The War on X-Mas

“You know me, I am no fan of the term Xmas or X anything. I make my kids play Christ-box 360. And if they break a bone they get Christ-rays.” – Stephen Colbert

There is a severe case of what I call “Camel-Gnat Confusion Syndrome” (CGCS for short) in some circles of American Christian culture. This particular malady takes its name from an episode where Jesus is bewildered by how religious leaders make silly distinctions between what’s right and wrong in seemingly unimportant arenas of life only to miss the “more important matters” like, you know, justice, mercy, & faithfulness.

The pastors of his day were stuck on things like making sure people knew that when you made a promise you needed to swear by the gold in the temple (because obviously just swearing by temple would be totes ridic) and making sure you gave 10% of even your most common spices. In response to these things Jesus says, “You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” In our day I think Jesus would say something similar to leaders who are fighting the “War on Christmas” by insisting that we boycott stores who don’t allow their employees to say Merry Christmas and give dirty looks to people who write Xmas instead of Christmas.

Now, I think we can all agree that Jesus would be in full support of a War on Christmas Sweaters. But from my reading of things, I think his response to the more popular “War on Christmas” would be “You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

Before stating my point I want to get out of the way two ironies that have been written about many times:

First, the origin of Xmas is Christian, not secular. χ is simply the first letter of Christ in Greek, the language of our New Testament (χριστος). So it’s not a way to take Christ out of Christmas but technically a more biblical way to keep Christ in it.

Second, it seems quite ironic to criticize retail stores for not saying Merry Christmas as they hand you bagfuls of consumer goods that have, for all social intents and purposes, taken Christ out of Christmas decades ago. Not to mention the bonus irony that many of those goods were probably sold to you at such a “Black Friday Blowout Sale” rate by unjustly treating their workers. In these ways, I think “Camel-Gnat Confusion Syndrome” is most acute in some Christian circles.

But I’m sure a lot of folks will be writing on those things in the coming days and weeks. I’ll let them do so. My thoughts tend more toward wondering about the antidote to CGCS and the “War on Christmas.” I’m sure the medicine is complex and multi-layered but I’ve decided that one antidote for me is to concede the gnats to get to the camels.

As we live in a culture that is increasingly post-Christian, my thought is that if Jesus is our example, then the battle for the Gospel is best fought by losing. Stay with me. As good missionaries in a culture where Christians are statistically seen as judgmental and moral police, I think it’s time we let the gnats fly by so that we can concentrate on the camels. As I often say, my mission in Post-Christian America is to concede people into the Kingdom of God.

This seems to be how Jesus reacted much of the time. It was his unwillingness to fight the non-religious that was often the most powerful weapon in his arsenal. Of course he had plenty of willingness to fight the religious. But for instance, when Peter declared that it was finally time to “stand up for what we believe,” Jesus just rebuked Peter and healed the person he had lashed out against.

Given the whole dying on the cross thing, in some important sense Jesus’ mission in the world was to lose, not to win. It was in losing arguments that he won people. It was in losing his life that he gained life for others. It was in giving up condemning gnats that he could finally have conversations about camels.

So wait. You’re saying we should lose arguments for the sake of relationships? Yes.

And by the way, ask anyone who has been happily married a few decades, they’ll agree in principle. But we keep insisting on winning. And in the process we never get to Jesus.

Because of our need to win, we stop people before they ever get to Jesus.

We stop them at whether or not they say “Christmas,” we stop them at whether they celebrate Halloween.

We stop them at whether or not evolution is true.

We stop them at whether or not the government should let gay couples marry.

We stop them at drinking alcohol or their colorful language.

There are so many checkpoints we feel responsible to enforce, no wonder so many people give up before they ever get to Jesus.

In a world where Christians are labeled as being against everything in our culture, what a powerful argument for God when we confound their expectations, when we come to battle with a towel and basin full of water instead of a sword.

And for me, this means sacrificing my need to say Christmas so that others can see Christ in me.