Christmas at Target Dec. 4, 2005 morgan young Well, it's Christmastime again, or "The Holidays" depending on whom you ask. Target has allegedly banned the use of "Christmas" and now it seems to be a war, a Christmas jihad if you will. Trying to get my arms around all this, I did a little big chain store surfing of the dot-com versions of Kohl's, Sears, K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Target. They all looked more alike than different; snowflakes, trees, "Holiday" stuff all around. I found the word "Christmas" one time, somewhat small and low on Sears homepage, but no one else's. What I observed about myself is that had I not been looking for "Christmas" on these pages doing research to write this piece, I would have had the sense they all were, well, "Christmasy," accept for K-mart which seemed less dressed in holiday garb than the others. Well, let's try to unpack this holiday debacle. First, here's an official Target response to snopes.com about the use of "Christmas." "Target serves and employs a diverse range of people at our stores. We try to meet the needs of every guest throughout the year by helping them celebrate the holidays and traditions that are important to them. That's why our merchandise, advertising and marketing include a diversity of traditions, particularly at this time of year. Target respects the individuality of our guests and team members. We do not have a policy that dictates how our team members greet guests. Our team members are able to use their own judgment in offering a welcome greeting. Our holiday merchandise selection includes Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa merchandise, along with Thanksgiving, New Year, and other winter-related items." As I read that, I'm not exactly picking up on an anti-Christian vibe. Sounds like Christian employees can say "Merry Christmas" if it grooves them. Sounds like it would be kosher to belt out a "Happy Hanukkah" if one was feeling old school. In short it sounds like they realize the diversity of Americans and are allowing people to handle the holidays in his/her own way. Here's an excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle: "Evangelical Christian pastor Jerry Falwell has a message for Americans when it comes to celebrating Christmas this year: You're either with us, or you're against us. Falwell has put the power of his 24,000-member congregation behind the "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign," an effort led by the conservative legal organization Liberty Counsel. The group promises to file suit against anyone who spreads what it sees as misinformation about how Christmas can be celebrated in schools and public spaces" Are you feeling the love? I'm not. I must say I don't understand this Christian need to have all of our beliefs displayed in retail stores and schools. Retail stores are places that sell stuff for profit. Schools are secular learning institutions. It's not like retail stores are actually practicing any kind of Christian ethic by using the word "Christmas." In fact one could point out the irony of some of the "mature rated" video games (due to sex and violence) being purchased as "Christmas gifts." And how many smut-filled books would be purchased on a holiday that is the birthday of the Christ Child? Ironic, don't you think? America is becoming more diverse than ever, and part of that diversity is in the realm of religion. I wonder how comfortable Christian families would be if their child's 3rd grade teacher started imparting Jewish teachings into the classroom? There is a huge Catholic contingency in America; I wonder how comfortable Christians would be if Wal-Mart had holiday signs up with Mother Mary that said, "Pray the Rosary." I'm not guessing those would go over too well. However, we seem ok as long as the religious shoe is on someone else's foot. I would remind us that as Americans we have enormous freedoms. When we're at Target or wherever, we can say "Merry Christmas" 'til we're horse. We can put a huge manger in our front yard, light it with 2,567 Christmas (or holiday) lights and soundtrack it through a PA system with Silent Night if we like. We can teach our kids to pray all through the day at school if they like, and they have the freedom to do it. We have the freedom to be Christians in every sense of the word. Jesus was Jesus in a Roman world. We are Christians in a secular world. Here's another excerpt from the San Francisco Chronicle article: "At one local Target, in Colma, most of the in-store advertising offers a generic "Gather round." One of the few advertising mentions of the C-word is above a Christmas card rack that says, 'Celebrate Christmas.' That's not good enough for American Family Association President Tim Wildmon, who wants to see 'Merry Christmas' signs displayed prominently 'if they expect Christians to come in and buy products during this so-called season.' And he isn't worried if they offend people who aren't Christian..." Are you feeling the love there? Me neither. Please understand, I don't like seeing Christmas become secularized any more than most Christians; it is somewhat sad. (By the same token, I hardly think it's up to the retail sector to be the bearers of Christmas.) But as Christians I think our response to these things must always be Christ-like. What do non-Christians think when they hear phrases like, "You're with us or against us,"? Or "You'll do it our way if you expect Christians to come here to shop,"? Is our response to the secularizing of Christmas, Christ-like or just as secularized as what we're decrying? To me it sounds like our response is very secular. "Hey, if you're going to do this, then I have the right to..." Where's the grace? Where's the love? Where's the respect? We can respect someone's right to do or believe something without endorsing their belief or action. Jesus hung out with a lot of people and loved them even in spite of who they were or what they'd been doing. He loved the person regardess of their beliefs or actions. Isn't that our model? And please understand, we do have rights. If you don't like what's happening and feel moved to action, please take appropriate action. But as Christians our actions must also be a good witness. Contacting Target or whomever in a respectful way, where they feel your love, not an attack, seems appropriate. Whatever we do as Christians, if we do it without love we're just a worthless clanging gong. And what's worse, if we do it without love, our response is indeed, very secular. One of the sidebars on the Target deal is that some people charge that the gay community somehow pressured Target into getting rid of the bell ringers because the Salvation Army has been very negative to the gay community. I have no idea whether any of that is true. But I do know that if the gay community felt more loved by Christians, rather than attacked and at war with Christians, that this scenario (true or not) most likely would never come about. Shouldn't Christians love homosexuals as much as the people we're ringing the bells for? I feel like homosexuals are the lepers of our day, and all we want to do as Christians is proclaim them "unclean." In God's economy it all starts and ends with love. For some of us it's hard to love the homosexuals, or hard to love the Jerry Fallwells, or hard to love the Target owners or whoever. It's easier for us to rail on those people than it is to love them...that's why we rail. So this Christmas I'm going to try to love the Christians who easily get their panties in a bunch over "Christmas" vs. "Holiday," and I'm going to try to love the people who are trying to secularize Christmas, because as a Christ follower, I have to. It's what Jesus wants of me. And otherwise, all my words mean nothing, without authentic loving actions. If I could have anything for Christmas, perhaps it would be for Christians to have a presence in the world that more reflects Jesus, than a political force. It would be for the word "Christian" to be synonymous with, "love, grace, and acceptance." For Christmas, I would love for Christians to be the most attractive group on the world landscape---not the most vocal, not the most opinionated, not the most critical--but the most attractive. That would be flippin radical. (For the record, Morgan Young is a born again Christ follower and minister of the gospel. He loves God, Christmas and the Bible.) |
