I appreciate Mark Shea’s thoughts on the culture wars this time of year:
Since I acknowledge that there is indeed hostility to Christmas, then what’s wrong with complaining about the War on Christmas?
Answer: Culture warfare is not spiritual warfare. The devil is the ape of God. He constantly offers us counterfeits. So magic looks like miracles, divination looks like prophecy, and seance looks like prayer to the saint. In the same way, culture warfare looks like spiritual warfare, but it’s not. It’s a politicized counterfeit of spiritual warfare. Culture warfare takes Christian things and subtly fills them with pagan content. The worship of some creature such as “America” or “traditional values” or “Xmas” or “the good old days” gets all balled up with the worship of Jesus and replaces it like stone replacing bone in a fossil … Demagogues manipulate pious Christians into defending … idols with the weapons of this world (especially anger and resentment against the ideological enemies of the demagogue) often while thinking we are defending Christ with the weapons of the Spirit. How can we tell when this is happening? When we stop, take our pulse, and realize that we are speaking about Christmas with anger and resentment at its enemies far more than we are speaking of the Incarnation of our Lord with joy.
Conversely, spiritual warfare takes created things and fills them with Christian content. It takes a glass half full approach by letting grace build on nature instead of teaching us to sullenly regard the imperfect as the enemy of the gospel. Does somebody wish us “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”? They at least recognize something sacred about the season … The Christian faith dares to be merry in a world full of grievances and petty tribal enmities.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 