If I have to read one more article from some angry ‘Christian’ belly-aching that we must stand against people saying ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’, I may just have to write a counter-article on the subject. So be it.

Here’s my open letter to all angry Christians out there —

Dear Angry Christian,

Seriously, do you have so little faith in the Sovereign God of this Universe that you think one 2-word phrase will topple the Christmas holiday if it’s used in place of some other 2-word phrase?

Is your devotional life so minimal or non-existent that you think Jesus Christ even cares about such trivial, temporal arguments?

And as far as the culture wars that you seem so bent on trumpeting — aka, all your quacking about Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson — anyone want to show me where in the Bible it promises that a totally “Christianized” society will occur before Jesus’ return? Doesn’t the Word actually say that we will be persecuted for our beliefs up until that future event?

So, angry Christian, why are you so pre-occupied with requiring every non-Christian to take up the banner of Christ by way of forcing Christian values upon them, when that’s not what The Bible says will even happen? At least, not yet.

You seem to claim and even champion the point that everyone who doesn’t agree with us is our enemy. Even if I concede that is true, doesn’t the Bible say to love our enemy, and if they are hungry and thirsty that we are to feed them and give them something to drink? For in doing so, we will “heap burning coals on [their] head” (i.e., we are to disarm them with our niceness).

While the entire gospel is about battling enemies — the enemy is us! We, who were once enemies of God, were overcome by His powerful, pursuing love until we laid down our weapons. I don’t want you to miss that, angry Christian, so I’ll rephrase it — we laid down our weapons once we were overcome with God’s powerful, pursuing love. Therefore, we are called by God to look for opportunities to overcome our “enemies” using these same methods.

Sure, Romans 12 says we are to hate what is evil. But read further — we are to overcome evil with good!

So while I don’t think “Happy Holidays” is a threat to Christmas, I’m more willing to suggest that angry Christians will in fact destroy the holiday for the rest of us — that is, if I wasn’t so confident in a God who will someday “make all things new”.

Don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas — you know, Christ’s mission in his first visit to us — peace on earth and goodwill toward men. Or is that promise too contrite for you, and you just want to take a whip out and turn over some tables? Remember, Jesus took those actions against “money changers in the temple” — people who were polluting the house of God with their actions. Therefore, it’s possible that Jesus would sooner turn over your table, and whip you — oh angry Christian — than He would take such actions against those who don’t yet claim to know Him.

The joy of the Lord is our strength. If we lose that joy, and replace it with bitterness and anger, then we lose our strength — and the entire body of Christ suffers.

In His Service,

Aaron Prill (Counter Culture)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and may Christ return soon to pick up the pieces.