Stop Pretending

I was given the task of writing a short opinion piece with a contrary viewpoint in my journalism night class yesterday. Here's what I came up with, the topic roughly being that materialism at Christmas should be welcomed.

**warning**

contains words and concepts that I don't fully understand

**end warning**


The sooner it is admitted that Christmas nowadays is all about materialism the better. What matters to us in the Western world, is, well, matter, and the more we have of it the happier we will be.

This, and not the Christian worldview, is what dominates society’s thinking and decision making in general. It is high time this is consciously admitted by the masses and people -- both inside the church and out -- stop pretending that we can juggle both Christ and our version of Christmas. We have laid our secular bed; we must be prepared to sleep in it.

In our hypermodern world, one should not be embarrassed by the materialism surrounding Christmas. In such a world, materialism is, for lack of a better word, good; the only good, in fact. It permeates every other day of the year, so why not the 25th of December? The only embarrassment should be the mention of Jesus at this time of year. We have relegated him to irrelevance in our day to day lives; therefore his presence in the midst of rampant consumerism is at best confusing and at worst blatant hypocrisy, for as Charlie Brooker so graphically puts it, Jesus “would have doubtless vomited up his own ribcage in disgust at the mere sight of the hollow, anaesthetising capitalist moonbase” that is our take on Christmas.

Strange as it may sound, Christ and Christmas do not mix. Not today. The Christian Church will protest at this, and well it might, for we have betrayed the sacred traditions of Christmas – the celebration of the birth of a man who lived and died for the sake of others, for the sake things unseen, for the sake of true love. What was once a thanksgiving for the god who made himself nothing has now become a spending spree for people who want everything. But given our collective worldview, materialism can no longer be considered a distracting sideshow to the event of Christmas; rather, materialism finds its full expression at this time of year. Shops are the new churches, where people flock to for their most urgent needs. It is little wonder that they are planning for Christmas long before actual churches are.

The Church must concede that we live, for all intents and purposes, in a post-Christian world. No doubt the Church is largely to blame for this, as recent scandals within its Catholic expression lamentably testify to. Therefore until we as a society are willing to stand for that which Jesus stands for -- until the Christian Church is once again willing to stand for that which Jesus stands for -- materialism should be what Christmas is all about. Ironically, this will actually serve to benefit the Church, for only then will its shocking counter-cultural message begin to be understood by both Christians and non-Christians alike.