alcohol, role of women in the church, tattoos and other cultural things, etc). My topic is holidays. You know, that whole pagan origins thing. A couple of key Scriptures that I will use are Romans 14:1-8 and Colossians 2:16-3:4.

One of the problems with the line of thinking that says, "You can't celebrate or participate in anything which has evil origins" (even if nobody but fanatical Christians remember what those origins are) is that it is impossible to be consistent. Are we going to start calling the days of the week by alternate names (they are based on pagan gods)? And the same guy who would never go to a Maundy Thursday service (too Catholic or denominational) has no problem celebrating the Christ-Mass.

But I digress... For the past few years, some Christians have freaked out because retailers are using the phrase "Happy Holidays" (there's no mention of Christ you know). Let's think about this:

1. They are trying to sell merchandise.

2. "Happy Holidays" includes several holidays for a diverse shopping crowd, including Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year's Day.

3. If we are not sharing the name of Christ during the other 11 months of the year, let's not gripe about other people (MOST OF WHOM ARE NOT EVEN CHRISTIAN) who don't do it.

Chill out folks. And Happy Holidays to you!

P.S. I started to post this when I suddenly realized that it sounded familiar. I checked the archives and found that I did a similar rant a couple of years ago. Oh well.