Ok...... I know Christmas is coming. We received the LL Bean Christmas catalog the other day. I've seen Wal-Mart Christmas commercials on TV. My mother-in-law loaded up one closet with packages in August already. Tomorrow we will start shopping for the silly gifts we always buy the family.
Yesterday, I got the first of many emails bemoaning the secularization of Christmas. There are many of these things circulating. Most tell you not to patronize stores that say Happy Holidays or to refuse to buy certain products or some other silly thing. The author of these emails is never stated. What really irritates me is that friends mindlessly forward all this rubbish.
It's not just that people warn you "don't take Christ out of Christmas." I also get warnings not to buy products manufactured by certain companies because they are agents of the devil. And then there's the admonition to refuse certain US coins because they don't include the words "In God We Trust."
Yes, words matter, but if a person's life doesn't mirror the words, then the words are not real to the person anyway. (Does that sentence make sense?) A quote from St. Francis of Assisi seems appropriate here. "Preach the Gospel always....if necessary, use words." In other words, let your actions do the bulk of your talking.
Honestly, I just can't get all bent out of shape about a person saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." The intention is to greet me and wish me well. I just wonder why some folks are so all-fired upset about it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment