Many Christians are moved to boycott businesses that avoid the word "Christmas" when advertising for their biggest selling season of the year. (Indeed, many businesses get half of their annual revenue during this season.) The point the boycotters make is that there are still plenty of people in this country who are not ashamed of the Christian angle to Christmas. There have been several advertising reversals lately because of these boycotts.
If that's your reaction, you are free to do so. But please consider two things:
- How can we witness to someone we're boycotting? Or, perhaps I should say, "What kind of witness do we have to those we boycott?" Clearly, the boycotts pressure companies into a response, and a response they don't make willingly. So, their interaction with Christians is adversarial. How receptive would they then be to the real message of Christmas?
- By boycotting, aren't we just reinforcing the false idea that Christmas is all about money? Boycotting "works" because it hits businesses in the pocketbooks. A boycott says that one party will financially pressure another party until they take the desired action - using money to coerce a response. Suddenly, the debate over Christmas is about revenue, not Christ. And the boycott helped make it that way. A boycott threatens to "take away" Christmas (financially) from a business, and in the process takes away Christmas spiritually.
There are times for boycotts - I'm not against them in principle. However, I question the overall effect of these particular boycotts. They may "work" in the short-term, but do they really advance the Kingdom of God?
For me, Christmas will be Christmas whether or not Acme Clothing Company uses the word "Christmas" in their commercials. I don't think forcing them to use the word will draw anyone closer to Christ. In fact, it may only help to promote the idea that Christmas is just about shopping. Maybe it's better they don't use the word Christmas for luring shoppers in.
Jesus condemned false religion, where people worshiped Him with their lips, but their hearts were far from Him. When an advertiser is forced to use the word "Christmas" (not even the word "Christ"!), he has "honored" Christmas with his lips, not his heart. We're promoting false homage (and not even to a Person, but to a holiday).
The message of Christmas is our responsibility to get out - not the advertisers.
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3 comments:
Good post!
Also consider that the employees may want to give Christmas greetings to the customer but are prevented by the company they work for.A boycot may just give them the freedom of speech they are beiing denied.The position of the company is, very often, antagonistic from the start. They may be controlled by humanists that want to do their part to change the way of the Christians to suit their own agenda.Taking action, like boycotting, is a strong way to push back the attack that has already been launched against us. I find your view to be rather short sighted.
Mark, you're free to disagree, of course!
I feel that I can say "Merry Christmas" to those employees more readily if I'm not boycotting them.
But, if you want to boycott, do so in good conscience. I agree with your desire to keep Christianity in the public arena.
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