Why I no longer celebrate Christmas :: Part 1
Years ago I began the nightmarish transition through the dreaded cage stage, moving from a dispassionate, atheological, Southern Baptist inerrantist to a tulip-loving, Jerusalem blade-wielding Calvinist. Imagine my journey as a young seminarian, attending Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, with its founder and president publicly railing against Calvinism because "it'll rip the heart out of evangelism and missions!" That sounds so strange, considering I'm writing this from the small principality of Wales where I have served as a missionary for the past four years, plus seven years as a stateside missionary with the SBC.
In my freshman year of 1982-83, our little campus lay in the shadow of Bellevue Baptist Church in downtown Memphis, where its famous pastor, Adrian Rogers, minced no words about his feelings toward the doctrines of grace. The conservative resurgence had just begun picking up steam in 1979 and the very first Southern Baptist "Conference on the Faith of Our Founders" would be held in the summer of 1984 where 85 Calvinists gathered in wide-eyed wonder that there were so many of us in a convention of 40,000 churches.
While it seemed exciting at the time—everything was new and fresh—it took its toll on everyone around me, especially my family and close friends. I didn't know when to shut up! My wife was my first serious project, but like me, her weak objections and cautious skepticism didn't last long against the biblical arguments I brought convincingly, week by week, for her consideration. The positive benefits of our journey should not go without mentioning: we had become serious students of Scripture, our passion for the Lord seemed to blaze more brightly, and we felt more seriously the weight of serving the Lord as missionaries one day.
So when our next Christmas rolled around, we decided to put Christ at the forefront of things: something strangely absent from both of our family traditions. After much prayer and discussion, it was decided that it would be best to strip every vestige of commercialism and secularism from that point forward: no Santa, no tree, no decorations, no traditional jingles like "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas," and no gift-giving. We had a couple of impressionable young children, so we even wrote a letter to our parents and informed them of our decision. They could not send gifts to any of us, not even the children! Bah, humbug!
Imagine what they must have thought about us. A bunch of crazy Calvinists who had taken their grandchildren hostage and who were determined to make their lives miserable. But it didn't matter to us, 'cause we were "puttin' Jesus first!" Even if the whole world turned against us, we would not budge. Not one inch.
[Continued in Part 2]
interesting angle. looking forward to it.
Bill -
I figured I’d pay you a visit too! We’re doing similar things, only scaled down a bit. Last year was a nightmare as the kids got more than our van could manage. It wasn’t even fun for them by the end of it. It just became a matter of how much wrapping paper they could throw in the air.
We didn’t get rid of gifts…but we drew limits. Instead of limitless gifts from everyone we’ve decided one gift per whomever (grandparent, uncle, aunt, etc). The kids made a list of 4 or 5 things they thought they may want to have. We distributed to the family…and hopefully it will be more sane.
We’re trying to battle the excess of spending and receiving we experience in our culture. So we’re cutting way back…my wife and I aren’t even getting gifts. The one gift to each other was to make a photo album (on snapfish…good plug!) of our family over the last year.
Blessings Bill…can I say Merry Christmas
Josh: Thanks for dropping in! It makes me wonder if much of our American obsession with material things stems from such experiences as a child.
I *finally* convinced my wife that the tree has to go. Hurray! I was toying with getting a menorah. I think it seems consistent w/ the Christian faith, and it may be a good conversation piece when I have folks over, especially non-believers that know I am a Christian.
Any thoughts on that?
“Jesus was born and so I get presents. Thank you Jesus for being born. Fall…, on your knees…!”
— Eric Cartman from _Southpark_
I really do HATE Christmas trees! And I’m 1/8 Jewish (great-grandmother), so the menorah sounds cool enough. When you don’t celebrate Christmas, it makes you realize how the Jewish people must feel during the holidays.
“I *finally* convinced my wife that the tree has to go. Hurray! I was toying with getting a menorah. I think it seems consistent w/ the Christian faith, and it may be a good conversation piece when I have folks over, especially non-believers that know I am a Christian.
Any thoughts on that?”
Why not put up a cross with Christ on it, since that image seems at least as consistent with the Christian faith, as a menorah. Why, even those busily throwing out the Christmas tree may be vaguely aware that a tent-maker from Tarsus in Asia Minor once vowed to preach nothing but “Christ Crucified,” in the Christian Scriptures.
Then again, non-believers might be enchanted with a manger placed in the middle of the den, which though finite object once held the infinite God Incarnate. What a conversation piece that would be!