Laurie Goodstein writes in the New York Times that many Christian evangelicals are criticizing the megachurches that will be closed on Christmas.

Megachurches have long been criticized for offering “theology lite,” but some critics say that this time the churches have gone too far in the quest to make Christianity accessible to spiritual seekers.

“I see this in many ways as a capitulation to narcissism, the self-centered, me-first, I’m going to put me and my immediate family first agenda of the larger culture,” said Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. “If Christianity is an evangelistic religion, then what kind of message is this sending to the larger culture – that worship is an optional extra?”

Frankly, I wouldn’t care if the megachurches cancelled a Sunday morning service, but combining that with the endless carping about the “war on Christmas” triggered the hypocrisy alarm, big time. Goodstein continues,

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.

Since then, the perennial culture wars over the secularization of Christmas have intensified, and this year the scuffles are especially lively. Conservative Christian groups are boycotting stores that fail to mention “Christmas” in their holiday greetings or advertising campaigns. Schools are being pressured to refer to the December vacation as “Christmas break.” Even the White House came under attack this week for sending out cards with best wishes for the “holiday season.”

When the office of Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia sent out a press release last Friday announcing plans for a “holiday tree” lighting, a half-hour later it sent out another saying, “It is in fact a Christmas tree.”

What’s confusing to me is that the Christmas Warriors seem determined to make Christmas more secular, not less. For years Christians complained that Christmas was “too commercial” and that the emphasis on gifts and Santa Claus were a distraction from piety. But the Warriors have turned that around and are fighting to install the baby Jesus in our nation’s department stores. Church worship, however, is not so important.

Somebody needs to think this through, IMO.

However, closing churches on Christmas is nothin’ new. Adam Cohen wrote in the December 4 New York Times:

In 1827, an Episcopal bishop lamented that the Devil had stolen Christmas “and converted it into a day of worldly festivity, shooting and swearing.” Throughout the 1800′s, many religious leaders were still trying to hold the line. As late as 1855, New York newspapers reported that Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist churches were closed on Dec. 25 because “they do not accept the day as a Holy One.”

I wonder what those Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist pastors would say about canceling Sunday morning church service because of Christmas? The words hellfire and brimstone do come to mind.

On the eve of the Civil War, Christmas was recognized in just 18 states.

In the late 19th century, however, the whole presents-and-Santa Claus thing gained popularity.

By the 1920′s, the retail industry had adopted Christmas as its own, sponsoring annual ceremonies to kick off the “Christmas shopping season.”

Religious leaders objected strongly. The Christmas that emerged had an inherent tension: merchants tried to make it about buying, while clergymen tried to keep commerce out. A 1931 Times roundup of Christmas sermons reported a common theme: “the suggestion that Christmas could not survive if Christ were thrust into the background by materialism.” A 1953 Methodist sermon broadcast on NBC – typical of countless such sermons – lamented that Christmas had become a “profit-seeking period.” This ethic found popular expression in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” In the 1965 TV special, Charlie Brown ignores Lucy’s advice to “get the biggest aluminum tree you can find” and her assertion that Christmas is “a big commercial racket,” and finds a more spiritual way to observe the day.

And now we’ve come full circle, with people claiming to represent Christianity fighting to put Jesus in Target but making excuses for closing churches on a Sunday because of Christmas.

Some commenters to an earlier Christmas War post concluded that I am anti-Christian. I am nothing of the kind. I am, in fact, defending the religion of Christianity from those who would cheapen and degrade it.

This post has gone on long enough; I’ll have more to say later.