“The War on Christianity” is a phrase that is all too familiar with Benedictine Students.
The world around us tries to do everything it can to suppress the Christian narrative. Sadly, the Birth of Our Lord is not exempt from that.
The proof is right in front of us, culture tries to push that Christmas music should only be played after Thanksgiving, lights shouldn’t go up until December, Christmas decorations go up in Walmart too early, all of these lies are pushed onto us constantly. But why?
The first reason that is thrown around is that we are told it’s to respect Thanksgiving so that we don’t start to overlook Thanksgiving. Is this a fair reason? I’d argue no. What is Thanksgiving exactly? The remembrance and celebration of some of the original pilgrims and puritans in America and their gratitude for a successful pilgrimage and being in the new world of America.
A tradition that they brought over from their home country, and our (formerly) oppressive overlords, the United Kingdom. Is this an important event to remember? Absolutely, does it trump the Nativity of Our Lord? No way. So tell me why it makes any sense at all to suppress the glory that is Christmas music to one short time frame? Why do we let society push us around like that? Personally, I would argue that it’s an outrage.
The second reason we are given to why we don’t get to listen to Christmas music year round is that we need to respect different seasons, and not rush into certain ones.
Your average American tends to think this is a fair claim, but I am not the average American. Let me give a few examples as to why this is not a fair claim. Every year when October first rolls around, the majority of Americans will post some variation of the phrase “spooky szn” on their social media. And as far as I’m aware, everyone takes advantage of the Halloween Candy being 50% off well into November. Effectively making Halloween last from October 1st- early November.
Last time I checked, Halloween is one day a year, so why aren’t people outraged over celebrating Halloween too early? Last year I went to a jersey night and wore my Jason Witten Dallas Cowboys jersey. Jason Witten hasn’t played for the Cowboys in three years and the nearest football game at that time was thirty something weeks away. If anything was out of season at that time, it would have been that jersey. No one batted an eye. But the second I play some Michael Buble Christmas music in July, everyone acts like I committed a crime.
And finally, I’m pretty sure we all listen to break up songs when we aren’t going through a break up. I’m sure we’ve all listened to love songs at times when we aren’t in love. This behavior certainly seems out of season, but there isn’t a global social media campaign against either of these actions.
So why is Christmas music the bad guy and nothing else is? The answer is simple, modern secular society trying to wage the war on Christianity.
