The photo on the banner is by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
Robert's Rant
I don't often use my blog to let off steam but today is an exception. For many years now I have been observing that in our postmodern society we have taken Christ out of Christmas. As a Christian, this saddens me greatly because the story of the incarnation is amazing and is really worth celebrating all year round but especially at Christmas. Why are we so afraid to think about the fact that God's Son was born in Bethlehem in poverty? Why are we so reluctant to think about what this story tells us about the heart of God - that He was prepared to send His only Son into the world even though he would be rejected and crucified? And I could go on.
I conducted some semi-scientific surveys just to expose the level of secularisation which has taken place. My first task was to do a search in Unsplash - the app I use for illustrations and photographs. I am extremely grateful to those photographers who have produced good quality photos and have granted permission for folks like me to use them as long as I record their name in my blog. I typed in 'Christmas' to see what types of images would come up. I scrolled down slowly to see if there were any verses from the Bible or any nativity scenes but I found none. The first thirty photos could all be described as decorative. There were pictures of trees or cuttings from trees and other plants, there were a variety of Christmas decorations including baubles and lights, there were several candles and one snow scene but no Jesus. When I varied my search to 'nativity' the results were different and I found many traditional nativity scenes and even an occasional verse.
I then tried to do a search in 'Spaces' which is the App relating to Wix websites (this is the company who hosts my website for an annual fee). Maybe it was old age or incompetence but I did not find this an easy task because before I could look for blogs relating to Christmas I had to decide on a topic and there was a huge list from which I could choose:
Beauty and Fashion, Cooking and Recipes, Food and Drink, Self Improvement, Books and Literature, Art and Photography, DIY, Business and Productivity, Environment and Sustainability, Media and Entertainment, Mental Health, Lifestyle, Politics and Opinion, Community and Culture, Family Relationships, Science and Technology and Travel. This list provides clear evidence of our secular, materialistic values.
I wondered if there would be something relating to Christmas in some of these sections - for example, books and literature. No chance. My overarching feeling was that my faith is being marginalised and that my Saviour is well and truly still not welcome in our world.
My third search was on Google. The first results related to Holidays at Christmas and then to eating out at Christmas. I did eventually find some references to the origin of what appears to be a rather strange custom of celebrating Christmas.
It was one of the 10 facts about Christmas. There was a question, "Why do people celebrate Christmas? And here is the start of the answer from Wikipedia.
"Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25th as a religious and cultural celebration all over the world."
I also found this extract from BBC Bitesize:
Christmas is celebrated each year on 25 December (7 January for Orthodox Christians).
What is the story of Christmas?
Jesus was born to a woman called Mary who was engaged to Joseph, a carpenter in the town of Nazareth in Galilee.
Mary was visited by an angel who told her that she would give birth to a baby called Jesus. Jesus was born in Bethlehem because Joseph and Mary had travelled there to take part in a census which the Roman rulers had ordered.
When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem the local inn was full with people returning for the census. The innkeeper let them stay in the rock cave below his house which was used as a stable for animals. It was here that Mary gave birth to Jesus.
If I was still needing to be convinced of the extent of the secularisation which has occurred, I thought I would look down the list of songs which have been Christmas Number Ones in the UK. The list went all the way back to the year 1952 which was a very significant year for me. There were very few songs which contained any reference to the Christmas message. In 1957 Harry Belafonte's song, 'Mary's Boy Child' reached number one and stayed there for 7 weeks. In 1976, Johnny Mathis was three weeks at the top of the charts with 'When a Child is born." Two years later, Bonney M topped the charts for 4 weeks with 'Mary's Boy Child - Oh My Lord.' Cliff Richard has twice had a Christmas Number One with a hymn containing a Christmas message. His song, 'Mistletoe and Wine' had a very weak reference to anything Christian and it survived for 4 weeks while his more explicitly Christian, "Saviour's Day" was only at the number one spot for 1 week in 1990. I admit that the Band Aid songs had a humanitarian message in 1984 and in 2004 and they lasted for 5 weeks and then 4 weeks respectively at the top of the charts. Publicity for both these songs was huge but any possible link to the birth of a Saviour was played down.
This is the start of our annual celebration of advent on Dayshare and this is our base. As Christians we should not be surprised. They rejected Jesus when He was on earth and Jesus warned his disciples not to expect popularity. I lead a wee group studying Revelation and one lesson we are learning is that the forces of evil will continue to gather pace in the last days. Satan and his demons do not want us to think of the birth of the baby in Bethlehem. I will focus on this in a future Dayshare blog.
Photo by Rodion Kutsalev on Unsplash
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