Is There a "War" on Christmas?

And so, I think that ought to tell us we need to spend some more time engaging our neighbors with exactly why the incarnation is good news, why the incarnation is scary news, why Herod receives this as bad news, and if you think about it, the Christmas message really is one that if it is really understood, it just doesn't fit with all the trivial trappings of the holidays anyway. It's much, much stranger than that, and I think that's a good thing. We ought to embrace the strangeness at Christmas and all year round because frankly, a gospel at Christmas or any other time that is safe enough to sell beer and barbecue grills isn't the kind of gospel that is going to be able to make blessings flow far as the curse is found, as Isaac Watts put it.