Adult Fairy Tales and Christmas

“This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel;
and for a sign which shall be spoken against.” Luke 2:34

Somewhere we will hear the alarm sounded about the efforts of retailers and civic officials to cleanse Christmas 2012 of any reference to its Christian roots. Holiday trees replace Christmas trees and the controversy is off and running in a blaze of yule log fervor. Pastors preach and politicians rail and the editorials grow vicious with counter accusations thrown up in reply. Is this just a recycled version of the old and traditional debates about ‘the real meaning of Christmas’? I am going to wade into the fray and say simply, “I don’t think so.” What we are witnessing is a conscious and deliberate effort to take a uniquely Christian holiday and sanitize it to make it conform to a new age in which no one should be remotely confronted with anything Christian. It is part of the culture wars and the overall effort to remove all religious voices from the public square. But herein lies the fairy tale.

I have heard Darwin’s theory of evolution described as simply a fairy tale for adults who want to determine their own sexual mores. We are seeing the birth of a new fairy tale. This is for those adults who want to believe that we can enjoy and maintain all the trappings of democratic forms and freedoms complete with the optimism and spirit of the religious impulse without the religion that gave birth to these very ideas. We can now believe that all men are equal without having any base for this bold assumption. Never mind the reformation and the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer or the Biblical assertion that all men are created in the image of God. Likewise, we can now believe that love and the spirit of giving can just spring up naturally this time of year apart from the unmerited and overwhelming gift of God to the world in the advent of Christ. It just springs magically from holly and mistletoe and mugs of hot chocolate.

The myth of a truly secular democracy or a secular Christmas is like a tent without poles. Yes, tent poles are, after all, restrictive to one’s freedom, cumbersome, and offer rigid obstructions to those seeking new forms and directions. But remove them and the tent settles slowly to the ground as the air steadily escapes. This new fairy tale is a story of a magical tent that stays erect and proud and keeps the elements at bay without any poles at all; no more restrictions, no difficult assembly, no rigid limits.

Do we protest? It has its place. Do we abandon the world and leave it to its own devices? There is nowhere to run and start again. Do we weep for the delusions that bind and blind? Always appropriate. But where can we fight this insidious fairy tale best? Is it not within our own homes with our own children? Let us not be afraid to link Christ’s coming with all that is glorious and good in life. The old carols say it best. With majestic imagery they describe how ‘the soul felt its worth.’ What a foundation for a civics lesson. ‘He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.’ What a chance to talk about original sin and redemption. ‘The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.’ What a basis for hope and a future. This is the stuff on which our very way of life hangs. Now is not the time for timidity or embarrassment. Christmas is still the greatest story ever told. And the competition has nothing that even comes close to matching it. So feel the freedom to raise a voice and carry this story forth into the void of atheistic nothingness. It is still good news.