Season's Greetings to the Grinch

Date Published: 12/09/2010

I have been interested to watch the reactions to the Grinch naughty or nice website put up by First Baptist Church of Dallas. I'm not singling them out; they are the most prominent public expression of the movement to object to holiday messages that do not explicitly mention Jesus or CHRISTmas.

Pastor Robert Jeffress said they thought it was a fun way to call attention to Jesus at this season, but many of those who reacted found it offensive rather than fun.

I am one who makes a point of focusing on Jesus as a pastor and as an individual. I am also counter cultural enough not to expect the dominant society to share that priority. In fact, I find it somehow demeaning and even perhaps sacrilegious to use Jesus to sell everything from junk to extravagance at Christmas time.

I saw one letter to the editor that suggested that objecting to non-Jesus, non-Christ holiday messages was a question of freedom of speech, as though political correctness was limiting people's religious liberty. It seems to me that using economic pressure to coerce a business owner who does not have a faith relationship with Jesus to put Jesus or Christ in holiday messages infringes of free speech in ways that makes Christians seem like grouches (Grinches).

Besides that, it strikes me that Christians who go around looking to be offended by generic holiday messages are letting something quite innocuous steal their joy.

On Monday (12-6) I was at an interfaith gathering where Christians (and even Christians and Jews) were a distinct minority. I received the seasonal greetings as expressions of good will as positive wishes without in any way diminishing my faith in Jesus.