The Fireside Cafe

Fighting the War on Christmas

We Americans love the war analogy.  We have the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, the Culture Wars, and most recently the War on Christmas; with all due apologies to those who have actually endured real combat.

I know it must be December when I start getting e-mails, tweets, and Facebook reminders to "keep Christ in Christmas," (As if we can place and remove Jesus hear or there on our own whim. But, I digress.) and imploring me to shun merchants who say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas."

I realize that words matter, but sometimes I want to call upon my inner, teenage, eye-rolling attitude and say, "What-ever!"

Our cultural Christmas has become a time to measure our consumer spending power on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a time to pepper spray our shopping competitors over the lastest XBox, or to figure out how we can avoid making eye contact with the Salvation Army bell ringers at Walmart. Perhaps all of those people say, "Merry Christmas," too.  Truthfully, preserving Christmas has much less to do with our words than our actions.

One of my favorite novels is Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.  Grisham writes about Luther and Nora Krank's effort to salvage all of the money that they typically spend on Christmas and use it for a cruise that leaves on Christmas day.  Despite pressure from their neighbors and friends, the Kranks steadfastly avoid buying the normal non-profit amenities, decorating their house, sending Christmas cards, or attending any Christmas functions.

Their plans fall apart on the morning of Christmas Eve, but in the midst of the chaos Luther discovers that even though you can skip all of the trappings related to Christmas, you really can't avoid Christmas itself.

Christmas comes, whether we acknowledge it or not.

When serving as a Pastor, one of my favorite moments of the season was immediately after our Christmas Eve service.  Everyone had gone home and I would be left alone to lock up the building.  All of the carols had been sung, the musicals had been performed, the candles lit, and the sermons preached. The streets would be empty of traffic and the night was always dark and silent.

Driving home to my family I would find myself reflecting upon the never-ending mystery that hope arrived with little fanfare in the form of a helpless infant.  Only God could think of such an unorthodox thing.

We would have prepared a media blitz.  Can you imagine the twitter campain; the revenue that could be generated from ticket prices and parking fees; the follow-up DVD sales; the action figures?  What a collossus of commercialization we could have created around the idea that salvation had come!

But in the oringinal story, apart from a few, fortunate shepherds and some Magi, everyone else goes on about their business.  God was at work anyway, whether anyone stopped to acknowledge Him or not.

He still is.

The story never gets old.  In the most bizarre tale of faithfulness and mystery, the God of eternity reaches out to us.  Christmas comes, and for those of us who want to pay attention it reminds us once again that God has not forgotten us.

I have a hard time getting worked up over whether the sales clerk at Target says, "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas" to me.  I'm just thankful that I have the means to shop at Target, and I'll go on keeping Christmas whether the merchants want to acknowledge it or not.  As one blogger points out, if you want a truly Christian greeting, one that makes no mistake whether or not you follow the Christ child, try, “the peace of Christ be with you.”

I'll save getting worked up for things like violence on the Mexican Border, human trafficking, and hungry children.  I'll save my passion for helping churches that struggle to find and maintain vitality.

As for Christmas, I'll enjoy the anticipation of Advent and reflect again on the mystery of Incarnation.  I don't want to miss it.

In those quiet moments after the kids climb in bed on Christmas Eve and struggle to go to sleep I'll remember that Christmas has done it again; it has come, whether we really know it or not.

So, may the peace of Christ be with you, during this season and beyond.

Protesting

While preparing last Sunday's sermon on The Non-anxious Christian I came across this post on Andy Mangum's weblog (Andy will be a new contributor here at the Fireside).  Andy wonders why we feel so much need to protest those with whom we disagree, rather than engaging in a debate that would prove the superiority of our argument.  I agree, and I have a couple of suggestions why protest has become so common, especially for Christians.  I use the term "we" as a pronoun representative of modern evangelical Christianity.

First, I think protest is easier because we have become lazy.  To engage in debate means that we have to know Scripture, know the truth, be able to speak intelligently about the gospel.  It is a lot easier to just throw rocks, make accusations and catchy signs, and stir up a mob mentality.  By protesting we can throw the light away from our own inconsistencies.  Protest is just easier.  Who cares if we can't use Scripture in context or if our lives do not mirror the gospel?

Second, I think we are impatient.  Entering into a conversation with somebody takes time and means that we will have to listen to them.  We don't want to listen, we want to convince, conquer, beat into submission.  Who has time to listen to his or her opponent anymore?

Third, (What? You didn't think I would have 3 points?) I think we have trouble letting God be in control.  We have got to grab the bull by the horns, make hay while the sun shines...insert your own metaphor here.  God may not be working quickly or decisively enough for us, so we step forward to rescue Him.

Of course, I am generalizing a bit to make my point, but I do believe that too many American evangelical Christians know more about what others are doing wrong than about what they should be doing right.  To take up the non-anxious theme again, we need more "Christ-aware" Christians...believers who know Christ and His Word well enough to be His presence in the world.  After all, He did say that if He would be lifted up then He would draw people to Himself.

Gambling: A Bad Bet

     In a rare display of bipartisan sanity, state party leaders and elected representatives from both the Democratic and Republican parties stood together outside the Texas capitol building to rally against proposals in the Texas Legislature to expand legalized gambling in Texas.  They arrived at this destination by different routes, but agreed in the end that gambling would be a bad bet for the Texas economy.

     Conservative Republicans reported that they oppose the expansion of gambling on moral grounds, while the Democrats accused the Republican leadership in the Legislature of passing an education bill without funding details.  They believe that gambling revenue will be used as a carrot to lower property taxes and they feel that gambling is not a reliable source of stable revenue.  The great irony of this debate is that gambling revenue is being promoted as a way to fund education for Texas children.  A recent study by Texas Tech University (tables at the end of that study) showed that gambling activity is lowest among the better-educated and highest among the most poorly-educated.  One must wonder how well educated gambling proponents truly want our children to become.

     For an analysis of the impact of gambling upon communities and the social costs related to gambling expansion you can look to the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, Texans Against Gambling, and the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission.  Time after time, gambling is promoted as a way for state governments to ease pressure on their budgets, but the payoff is much like sitting at a casino table or slot machine.  The only people who really profit from gambling are the people running the business.

     How should we look at legalized gambling from a Christian perspective?  Let me suggest a couple of ways.  If Christians truly want to be a redemptive element in society then we must consider legalized gambling from the standpoint of justice.  Many people are tempted to believe that since they do not gamble themselves then they should not interfere with those who desire to gamble.  Studies indicate that 66 to 80 percent of gambling revenues are taken from the 10 percent of the population that gambles most heavily.  Studies also show that lower income persons spend the greatest percentage of their incomes on gambling.  Casinos and lotteries exploit the hopes of people who can least afford to lose, when the only guaranteed winners are those who control the games.  Our silence merely allows the exploitation to continue in the name of recreation.

     Christians should also look at gambling from the standpoint of stewardship.  Christians who can afford to lose small amounts of money while gambling may believe that they are engaging in a harmless leisure activity.  Yet, behind the scenes casinos use these profits to further exploit the addicted and the desperate.  Furthermore, every dollar spent in a casino adds to the social cost of the addiction, bankruptcy, and crime caused by problem gambling.  We must ask ourselves if we are making wise use of the resources with which God has blessed us when we use them to support an industry that provides a negative value to our society.  Local governments and agencies will be forced to pick up the hidden costs of gambling.

     Those outside of Texas may think that this does not affect you, but in 2003 voters in 30 states faced 45 different proposals to expand legalized gambling.  Although only 3 of those proposals passed, gambling proponents continue to promote gambling revenue as a painless alternative to tax increases.  Make no mistake; gambling brings plenty of pain and cost.  Responsible Christians should consider reminding legislators that it is poor public policy for a State to make losers out of its citizens, to allow its most vulnerable citizens to be exploited, and to balance its budget by increasing the burden on local agencies.