Around the holidays the issue of people saying "Merry Christmas" versus "Happy holidays" seems to be s significant one for some folks. It's been a cultural debate, or in some cases, and opportunity to mock those who believe that greater culture needs to align with Christian doctrine. It seems like there would be two different perspectives that this can be viewed from.
In the one perspective, I can see how some Christians might expect other Christians to continue to say "Merry Christmas" if they believe that failing to do so is somehow denying the Incarnation of Christ. I don't know how the act of saying, "Happy holidays," could do such a thing, but maybe there are very specific social situations where refusing to acknowledge Christmas is an act of denying Christ's humanity. That is frankly the strongest argument I can make for getting worked up about someone not saying "Merry Christmas."
From a different perspective, does it make any sense for Christians to expect non-Christians to say, "Merry Christmas"? Is acknowledging that there are other holidays around this season denying Christ, and even if it were would it matter if someone who doesn't put their faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins did so?
If this were part of some overarching cultural strategy to do away with Christians celebrating Christ's birth I could see this being a big deal. However, that's a conspiracy I don't buy into.
I think this is a battle for people who want to devote their time and effort to cultural wars rather than devoting their lives to the Gospel as presented in Scripture. When Paul wrote about the Devil's schemes, and that our struggle is not against flesh and blood (Eph 6:10-20), he was specifically arguing against earthly pursuits such as cultural warfare. Satan's goal isn't to get people to be more politically correct. It's to get them to spend their finite focus on the earthly things (like cultural warfare) rather than on teaching others about putting our full faith and trust in Christ's blood, and living a life that reflects that.
However, I do want to be open to arguments that I haven't articulated. Is there something that I'm missing about what saying, "Happy holidays," really means? Am I misunderstanding Paul, and cultural warfare is somehow Scripturally appropriate?
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