Learning from the First War on Christmas

It has become fashionable for some Christians to bemoan the "war on Christmas" that they sense is being waged in American culture.  This "war" has largely focused on whether Christmas oriented symbols such as manger scenes may be displayed on government property and how retail businesses greet customers.  Being greeted with a "Happy Holidays" is viewed as an assault on the true meaning of Christmas and evidence of an erosion of Christian influence in western culture. 

However, what is often not discussed is the fact that this is not the first time Christmas has been controversial. 

First a little background:  The celebration of Christmas (or as it is sometimes called the feast of the Nativity) dates back at least to the fourth century (see The Oxford History of Christian Worship).  In both the Eastern and Western Church it is a major Feast.  Both the time this feast is observed and observances vary from location to location.  

Now for the controversy: During the Protestant Reformation in England, some English Reformers questioned whether it was proper and biblical to celebrate Christmas.  Most of these questioners came from the Puritan camp whereas the Anglicans continued to argue for celebrating Christmas.   

The Anglicans and Puritans differed about whether to celebrate Christmas because they had very different assumptions about how to apply the Bible.  Puritans assumed that if something was not explicitly commanded in the Bible, it was unbiblical and should not be practiced (see Horton Davies, Worship and Theology in England: From Andrewes to Baxter and Fox, 1603-1690 [Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1996] 240).  Consequently, since the Bible nowhere commands Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus, it is unbiblical for Christians to celebrate Christmas.  Many very conservative Protestant Christians continue to operate from this assumption.  The Anglicans operated from a different assumption.  The Anglican assumption was if a practice is not forbidden in the Bible and if it is consistent with Christian tradition and reason, it is permissible for Christians to observe this practice as an expression of their faith.  Hence, since the Bible nowhere forbids celebrating the birth of Jesus and since Christians since at least the fourth century have been doing so, it is permissible for Christians to celebrate Christmas.  Christmas is but one example of how these different assumptions about the Bible clashed, which eventually fueled a Civil War in England. 

When the Puritans and their sympathizers sent the English monarch into exile during the English Interregnum (1649-1660), one of their first actions was to pass a law banning the celebration of Christmas in England.  Puritan clergyman Nicholas Bownde expressed a belief held by many Puritans that the celebration of Christmas was actually celebrating the pagan god Bacchus (Davies 243). Anglican Christians such as John Evelyn attended clandestine Christmas worship services under fear of imprisonment.  In his diary, Evelyn records that while receiving Communion in one of these secret gatherings, soldiers showed up and arrested multiple worshippers at gunpoint (Davies 354). Eventually the monarchy was restored and the ban on Christmas lifted. 



Public Notice from Puritan New England
forbidding the celebration of Christmas

Likewise, in Puritan New England, celebration of Christmas was outlawed from 1659 to 1681.  Those found breaking this law were fined, and in some cases arrested. 

The first "war on Christmas" was an internal war, where Christians with a more narrow understanding of how to apply the Bible argued against celebrating Christmas and those with a broader (though still biblically orthodox) view of how to apply the Bible argued for celebrating Christmas.  However, today it is often Christians with the more narrow view associated with the Puritans who are decrying the "war on Christmas."  Ironically, these theological descendants of the Puritans seem to assume that celebration of the birth of Jesus is an essential part of Christian life and worship, something their predecessors would have rejected.  Those with the broader view appear to be less troubled by Christmas symbolism being removed from public squares and being greeted with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" at retail businesses.  After all, Christians don't need their culture to "prop up" their celebration of Christmas. Christmas is first and foremost a Christian day of worship. 

All of this reminds me to take a step back and to remind myself what Christmas is about.  As Rev. Kenneth Tanner from Holy Redeemer Church reminds us in a blog a few weeks ago, "Christmas is for worship."   Pure and simple, Christmas is a time to lift up and magnify Jesus as Savior and Redeemer of the world.  It's not a time for waging culture wars or demanding that culture accommodate God's Kingdom.  This we can learn from the first war on Christmas.