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Apologetics

Christians and Christmas/Santa Claus

Santa Vs Jesus

At Christmas two of society’s most wished-for figures collide. Linda Morris explores Christian attempts to keep Santa at a respectable distance.

He’s a jolly, avuncular fellow, dresses on the bright side and is renowned worldwide for a hearty laugh, some odd company and a sack full of goodies. What could be so wrong with Santa Claus?

Magical enough as the tale of Santa Claus is, some Christian churches are increasingly worried that the bearded man in the red suit is overshadowing the more significant message at this time of year of hope, peace and forgiveness embodied by the birth of Christ.

Christ, they say, is being cut from Christmas. And Saint Nicholas, the fourth-century bishop renowned for his secret acts of kindness, has been hijacked by commercialism.

At Christmas, the celebrations of the Christian and secular world overlap, each holding to different heroes who carry slightly contrary messages: Santa Claus gives gifts for those who are good; Jesus Christ is a symbol of unconditional love to believers no matter the sin.

The Christmas shopping season begins sometime after the racing of the Melbourne Cup and ends in the post Christmas sales. The Christian Christmas began yesterday with the First Sunday of Advent and ends with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, on January 9, 2005.

Two years ago the Reverend Dr Gordon Moyes, superintendent of the Wesley Mission, stopped wishing people a happy new year on his Christmas cards, replacing the message with blessings for a happy and holy Christmas. It’s part of Moyes’s personal crusade to untangle commercial and Christian messages or, as he put it in his Christmas sermon last year, “not to allow the heavenly voices to be drowned out by the ring of computerised cash registers”. Santa, he says, should be no God-substitute. “I’m happy for traders to sell what they like but don’t try to sugar coat it with Christian meaning,” says Moyes. “Many stores try to massage commercial sales [by] … linking them with spiritual connotations, but the Christmas sales are no more significant than the mid-winter sales of any store. There is no way that chrome pop-up toasters have a spiritual significance.”

I’m happy for traders to sell what they like but don’t try to sugar coat it with Christian meaning. – REVEREND DR GORDON MOYES But it is not just good Christians versus the rampant excesses of non-believers. The dilemma, says the Catholic Bishop of Parramatta, Kevin Manning, is that Christians can be as enthusiastic about Christmas commercialism as anyone else.

The potent Christian symbol of the crib, the humble bed of the world’s Christian saviour, had given way to sleighs, reindeers and bells and needs reinstating, he suggests.

Moyes and Manning, along with Sydney’s Anglican archbishop, Dr Peter Jensen, are among a growing number of Christian leaders who are seeking to reclaim the public marketplace for Jesus Christ. Jensen blames “humanist gatekeepers” for presiding over a societal “mood and temper” that seeks to “airbrush” Jesus Christ not only out of the Christmas story but out of contemporary Australian culture which still owes its foundation to Christianity. It is a recent phenomenon that goes well beyond questions about Australia’s changing ethnic mix or the relevance of the established churches, Jensen argues, and it is up to Christians to get the message out through a grassroots whispering campaign, a kind of gossip for God.

Schools, councils and shopping centres have at times made clumsy attempts to tone down the religious experience of Christmas, every time prompting a backlash on talkback radio and earning even the ire of the Prime Minister. This year, retailers are proving a little more sensitive about giving star billing to the twin icons of commercialism and Christianity. The windows of David Jones’ city store show the preparations for Santa’s sleigh journey, and a single window scene of Jesus in the manger. Westfield, manager of 33 shopping centres Australia-wide, is presenting a “traditional Christmas” with some Christian motifs. Almost all of its shopping centres will display a nativity scene and as its Christmas-themed music, “traditional, contemporary, instrumental and definitely carols” will be played, a Westfield spokesman said.

“We’d like to think all our shoppers enjoy the elements of Christmas we have in the centre – whether they believe or not. It’s about having fun, and bringing joy to our shopping community.”

KU Children’s Services, which operates more than 100 pre-schools, long-day care centres and after-school centres in NSW, has adopted a policy of Christmas neutrality. Celebrations are devised by each centre in consultation with parents to ensure they do not cause personal offence. “It’s a case of whatever is comfortable for the parents and the children,” a spokeswoman said.

Dr Carole Cusack, senior lecturer in religious studies at the University of Sydney, says Christian leaders have in more recent years become more emboldened in their defence of the traditional Christmas partly because of a conservative political and social climate.

But their portrayal of Christian values under renewed threat from a secular world ignores the fact that Christmas Day, like Easter, had since the Middle Ages been one of the few days off for working people. Just the same, there has been a noticeable shift towards more conspicuous consumption and increased prosperity since the 1960s, and the folkloric Santa Claus, laden with presents, has served as an easier fit with such a materially driven culture.

“Christmas makes you feel good because it gives you an excuse to shop for things and then give them to other people,” Cusack said. “Jesus is always a symbol of self-sacrifice, and even at Christmas when he is just a baby, he is a moral God, not really appropriate for commercialisation. Nowadays, people are tremendously caught up in the culture of consumption and the values of giving and sharing can be overlaid by an orgy of consumption, but I don’t think there has been a particular move away from the Christian interpretation of Christmas recently. Nor do I think that the secular Christmas will be radically changed by Christian revivalism.”

Complicating the Australian picture, says Cusack, is census data, which shows that while 70 per cent of Australians consider themselves Christians, just under 20 per cent attend church. As a church-going nation, Australia appears more God-fearing than England, where church attendance sits at about 2 per cent, and even Scotland at 10 per cent, she says.

While numbers for organised Christian religions has remained relatively stagnant with the exception of charismatic churches, Cusack says there has been significant growth in the last three censuses among those Australians claiming to be Buddhists, Muslims and neo-pagans – in other words those for whom the birth of Christ is irrelevant.

“Clearly we are seeing nativity scenes and Christmas carols increasingly disappearing from Christmas celebrations, and it’s a pity,” says the senior pastor of Hillsong Church, Brian Houston. He adds that the “multicultural nature of Australian society” should not put pressure on others to “compromise a Christian celebration”.

“The word Christmas in and of itself makes Christ hard to ignore. But from my perspective we should not rely on secular Australia to represent the message of Christ. The church needs to take up the challenge of presenting Christ in a relevant way, and Christmas is a great opportunity to do this.”

Evangelical church movements in the US have tried to discredit the Santa Claus phenomenon. Simply Living, a US Christian-based non-profit group with supporters in Australia and New Zealand, is one of these. It has dubbed the Christmas holiday splurge as Consumas and organises an annual Christmas campaign titled “Whose Birthday Is It, Anyway?” and Christmas gift contests highlighting gift-buying extravagance. Consumo, they say, is worshipped by almost everyone and appears in many guises, as a woman, a man , a child … and as Santa Claus, the bearded dispenser of bikes, Barbie and Bratz dolls.

But even church leaders know there are no votes in demonising such a popular figure as Santa Claus. Bishop Manning acknowledges that behind Santa Claus is a “noble sentiment of love and giving of oneself”.

Stephen O’Doherty, the chief executive officer of Christian Schools Australia, suggests that Santa Claus, a parallel fable to the Christian story, has in itself been corrupted by the same materialism that threatens to overshadow the Christmas message.

Santa Claus pays a Christmas Day visit to the epicentre of Christian evangelism, the Hillsong Church.

“I think Santa has at times been unfairly vilified,” says Houston. “Santa is merely a fun figure and I don’t believe that Christians should have a scrooge mentality that wants to take all the fun out of Christmas.

“I actually don’t believe that a fun figure like Santa is any real threat to the powerful message of hope that is Christ the Saviour being born.”

Moyes has suggestions for those keen to return to the real spirit of Christmas: opt out of the buying frenzy, try to give more thoughtful gifts; on January 6, the 12th day of Christmas, take down your decorations, give away what you don’t need, donate your time and money to the poor, to the homeless and refugees and watch your diet of television.

“We’ve always stressed that the gift of love is the best gift you can give. Better to give your presence and visit people in hospitals and in nursing homes than to give presents.”

Kathleen McPhillips, a senior lecturer in humanities at the University of Western Sydney, predicts a big future for both Santa Claus and Jesus Christ.

“In today’s culture the spiritual is more important than ever, whether we are conscious of it or not. The emergence of Christian fundamentalism means Jesus Christ will never be off the agenda and consumerism will never give Santa a rest.”

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Santa-v-Jesus/2004/11/28/1101577350784.html?oneclick=true

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