More insight into the greeting war

The current greeting war seems to become ever more unpleasant and bitter, as it brings to the surface a host of unresolved feelings and disappointments. John Creasy offered a helpful insight into it in his article "Fighting on the Wrong Side of the Christmas War," where he says:

We no longer live in a Christian culture, so lets accept that and be subversive voices calling people to change. Christmas can then be a time of recognizing that Jesus is the one who holds the power of this creation through his incarnation. The power of Jesus can subvert Christmas back to what it should be, a time of liberating the oppressed, caring for the sick, giving to the poor, and doing our best to redeem creation - not consume it.

It is hard for many Christians who remember (or at least think they remember) a time when the Church enjoyed prestige and dominance in society, to accept the fact that the situation has changed. Recognition of the shift in our culture does not need to be a time of second-guessing and blaming, but this recognition is essential if the Church in 2005 is going to find its way to offer a message of hope to the poor, the oppressed, and the over-possessed.

When the Christian Church was a minority religion, long before it had gained the cultural turf that it then surrendered to the secular culture by asking the government or billion-dollar discount retailers to do what was the Church's responsibility and privilege -- back in those days when a tiny band of disciples knew what genuine persecution meant -- the Church carried a treasure that it still carries today without any diminution. And so I leave you with a link to Kellen Plaxco's post for the day.

File under : Christian church, Christmas, evangelism, mission