Stores Ban Christmas
I was reading a post on this Christian msg board i go to (the RSJ -- rebecca st james -- one for those interested, see the link) that someone had made about stores in the US banning Christmas...here is the site where it mentions the stores that are 'banning' it which include Kmart, Target, Dell, Home Depot etc...just click on the 4th link down at the top. Their 'banning' included taking out the name Christmas all together (surprise surprise...not) and changing the name of Christmas trees to 'holiday trees'. c-r-a-z-y. But then i guess thats what you would expect with the way 'Christmas' has been morphed into such a fake, commercialised event these days. However check out the top link also at that site, where it also mentions about one of the stores who had engaged in this banning & who actually listened to the huge outcry from most of their customers and changed the name 'holiday trees' back to 'christmas trees'.Anyway while we are on the subject of stores banning Christmas, i'd just like to say that i think there is a growing dissatisfaction among non-Christians with the commercialisation of Christmas, regardless of whether they are extremely anti-Christianity or not. However, for some people, they may have never heard about the real meaning of Christmas at all, which is why i think this time of year, in particular, gives churches an open door into reaching out to these people and sharing with them the gospel message - ie Christmas being about Jesus' birth, why that was so important and what it led to. Just the other day i was talkin to this guy who used to work at 'The Warehouse' and yeah we ended up on the topic of Christmas and he mentioned (without me sayin anything) about how commercialised it was and basically how it turned him off Christmas altogether, so much so, that he doesn't give anyone any gifts and doesn't get any either at Christmas...and this is coming from a non-Christian.
Just as an aside, people on the msg board under this topic ended up gettin into a discussion about how much we should engage in all the 'trappings' that go along with Christmas etc such as buyin gifts, decorations etc etc....and someone else also said that if we as Christians dont celebrate things like Halloween (except for some Christians that do..i have no idea why), why should we expect non-Christians to celebrate Christmas...and they came up with the idea of non-christians having a separate holiday similar to Christmas so that what they do by singing Christian carols, setting up manger scenes etc isn't like an act of false worship to God (b/c they dont believe in the real reason for the season)... in other words they can have their own 'holiday' to engage in what they claim to be the 'christmas spirit' - wining, dining etc etc..... so yeah that was interesting to read, but i dont necessarily agree with that idea, what are your guys opinions on it?
Well im gonna leave it here 4 now, but i'd be interested to hear what y'alls thoughts are on this if u wanna share them...
