One of the remarks that Doug Wilson made in his lectures last weekend concerned a defense of Christmas trees in the local town square. The superiority of print to sound recordings is that you can find a statement much quicker with your eyes than your ears. So I was too lazy to go back and listen for the remark. But the interweb is a remarkable device and I found the following:
The Anti-Christian Liberties Union (ACLU) knows that getting Christmas trees off public property is well worth fighting for. This is why we as Christians have to learn that saying “merry Christmas” is an act of insurrection. How do we define our lives? More than this, how do we define our lives as a people? Far from retreating into a minimalist celebration, or no celebration at all, we as Christians must take far greater advantage of the opportunity we have in all of this. Now the Lord Jesus is on His throne. And His government will continue to increase. But He works through instruments, and one of His central instruments for establishing His kingdom on earth is the faith of His people. Why is it that Christians shopping at WalMart are being reminded over the loudspeakers that “He comes to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” Why are they telling us this? It’s our religion. Why don’t we believe it? But if you believe it, then say merry Christmas to somebody.
But the stakes of Christmas are even higher:
To be fair, we ought not to be too hard on the secularists for their ongoing war against Christmas. Because Christmas started it.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there were no doubt people in the surrounding neighborhoods who drank too much, or who quarreled with their wives, or who sometimes shaved the edges of their business dealings. And Jesus came for that sort of thing, no doubt. His authority is exhaustive, and so no sin, however petty, is outside the reach of that cleansing authority. He came to make His blessings flow, far as the curse is found. He doesn’t overlook the little things.
But He doesn’t miss the great things either. It is interesting to note where the initial conflict was. Jesus had Herod’s attention right away. The first clash was a political one, right out in the public square. The very first battle was what sort of display was going to be allowed on the county courthouse steps. And that issue was important enough, crucial enough, that Herod was willing to shed blood over it.
So when Doug Wilson comes into his Christendom with Peter Leithart as his Constantine and James Jordan as Leithart’s Eusebius, will they make room for Reformed Protestants who don’t celebrate Christmas or don’t buy Christmas trees? (But we surely do take the holidays granted by civil and private authorities, thank you, very much.) I mean, judging by the behavior of Old School Presbyterians and secular libertarians, one might think they are on the same side of the culture wars — opposed to public religiosity. Of course, Old Schoolers object to the kind of religion that passes for public consumption, and secularists object to the kind of public that includes religion (whether orthodox or adapted). But can Wilson see the difference between those objections? More important, can he admit that his mere Christendom will be as difficult for orthodox Protestants as it will be for Jews, secularists, and Roman Catholics?
Old Life 
Let me be the first to wish everyone a merry Xmas. Doug bless us; Doug bless us everyone!
LikeLike
The infancy narratives in the gospels are about men and women awaiting the triumphant Messiah, who were promised suffering instead. Rejection at the inn is followed by Simeon’s bitter prophecy, “This child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against (yea, a sword shall pierce through you also).” Herod’s menace fulfills for Matthew Jeremiah’s word about Rachel weeping for her children Peasants know well that for a child to be born in a barn means for the mother — poverty, stench, and rejection by men, not sweet-smelling hay and cute woolly lambs at play. ”
“For the sake of the real meaning of incarnation, we must, like the gospels, see the cross behind the cradle. It is because that can no longer be done with American Christmas that the time may well have come for surgery.”
– John Howard Yoder, “On the Meaning of Christmas,” pages 47, 48 in Spiritual Writings: John Howard Yoder, edited by Jenny Howell and Paul Martens, (Orbis, 2011).
Of course Doug Wilson says, well then was then, and now we have an opportunity to avoid the cross and takeover….
LikeLike
If Wilson is right “This is why we as Christians have to learn that saying ‘merry Christmas’ is an act of insurrection,” then perhaps we should not be saying it. Where is the Scriptural warrant for insurrection? Is saying “Merry Christmas” a part of the moral law? Would Peter and John before the Sanhedrin have insisted on something as trivial as saying Merry Christmas?
And congrats., Tinsels Happily, on beating us all to the wishing of holiday greetings.
LikeLike
not from a mennonite this time, but a baptist, Paul Helm:
To add ‘cultural transformation’ to Christ’s command to his first disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel, would (in Calvin’s view) jeopardize Christian liberty, and no doubt we could add that it would be to privilege the educated middle-class Christians over their blue-collar fellow believers. A command, or a kind of culturally-correct pressure on Christians to transform society, could amount to a new law, and if it came to that, it would infringe the spirituality of the church and the liberty of Christians.
http://paulhelmsdeep.blogspot.com/2013/11/calvins-two-liberties.html
LikeLike
Dougles will take a dimmer view of insurrection after the Muscovite junta and their concubines are firmly implanted in DC.
LikeLike
Quite right, David. But leave it to culture warriors to perpetuate political correctness.
ps what happens to Festivus under Christendom?
LikeLike
“As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way…”
LikeLike
Dr. Hart,
I think the real story here is the session of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Vandalia, Ohio letting Doug Wilson preach from their pulpit on the Lord’s Day following this conference.
Blessings
Joe
LikeLike
Going on diatribes against Christmas and Easter is a red flag that lets me know I can bearbait these bozos if they ever show up on a blog.
LikeLike
“But I like the baby Christmas Jesus the BEST”–Ricky Bobby
Ricky Bobby/Douglas Wilson…yup, bout the same minus the ‘hot smokin wife’ part. Just sayin
LikeLike
Has Wilson ever been to the Rockefeller Center in the godforsaken heart of liberal America in December?
LikeLike
Joe – I think the real story here is the session of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Vandalia, Ohio letting Doug Wilson preach from their pulpit on the Lord’s Day following this conference.
Erik – Early on in his first talk Van Drunen said he was told he would be in the minority with respect to 2K at the hosting church. It’s an OPC church. Van Drunen is an OPC minister. Wilson is a CREC minister. So Wilson is more at home in this OPC than Van Drunen?
Both men did a good job and agreed on a lot, but you could hear definite differences in their thoughts on how Christians should engage the wider culture. I would say Van Drunen is a lot more practical and Wilson is a lot more pie-in-the-sky. Interestingly, Wilson did not say one thing about postmillennialism that I can recall, which is odd in light of how critical it is to his mission and how he goes about it.
LikeLike
One thing that Wilson maintains that is odd is his belief that gay marriage is God’s judgment against the church for incorrect worship. As in, liberal protestants (and evangelicals?) don’t worship God rightly so He has decided to rain gay couples upon the land.
Prove that hypothesis to me. This is not new as he has been teaching it for years now. Van Drunen is way too circumspect to come up with anything like this.
LikeLike