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son has something no other human
festival can seem lo offer.
Testament were invited to a modern
Christmas party, he might certainly
enjoy the warm companionship of
the season - but he would not be
The Spirit of Christmas
able to recognize that the party was
Apart from the transient Christ-
supposedly being held in his honor!
mas season, the state of the world
He might even advise those who
offers precious little goodness,
worry that the celebration of Christ-
brightness or hope. Life, for most,
mas has deviated from its intended
goes on in its general emptiness,
religious purpose to stop worrying,
purposelessness and o ften total
because the public today truly
IS
meaninglessness. Battles are fought,
keeping the " real" meaning of disasters strike with numbing regu-
positive aspects of life, most are not
willing lo obey the principies which
could bring them about. Nonethe–
less, it would be rather silly, even
unfair, to condemn this positive side
of the celebration of Christmas
solely on the basis of the pagan ori–
gin of the day -
unless there is some–
thing far better to take its place.
And, happily, there is!
Christmas Has Failed
Christmas - as an utterly pagan,
larity, the affairs of inlemational re-
Nothing is more depressing than
openly hedonistic festival. He might
lations have their ups and downs -
a wilted, shedding Christmas tree.
point out lhat the Church should
never really seeming to make any
That dying, fiaking tree is symbolic
never have made an attempt to
progress.
of the death of the warm, ebullient
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compromise with the pagans, be–
cause that compromise has only
served to deceive people ioto lbínk–
ing they are pleasing God, when
in fact they should have been
keeping God's commanded holy
days instead .
The Church should have given
heed to the warning in Deuleron–
omy 12:30-31: "Take heed to tbyself
that ... thou inquire not after their
[pagan nations'] gods, saying, How
did these nations serve their gods?
even so will 1 do likewise. Thou
shalt not do so unto the Lord thy
God: for every abomination to tbe
Lord, which he hateth, have they
done unto tbeir gods...."
What the Church which today
still claims to be Christian
should
have done and what it actually did
are two different things. Yet people
themselves are not altogetber
blameless in the matter. The truth
is, even if the Christmas-keeping
public really were aware that it had
been religiously duped, it would
make li ttle or no difference in the
actual celebration of the holiday.
No matter how many times the
Christian community is reminded
that Christmas celebrations are
nothing but a resurrection of the old
Roman Satumalia, the festivi ties
will
start as December 25 rolls around.
Why? Because the Christmas sea-
22
There is a great deal of cynicism
about the spirit of conviviali ty
which is supposed lo occur once a
year to break for a brief moment the
hold of defeatism. I t would be na'ive
and foolish not lo see lhat a great
deal of this spirit is based on the old
human frailty of greed and self–
ishness, the anticipation of getting
gifts for instance. Sorne of it could
possibly stem from the joy which
comes from giving lhose gifts. But
whatever the cause and however
tarnished that spirit may get, there
is a definite positive feeling sur–
rounding Christmas. That feeli ng is
a spirit of warmheartedness and
kindliness toward other human
beings which, however weak and
short-lived it may be, simply never
occurs for most people at any other
time of year.
No matter how dimly pagan its
origin, this aspect of the festival of
Christmas
seems
good to human
beings - because Christmas is the
one time of year when sorne of the
worst aspects of the nature of man
seem
to be subdued. If there is any–
thing the world desperately needs,
it
is a cessation of negative human ac–
tion and expression and the ex–
ercising of a sma ll measure of
outgoing concern for other people.
Of course, even though people
want to experience these good and
spirit of Christmas. That spirit dies
as soon as the gifts are given, as
soon as the party is ended.
lt
quickly
fades from memory when the un–
paid bilis begin to pile up and the
hangover continues lo ache, when
the seasonally higher crime, suicide
and divorce statistics come in. It is
so temporary, so short-lived. It can
bring a spark ofjoy and beauty and
even a little happiness for a short
time, but the promise of better
things to come is never kept. The
military truces held at Christmas
time last only twenty-four hours.
Then it is the business of death as
usual.
Who is to blame for this failure?
1t would be easy to point the finger
at the Romans or tbe Greeks or
even clear back to the Babylonians,
who began the festivals. To do so
would not be entirely fair, however,
because those pagan societies made
no attempt to cover the fact that
they were utterly pagan. They were
having a rip-roaring time at the ex–
pense of the winter solstice and the
gods of fertility - and tried to fool
no one into thinking they were truly
honoring lhe birth of a being who
would have absolutely condemned
the festivals in the fust place.
If the blame falls upon any shoul–
ders for the failure of the Christmas
spirit, it should go heavily upon the
PLAIN TRUTH December 1973