Christmas begins at home

The Vega was raised a Catholic, but has become so lapsed a one that log-in credentials must be resubmitted at the baptismal font in order to pass through the nave. Yet even the Vega, if required to go to mass one time per year, would choose Christmas (preferably midnight mass on Christmas's eve, having imbibed long and hard of the "spirit" all evening) every time. The Catholic mass is rarely so joyous and its stateliness never so appropriate (Passion week has its own, though much darker, charms; gold vestments replaced by purple).

So it came as quite a shock to learn that some of our most mega-ey of the megachurches feel that Christmas is best celebrated at home, before the altar of XBox and Video IPod.

Some of the nation's most prominent megachurches have decided not to hold worship services on the Sunday that coincides with Christmas Day, a move that is generating controversy among evangelical Christians at a time when many conservative groups are battling to "put the Christ back in Christmas."

Megachurch leaders say that the decision is in keeping with their innovative and "family friendly" approach and that they are compensating in other ways. Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., always a pacesetter among megachurches, is handing out a DVD it produced for the occasion that features a heartwarming contemporary Christmas tale.

"What we're encouraging people to do is take that DVD and in the comfort of their living room, with friends and family, pop it into the player and hopefully hear a different and more personal and maybe more intimate Christmas message, that God is with us wherever we are," said Cally Parkinson, communications director at Willow Creek, which draws 20,000 people on a typical Sunday.

[...]

The uproar is not only over closing the churches on Christmas Day, because some evangelical churches large and small have done that in recent years and made Christmas Eve the big draw, without attracting much criticism.

What some consider the deeper affront is in canceling services on a Sunday, which most Christian churches consider the Lord's Day, when communal worship is an obligation. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday was in 1994. Some of these same megachurches remained open them, they say, but found attendance sparse.

Yes. These are the people whose concern over "values (aka, gays are icky)" supposedly tipped the election in favor of George W. Bush, the same people for whom we liburols profess nothing but contempt and misunderstanding. And yet their "faith" doesn't require them to publicly celebrate the birth of Dear Leader's favorite philosopher? Because they just can't wait to open Santa's presents?

Truth is, these peoples' "values" are in keeping with their "faith": about as deep as the snow which blanketed the northeast this morning -- not very much so, but enough to cause the rest of us a lot of inconvenience and annoyance just trying to get on with our lives.

Yeah, they believe in Jeeees-us, they will tell you without provocation. He is, after all Their Own Personal Savior. But Jeeees-us is there, they're told in these megamalls of feel-good personal redemption, for them, not vice versa. He's there to enrich them; whether in the soul or the bank account is all of a piece.

And with that, will Bill O'Reilly, that short fellow on Fox, and the rest of the knights gallants of Christiandom please shut up already about the ACLU's assault on Christmas?