Take and Read (4)

Nate at Eight Strings continues his provocative take on Christmas in the second of a series entitled The Containment of Christmas. He uses the wonderful phrase, "contrived happiness." Nate's no Ebenezer Scrooge, mind you, but he's suggesting that Christians have a hard enough time keeping the Christ in Christmas themselves, let alone ranting about "the public square." He writes of the nativity:

This event is too groundsplitting to turn loose its full ramifications. This will back-fire, causing me, with my 'Jesus is the reason for the season' mantra, to break down and confess that I'm too weak to stand up without the hand of God lifting me. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And when the day ends, the most disturbing realization we have is not that Christmas paraphernalia and jargon has been cleansed from public view and hearing by "liberals," "PC people," and "heathens." It's that the very people to whom the Son was given would rather sweep Him under the carpet of Christmas piety than admit they are helpless before a Child, even in their personal lives, much less in full view of the world.

Nate promises more to come in this series, so stay tuned.

And it all remind me of an article I read recently in the conservative magazine, American Spectator:

We have taken the Christ out of Jesus Christ. Is it any wonder then that we have taken Christ out of Christmas, as well?