Be a good Christian: Say 'Happy Holidays'
By Ruth Ann Dailey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Here's a fun mind game just in time for the year's biggest shopping season: If Jesus were a clerk ringing
up your purchase at The Gap, would he wish you "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"? What would Jesus do?
Really, let's have some fun with this, because if we have to give a few minutes' attention to the culture
war, then we might as well do the thing that would most annoy the extremists on either side: Let's think.
The big bonus is, there are no wrong answers -- not when you're playing "Jesus Clerks at The
Gap."
Since Jesus was born a Jew, maybe he would hand you your bag and say, "Happy Hanukkah." Or, as the
founder of his own religion, maybe he'd say, "Merry Me-Day."
Maybe,
if he was truly God, he would tailor his words to fit each customer's
unspoken need: "Your daughter won't like this and will spend my
birthday sulking," or "Just give up already on trying to please
everybody," or "This year at your in-laws? Don't drink so much."
Or maybe he'd start preaching against the grasping materialism of our age and urge customers to put down the
argyle sweaters and celebrate his birth by performing real acts of mercy instead.
And then he'd get fired. Because no matter what you call the holiday, a retailer's job is to sell
merchandise, not a religion.
The
American Family Association, however, doesn't see it that way. The
"traditional family values" organization, famous for crusades against
porn and raunchy TV, regularly announces boycotts of big enterprises
that don't make business choices in accordance with its Christian world
view.
In
2005, AFA targeted Wal-Mart and other major retailers to pressure them
into using Christmas-specific signs and advertising. It worked. In
November 2006, Wal-Mart announced it would ditch generic "Happy
Holidays" verbiage and restore "Christmas" to its packaging and
greeters' lips.
This
year AFA has Gap in its crosshairs. "For millions of Americans the
giving and receiving of gifts is in honor of the One who gave Himself,"
read a Nov. 10 AFA press release. "For Gap to pretend that isn't the
foundation of the Christmas season is political correctness at best and
religious bigotry at worst."
News
flash for the "religious right" from this column-writing Jesus freak:
Christmas is not the only religious observance taking place at this
time of year, and millions of Americans do not recognize Jesus as "the
One" nor give gifts to honor him.
Is recognizing this reality "political correctness," or is it simple respect?
And why wouldn't Christians want to respect the religious freedom exercised by their fellow citizens? After
all, obnoxious pouting -- "It's our holiday!" -- isn't exactly a persuasive evangelistic technique.
On
its Web site, the AFA's stated goal is to "equip citizens to reform our
culture to reflect Biblical truth on which it was founded." While the
colonial culture was overwhelmingly Christian, the nation's government
was founded on the irreconcilable tension between Reformation and
Enlightenment, between divine revelation and man's reason.
That's a conflict to be resolved in the individual's heart and to be engaged as graciously as possible
when all those individuals collide in the public sphere -- which includes the local mall.
Cultural
conservatives would be doing the nation a favor, however, by fighting
true secularization where it actually matters: in the public schools.
To prohibit kids from singing "Silent Night" or "The Hallelujah
Chorus," as some districts do, is to prevent them from learning about
Western civilization. It is anti-intellectual.
Deliberately
imposing such ignorance on the young is just a different kind of
indoctrination. If officials don't want that charge laid at their door,
they should embrace all of America's rich religious traditions and
celebrate them in, yes, a "winter concert."
As if it had anticipated the "Christmas boycott," Gap's ad campaign includes this "Holiday
Cheer" on its Web site: "Go Christmas / Go Hanukkah / Go whatever holiday / You wanukkah."
That's brilliant, as far as it goes; Gap's 30-second ad goes further, with Gap-clad cheerleaders equating
all religions with paganism or doing "what just feels right." (How'd that work out on, say, Wall Street?)
While the AFA demeans true faith with self-regarding anger, the Gap cheer makes religious decisions seem as
important as cashmere scarves. Here -- toss one on! They look a bit different but they're all the same!
They are not, of course -- a fact fully evident in the cultures and political systems they've inspired.
Faith matters. If yours is so weak that you are offended by someone else's -- or need their two words of
approval ("Merry Christmas!") -- you've got growing to do.
There's nothing like a little shot of religion to inoculate you against the big, life-changing kind. The
distance between the insincere gesture and the real thing -- that's the only gap worth worrying about.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09320/1013776-152.stm