What do we mean: Celebrate Christmas?
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) There are at least three ways we use the phrase "celebrate Christmas ." The first is as the celebration Mass of the birth of Christ , that is, as Rome has celebrated it for centuries. If by celebrating Christmas we mean attending Roman Catholic mass , most assuredly we should not. A second definition would be more broadly cultural. Here what we mean by celebrating Christmas is decorations, Santa, the Grinch , Rudolph, Frosty, bells on bob tails, Charlie Brown etc. This is not such a good idea either. Without much work one could rather quickly connect each of these Christmas traditions with breaking at least one of the Ten Commandments . At best this kind of Christmas is a deeply troubling distraction from where our hearts ought to be, at worst it is an evil, false, civil religion. What if we ask the question this way- is it wrong to remember the incarnation? Is it a sin to devote some time to rejoicing over ...