"It really doesn't matter what retailers do"

I don't have to tell my, um, readers that I'm not personally a "believer in Christ," but here are some great words from my favorite evangelical blogger, David Kuo, on folks getting angry over retailers, for example, not calling a Christmas Tree a Christmas Tree:

I used to be in the ticked off camp. Christmas is, after all, the big deal of the holiday season. More people - by far - celebrate it than celebrate any of the other holidays. It isn't even close.

But I don't think that anymore. It really doesn't matter what retailers do. It really doesn't matter what governments do. At Christmas it matters what churches do. At Christmas it matters what families do.

We waste too much time and too much energy focusing on things that aren't important to faith.

What does it matter if stores and governments acknowledge Christmas as the celebration of Christ's birth? They simply don't. They are, if anything else, a grand distraction to our faith. They are things that can make Christians feel good about their faith without requiring anything of them.

That is the opposite of the faith that Jesus instructed his followers to live. Jesus said his followers should expect hardship and trials and oppression. He didn't tell them to expect Sears to have a Christmas tree. He told them to sacrifice and serve and give and love. He didn't tell them to expect governments to celebrate is birth.

Perhaps de-Christianizing Christmas is the best thing for the Christian faith IF it forces Christians to focus more on their own spirituality and less on the nation's spirituality.

It's the hypocrisy that burns the worst - all around.