Taking Christ out of Christmas

Somewhere between the Try our new whopper and Free HBO marquees, Marcus Marconi’s beef with the way people phrase the most wonderful time of the year stands sentinel over an annual celebration that increasingly celebrates inclusion.

“IT’S CHRISTMAS NOT XMAS.”

The black lettering below the Marconi’s Auto Sales sign at First Street and Rood Avenue in Grand Junction sums up what the 35-year-old Grand Junction man wants so much for the world to embrace.

“It’s something I’ve been meaning to do,” Marconi said. “Christ is the reason why we celebrate. It’s not about going out and buying your kid a Nintendo.”

Plenty of customers and passersby have applauded his marquee. One young man asked him what it meant.

That’s reason enough to keep it up, he said.

A few people objected to his four-word diatribe.

But that’s their problem, he said. He feels strongly enough about the way he sees the holiday going to pipe up and put his frustration in writing.

“It’s not ‘X-mas,’ ” Marconi said. “It’s not ‘Season’s Greetings.’ It’s not ‘Happy Holidays.’

“It’s ‘Merry Christmas.”

The move to stifle any and all Christian elements of the holiday disturbs him.

“They’re almost afraid to say that Christ actually exists, that they might offend somebody,” Marconi said.

The push to celebrate the holiday without promoting religion seems to have taken on more fervor this year, while inviting heightened outcry from those who fear losing Christmas.

“We live in a society where we say that we’re tolerant — until we feel offended,” said the Rev. Rob Storey of River of Life Alliance Church in Grand Junction. “We live in a culture where we believe we have the right not to be offended.”

The trend toward trimming Christmas from the Christmas tree and yuletide expressions void of Christmas illustrates a secular country’s move away from all things sacred, he said.

“This has been coming a long time,” Storey said.

“There’s no pretense anymore that we are a Christian nation.”

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper ruffled feathers when he suggested the city display “Happy Holidays” in place of its traditional “Merry Christmas” sign next year.

Religious-themed floats didn’t float with parade organizers at Denver’s Parade of Lights this year.

Grand Junction’s annual Parade of Lights featured several floats that depicted the nativity and Jesus as “the reason for the season,” and carolers sang of his birth.

No protests were reported. Cheers, not boos, accompanied all the entries, whether it was Santa or Gabriel waving to the Dec. 4 crowd.

The city of Grand Junction showered all its parking meters in red plastic for the shopping season. Shoppers don’t pay for parking wherever “Season’s Greetings” greets them.

The city’s use of holiday decorations and expressions has never been an issue, city spokeswoman Sam Rainguet said. At Grand Junction High School’s holiday concert earlier this month, choir students sang a slightly altered version of a modern arrangement that describes the nativity.

Students replaced the songwriter’s mention of Christ as “our Redeemer” with “a little child” in “Candlelight Carol.”

“We decided it was more appropriate,” said 17-year-old Elysia Pruett, a senior who’s considering being a music teacher. “We could say it’s happened, but not press that on other people. We say when Jesus was born, but we didn’t say you had to believe in him.”

The change caused a few murmurs among students, she said.

Palisade High School choir teacher Patty Anderson said she held nothing back when treating her audience to sacred music this December.

Much of the repertoire at the Bulldogs’ holiday concert last Tuesday spoke of Christ’s birth, she said, including the song, “Mary, Did You Know?” The song asks Mary, the mother of Jesus, rhetorical questions about what “this sleeping child you’re holding” would do and become to all men.

“You can’t get any more religious than that,” Anderson said.

Steve Schultz, assistant superintendent for District 51 schools, said each school aims to be sensitive with students’ diverse faith backgrounds.

“We don’t get a lot of complaints at the district level,” he said.

Separation of church and state demands District 51 schools not put one religion or belief above another, he added.

Audiences of District 51 music programs will hear a variety of music, sacred songs included.

“We have to be smart about it as a public school (system),” Schultz said. “We have to maintain a balance.”

The Rev. Scott Hogue of First Baptist Church in Grand Junction said it’s important that Christians who bemoan the absence of “Merry Christmas” among holiday tidings remember their faith does not hinge on an expression.

“When we say ‘happy holidays,’ what we’re doing is we’re changing the meaning of a celebration,” Hogue said. “We’re saying it’s no longer about Jesus Christ. It’s a secular holiday that’s mostly wrapped up in marketing.”

Christians can’t protect Christmas from a secular world, but the secular world “has to let us have our day,” he said.

The fact there’s no longer room for Christ at Christmas- time is disheartening, Storey said.

But such an acknowledgment brings him hope as well, that Christians who recognize they no longer live in a Christian nation will sense a new urgency to share the Christmas story.

“I’m going to call it Christmas in my home,” Storey said. “My prayer is that more people will.”

DANIE HARRELSON The Daily Sentinel