{"id":1493,"date":"2011-12-13T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T06:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2012-01-03T17:44:43","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T17:44:43","slug":"3_things_that_irritate_christians_about_christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/13\/3_things_that_irritate_christians_about_christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Things That Irritate Christians About Christmas (and what we should do about it)"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many Christ followers, few things are more irritating than the way the world has \u201cmessed up\u201d Christmas.<\/p>\n

There are at least three distinct ways that many Christians are irritated by Christmas these days. Here\u2019s what I believe they are, and how I believe we should respond.<\/p>\n

\"CharlieIrritation #1: The Way the World MISPREPRESENTS<\/span> the Sacred in Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometimes the world tries to incorporate elements of our faith into their observance of Christmas, and often they just don\u2019t get it.<\/p>\n

Think It\u2019s a Wonderful Life<\/em>. So, are we to believe that part of the Christmas narrative is that angels need to perform good deeds in order to earn their wings? And when they succeed a bell rings? On a Christmas tree?<\/p>\n

For many Christ followers this is exceedingly irritating.<\/p>\n

Irritation #2: The Way the World HIJACKS<\/span> the Sacred in Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n

This irritation is typically found in the world\u2019s commercialization of Christmas.<\/p>\n

The other day I was listening to a radio commercial for a local muffler shop. They were pitching their \u201cAnnual Christmas Muffler Sale\u201d, and the background music for their commercial was O Holy Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Again, for many a most irritating trend.<\/p>\n

Irritation #3: The Way the World INGORES<\/span> the Sacred in Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oooooh, this one really gets under the skin of many Christians.<\/p>\n

First, \u201cChristmas\u201d became \u201cX-Mas\u201d\u2026Then our nativity scenes started disappearing from city parks and town halls. Then \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d became \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d.<\/p>\n

Where will the madness end?<\/p>\n

How Christians have responded thus far.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Increasingly, Christians are responding to these irritations with angry letters to the editors, by jamming the phone lines on local talk radio shows and by threatening to boycott places of business who don\u2019t say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d.<\/p>\n

May I suggest an alternative?<\/p>\n

How should we respond?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead of protesting against culture, learn to engage<\/em> the culture.<\/p>\n

Look, even though our culture has indeed messed up much of the \u201choly\u201d in Christmas, this is one of the rare times in the year that we\u2019re all singing the same songs. We\u2019re attending the same neighbourhood and office parties.<\/p>\n

Never compromise on what we believe, but seize this wonderful season as an opportunity to engage the world in real, meaningful conversation about the true hope that Christmas represents.<\/p>\n

Who knows? We may even turn a few \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d back into \u201cMerry Christmases\u201d!<\/p>\n

How to you engage the culture during Christmas?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many Christ followers, few things are more irritating than the way the world has \u201cmessed up\u201d Christmas. There are at least three distinct ways that many Christians are irritated by Christmas these days. Here\u2019s what I believe they are, and how I believe we should respond. Irritation #1: The Way the World MISPREPRESENTS the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[479,4],"tags":[993,756,757],"class_list":["post-1493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christmas","category-community","tag-christmas","tag-commercialization","tag-sacred"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493\/revisions\/1550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}