Is it ok to say Merry Christmas?

Back in December of 2003, I wrote about how Christians ought to respond to the annual cleansing of the public square of Christian symbols. I suggested Christians set up religious Christmas displays on our own property. I had been inspired by The Bethlehem Experience, an annual re-creation of the sights and sounds of Bethlehem as it might have been at the birth of Christ.

I can report Bad News and Good News on the Christmas front of the Culture Wars. First, the bad news: this year, somebody got in trouble for a nativity scene in their own yard.

A family in Novi, Michigan, was threatened with fines by the management company of their subdivision unless they removed the nativity scene from their own front lawn. The Samona family has lived in the home for three years, and has displayed their creche each year. This year, the company informed them that they could be fined up to $100 per week until the display was removed.

But here is the good news: Christians are fighting back, and winning. In this particular instance, the Samona family contacted the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm located in Ann Arbor, MI. After receiving a letter from attorneys at the Thomas More Law Center, the management company quickly backed down. They even apologized for any distress they had caused, and offered to give the family a gift basket as a token of their remorse.

The Supreme Court has created a tremendous amount of confusion on the issue of public displays of Christianity through its complex and seemingly contradictory sets of rulings. That confusion can cause people to withdraw from the fray, simply out of fear of being sued or fined. But if you are unwilling to be intimidated, you may find that you are perfectly within your rights to do what you had planned.

For instance, the school district in Jackson County Georgia had prohibited a whole variety of religious expressions. The district had prohibited teachers from wearing pins, angels, crosses, or clothing that had religious connotations. The district had removed certain religious songs from a "Winter concert," and censored the word "God" from a song.

An attorney from the Alliance Defense Fund wrote a letter to the school district, on behalf of one of the teachers. According to ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman, many people are ignorant of the law. "Many school districts aren't trying to be difficult; they simply don't know the facts about the law. The fear, disinformation and intimidation that the ACLU and other groups like them have promoted over the years with regard to religious expression on public property at Christmastime have led to such misconceptions. ADF desires to educate schools, teachers and students on the truth about what the law really says."

Besides Christians standing up for themselves, non-Christians are standing up for Christmas. Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, was founded by Don Feder to combat the widespread prejudice against Christians by the cultural elites. As Feder noted in the organization's inaugural address:

"Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation was organized because we recognize that Christians are the last remaining obstacle to the moral deconstruction of America, ... But the morality of Christianity is also the morality of Judaism - hence the expression Judeo-Christian ethic. By maintaining their loyalty to the eternal values revealed at Sinai, Christians have become pariahs in the eyes of the establishment, but heroes in our eyes."

Not surprisingly, this organization has spoken out against purging Christmas from the public square. As Feder points out "According to a recent Newsweek survey, 85% of this nation is Christian. (On a percentage-of-population basis, America is more Christian than Israel is Jewish -- more Christian than India is Hindu.) A FOX News poll informs us that 96% of the American people celebrate Christmas - which means a lot of non-Christians are decking the halls too. So the above de-Santa-zation process is all for 4% of the population? Not even. Many who don't celebrate Christmas have no objection to Christmas trees, carols, mangers in parks, Santas in parades or the lady at the cash register saying "Merry Christmas." I should know; I'm one of them. When I was in grade school, back in the '50s, we sang Christmas carols and made Christmas ornaments. And, guess what - I wasn't emotionally scarred for life."

One thing is certain: the annual Christmas debate has gotten a lot more interesting.

40th Anniversary of A Charlie Brown Christmas airs Dec. 16th on ABC

You're a classic, Charlie Brown

Even back in the 1960s, the idea of including Scripture from the book of Luke was controversial. When, according to Making of a Tradition, Mr. Melendez suggested that it seemed too religious and they shouldn't do it, Mr. Schulz replied, "If we don't do it, who else can?" If he was going to do a Christmas special, he said, it was going to include religion.

Candace Hackett Schively, who was part of the choir of kids singing the opening and closing numbers ("Christmastime is Here" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing") once wrote a letter to Mr. Schulz. She said, "I cannot listen to the King James version of the Christmas story without hearing Linus' voice adding, '... and that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.' "

Rest in heavenly peace: Mr. Schulz died in his sleep the day before his final strip was scheduled to run in newspapers across the world. "If you'd written it like that, people would say, 'Well, it's dramatic license,' " Ms. Schulz says, still amazed by the timing. Ms. Schulz says her continued involvement in the Peanuts industry "has given me my life since he died. I continue to get to live in this space with him, with his memory right at my shoulder."

Darla Atlas

Schools Regain Confidence

Many schools have become so wary of a rebuke from the ACLU that they refrain from nearly all religious expression on school campuses. Confused by what is and isn't allowed, they seek to avoid the conflict all together. The Alliance Defense Fund helps schools by telling them clearly what IS allowed on campuses related to religious holidays.

According to the Alliance Defense Fund, we really do have the right to:

• sing Christmas carols at school
• pass out candy canes to classmates
• call it “Christmas vacation”
• sponsor a nativity scene on public property
• say “Merry Christmas.”

The Alliance Defense Fund has a small army of lawyers, more than 800 nationwide, ready to defend our first amendment rights of religious expression.

Mega Churches to Close Doors on Christmas Sunday

This year, Christmas may be colder – or at least quieter – for the thousands who attend several evangelical megachurches across the country. Some of America’s largest churches are closing their doors on Christmas day, which this year falls on Sunday, to accommodate to the lifestyles of their congregants.

Among those slated to close its doors on Christmas day is Willow Creek Community Church – Chicago’s largest congregation and one of the top five largest in the nation.

"It's more than being family friendly. It's being lifestyle-friendly for people who are just very, very busy," said Cally Parkinson, spokesperson for Willow Creek, to the Associated Press. Some “lifestyle-friendly” adjustments include bunching up the services on Christmas Eve instead.

According to the Associated Press, megachurch officials around the country consulted with each other before deciding to take the day off. On this list include Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich., North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Ga., and the Fellowship Church near Dallas, Texas.

Supporters of the move say it frees up time for the church staff and church members to focus on commemorating Christmas at home.

"At first glance it does sound contrarian," said the Rev. Gene Appel, senior pastor of Willow Creek, to the Chicago Tribune. "We don't see it as not having church on Christmas. We see it as decentralizing the church on Christmas—hundreds of thousands of experiences going on around Christmas trees. The best way to honor the birth of Jesus is for families to have a more personal experience on that day."

However, some scholars criticized the move, saying it’s the day of the week – Sunday – that is sacred to the evangelical faithful.

"This speaks to the dilapidated state of evangelical faith today," said David Wells, a professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, to the Tribune. "That we would think that going to church is getting in the way of celebrating Christmas—that the family celebration shouldn't be impeded by having to go to church—it seems to me that our priorities are upside down."

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