This is a copy of my fifth post on the Communitas Collective blog.
It seems to me that ‘Christian Power Play’ should be an oxymoron.However, the words and actions of some Christians imply otherwise. After reading the local newspaper this week I wrote the following response to a column by a Christian.
In her December 2 column Virginia Seuffert argues that public schools should display Christmas trees at this time of year. Her reasoning is “the United States was founded by Christians on Christian principles” and “almost 80 percent of the United States’ population is still Christian or Jewish”.
Virginia’s power play is common human behavior but the opposite of how Jesus entered the world and lived in it (according to the Bible). In the Christmas story Jesus could have come as a powerful King with a crown yet he was born as a baby. Later he gave up his life for humanity rather than using God’s power to take the throne. From birth to death Jesus opposed human exploitation of power.
Virginia wrote “symbols threaten no one but their loss threatens us all”. It seems to me that a corrupted symbol is worse than no symbol at all. When Christians like Virginia link Christianity with power plays they go against everything Jesus stood for and the beauty of Christianity is destroyed.
In the Bible the author of Philippians exhorts Christians to emulate Jesus’ humility, love and compassion. He says if Christians live this way and do everything without complaining or arguing they will “shine like stars”. Virginia wants sparkly Christmas trees to adorn our public school classrooms. Wouldn’t it be better to have sparkly Christians adorning our community? Then perhaps Christianity would become the Good News the angels announced to the shepherds that very first Christmas.