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Thursday, December 25, 2008
Robert Knight :: Townhall.com Columnist
Celebrating the Holiday that Dare Not Speak Its Name
by Robert Knight
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Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


Christmas shopping traditionally accounts for between 25 and 40 percent of retail sales, and a lion’s share of annual profits. The day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It’s called Black Friday because it’s when many firms finally get into the black. You’d think that retailers might be just a bit more gracious about naming the holiday that’s putting the tinsel on their trees and the coins in their larder.

The whole idea of gift giving at Christmas comes from acknowledging that God gave His Son as a gift to all people, and expects us to treat each other accordingly. Retailers who refuse to call it Christmas but still want Christmas dollars are betting that Americans will continue to give extravagantly, forever, without the deeper reason. They think that they can remove the heart without harming the patient.

That might work if there’s a spare heart around, but not if the replacement is a lump of coal. How long will Americans give so freely, unmotivated by acknowledging the Greatest Gift of All?

When radio and TV commercials began November pitches with “during the holidays” and ended with “happy holidays,” it sort of made sense. The “holiday season” is Thanksgiving to New Year’s and everything in between, including Hanukkah, and the Reason for the Season on December 25. African-Americans celebrate the recent, secular addition of Kwanzaa, beginning Dec. 26, but they don’t confuse it with Christmas.

The Grinch himself must have smiled when some advertisers began using the singular opener, “This holiday” to push their wares. Everybody knows which “holiday” it is, especially retailers, who pray that people will buy with mad abandon and pull us out of this recession.

In the Chronicles of Narnia series, C.S. Lewis wrote of “the deeper magic” of belief in Christ that transcends the mythic magic of life all around us. The thin gruel of “happy holidays” may not be magical enough to inspire the kind of giving to each other that America will need to get through the current crisis.

Perhaps it’s time to call on the deeper magic: Merry Christmas to one and all!

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About The Author

Robert Knight is a Senior Writer/Correspondent for Coral Ridge Ministries and a Senior Fellow for the American Civil Rights Union.
 
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Reply # 1
Date: Dec 30, 2008 - 1:50 PM EST
What Jiovanni does not know?
My I presume that Jiovanni is not your name and that you DO realize that Jesus was a Jew?
May I also presume that you do not know that Bob Knight lives and works in the Washington DC area (a very diverse urban area)? May I further presume that, if YOU visit Washington DC, you will quickly discover that this nation was not established by Pagans, for Pagans and that the overwhelming majority of our citizens are CHRISTIANS?

In any event, here is what BEN STEIN has to say on the subject: “I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto.”

Let's try and remember Jiovanni that we (a majority Christian nation) #1 liberate the Nazi concentration camps, #1 push the U.N. to establish a homeland for Jews everywhere and #3 Christians Americans are the number one defender of Israel at the U.N... So leave us to celebrate our “Christmas” holiday in piece there should be nothing wrong with retailers wishing their customers a “Merry Christmas.”
Happy New Year!
MWC
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Reply # 2
Date: Dec 30, 2008 - 5:54 AM EST
The holiday dares not speak its name?
Robert Knight, where do you live?
Your complaint is the result of being myopic. What happens when you have friends who are Jewish, Hindu, Moslem, New Age Spiritual Pagans (yes, there are such), Buddhists, Atheists, and others who don't celebrate Xmas* but DO celebrate the year end holidays? While I would agree that there's nothing wrong with wishing them a "Happy Whatever their holiday is" and I do that, bit I also have friends who are Jewish, Buddhist, Moslem and Pagan, that wish ME a "Merry Christmas", but I would never wish them one. That's why "Happy Holidays" is so very appropriate. Maybe if you lived in a large metropolitan area where you have that kind of diverse community you'd understand the problem better. Hasn't that ever occurred to you?

*: Xmas, by the way, is NOT pronounced "eksmas" but is pronounced "Christmas." The X is NOT removing the name of Christ, it is using the historical X that is the fist letter in the spelling of Christ's name in Greek (X??st?s) as is still used and done in many of the more traditional Christian Churches. I love using the word "Xmas" whenever I type because it irritates only the ignorant. I hope all you good readers had a very fine Xmas!
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