A Christmas Rant

It's Christmas; the time of giving, peace and goodwill to all men. Except we seem to have forgotten the true message of Christmas.

The real reason why we celebrate Christmas, is to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, yet Christmas is now a secular, consumerist occasion.

Months before, we see adverts for products to be unwrapped on the big day. Endless lines form outside of department stores on the 26th December. We seem to prefer being on the recieving end of giving, rather on the giving end.

Jesus, after all, gave us the biggest gift we could ever wish for; forgiveness, and saviour from the sin of mankind. Now, I understand many people, particuarly on the left, are firece atheists, but you'd have to be intellectually challenged to deny the existence of Jesus given the evidence that proves his existence. Whether or not you believe he did what he did is another matter, but I think we can all agree that Jesus did do some amazing things.

I'm a Christian; a poor one at that. I never go to church, although this was not entirely my choice. My father is a fierce atheist and took every opportunnity to prevent myself and my mother from attending church, until we forgot about it. Whilst it cannot be compared, it is reminiscient perhaps, and a reminder, of the persecution that Christians face across the world; it is undoutable that Christians are now one of the most persecuted religous groups in the world, particuarly in the harsh terrain of North Africa and many parts of the Middle East, in addition to parts of Asia. Even in Europe and North America, Christianity is being perverted; I recently found out the other day that 69% of people in Great Britain claim not to have faith.

I am somewhat glad, however. We in the west do such a poor job of showing our religion, with wanton capitalism and consumerism, genocide, environental destruction, endless wars and more, that it would be insulting to the name of Christ to claim we are Christian nations.

Perhaps to define a Christian nation, we must first define Christianity. For me, it doesn't involve obeying every letter of the Ten Commandments (I'll be honest, I can't even name all of them). But I know what is right and what is wrong. And any Christian should realise that our current attitude towards Christmas is very, very wrong.

You don't have to be a Christian to see that we've got it wrong. I'll give an example. I attended a Christmas Carol service at a local church, as me, my mother and brother do every year. It's a small, effectivelly all white church in an affluent part of southern Essex.

Within minutes of the service starting, we were asked to whip out our credit cards to make full use of the exciting, new contactless payment system the church had installed for donations! A five pound minumum donation, and donations up to £30 were permitted. Particuarly crass as they came around with the card reader at the start of the first carol.

This was nothing short of disgraceful. I understand that the church relies heavily on donations, particuarly in these times where church attendance is falling. However, it was just one example of how the message of Christianity is being perverted, even by the church! Christ expelled the merchants from the Temple. It seems the preists and vicars of the Church of England are the new merchants.

I've taken the rather cynical view in recent years that the Church is an institution like any other; it profits on the misery of others. It is a corrupt and kleptokrat organisation. My fellow Christians - I'm not insulting Christ. This criticism is mainly aimed at the Anglican church, the Church of England. It particuarly saddened me that the church were more interested in having high numbers of people attend, rather than having a relatively stable number of actual regulars. I can guarantee 95% of the people there did not go to church reguarly (including myself) but actually had no faith (excluding myself!). Instead, the service to them is not one of reflection and appreciation for Christ, but rather some kind of pre-Christmas, cultured event that is simply there to make people feel better and to be enjoyed, rather than one to be taken seriously. There were no sermons; there were no warnings against our anti-Christ lifestyles. It was a rather depressing and melancholy occasion in fact.

It really is a statement of western privillige; that those in Britain can attend a church carol service, in relative comfort, whilst Christians attending Christmas Eve services in Syria are being bombed and attacked. The west is the antithesis of Christ. Somewhere along the way, a few Americans started believing that the west, and America in paticular, was the embodiment of Christ, and this view is now widely accepted and even promoted; "Christian" and "West" are used interchangably, particuarly in the setting of the Cold War to refer to the "Godless East".

Yet this could not be further from the truth. Christianity did not originate in the west; it originated in the east. There were churches in Syria and Iraq before ones in France and England, and long before those in North America. Jesus was most likely not white and blue eyed, but rather an Olive-skinned or black Jew.

Most people in western societies only rely on God in times of need; they leave faith out of their everyday lives, and beg for forgiveness or help when events turn against them. Perhaps, a natural instinct, and I too have been previously guilty of such offense. I have however, repented and pledged to talk to God more frequently. I have, recently as a matter of fact, questioned faith, particuarly when figures like Boris Johnson, with his party that does not give, but takes, until there is nothing less to take, have been put in charge of our nation for another five years instead of the Right Honourable Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party, who want to help the most vulnerable like Christ did.

Jesus was not a capitalist. I would say he was closer to a socialist than anything else, although trying to align him to any political ideology is perhaps not particuarly useful. Jesus loved to help the poor, the needy, the vulnerable. He hated Kings and Tyrants. He was the only King - the only King I'll ever support, because he did not adorn himself in gold, and with a crown, with hundreds of servants, palaces and money, but rather made it his mission to help people as the son of God. An honourable man, and an honourable mission. That's worth celebrating!

I believe Church and State should be seperated. But I do believe the values of Christ should be embodied in our nation. The Conservative Party does not come close to resembling the values of Christ. They ought to take a look at themselves, and Christians who vote for the Conservatives should also ask themselves; What would Jesus do? Would he support a potentially corrupt, morally absent individual who lies to the public? Or would he support a man who for the past thirty five years has made it his mission to help the neediest, and bring peace to our long suffering world? It's a no brainer.

I have everything I could need; the only gifts I need are those that cannot be bought. They cannot be strung up on a shelf with a price tag. They cannot be placed in a designer bag and taken home. They can be attained through self improvement and with the help of God.

I've realised that God has made it my mission to try and bring about change in our society. There are few on the left, or indeed anywhere on the political spectrum nowadays, who will share this view and will happily express it. I'm sick of the western Christmas ideal.

So, whilst you enjoy a warm Christmas with gifts, family and friends, remember this: if it was not for Christ, there would be no Christmas. There would be no Christianity. And without Christainity, many of the values we cherish would not exist. And neither would we.

Have a very merry Christmas, and I hope the New Year will bring you peace and prosperity.

Ok....what?

i agree with a lot of this except the part where u say one cannot deny the existence of jesus and how you say christianity is being perverted because not as many people are christian. Idk how u cant wrap your head around the fact that other beliefs exist and that atheism probs has a lot more 'evidence' behind it than the actions of jesus

Jesus did exist, whether or not he was the son of God is something for you to decide.

One can have a secular Christmas, but it must reflect the nature of the original occasion rather than this rampant capitalist christmas.

The other abrahamic beliefs (Judaism, Islam etc)....with all due respect, they're basically all the same. They all stem from Judaism, all have a set of rules to follow, all believe in a single God, and Islam recognises Jesus was also a prophet as was Muhammad. Theres far more in common with all these religions than the media would have you believe.

How would a christmas day be for a christian family in a world where it isn't consumerist? Would it just be going to church and nothing else? btw a hindu here so i disagree anyways

No, I think a big part of it is family. I have Christmas with my family; we share some gifts, I pray. We eat together. I'm not against the idea of exchanging gifts. However I do believe that families that can afford ti should have to contribute to less fortunatea people, eg, help out at food banks or homeless shelters or an elderly person.