The biggest threat to Christianity is not from unbelievers, but from professed believers who water down the Gospel, slowly and steadily devaluing the miraculous and divine, to the point that the Christian message is virtually indistinguishable from the society it would seek to save.

Reflections on “Black Friday” – the annual post-Thanksgiving exercise in shopping excess engaged in by millions of Americans determined to start their Christmas season “right.”

Early reports indicate moderate damage, with hoards pushing shoppers to the brink, people pepper-spraying their way into owning the game of their choice, (literally), stampedes into stores, a fist-full of fights, and a mountain of debt. Do you think that it captures the essence of Christmas? It’s all about being able to give more, we are told.

Reducing the meaning of the Christmas celebration to its lowest common denominator, “a time to give gifts because God did,” turns the holiday into “Christmas-lite,” a low calorie substitute which almost tastes like the real thing, but isn’t quite as fulfilling.

Without the real substance to digest, we will not be spiritually nourished. If Christmas is reduced to being an allegory in favor of the ethic of giving, without its historical significance recognized, then its advent may as well be a frenzy of buying.

I am not against gift giving or abundant celebratory expressions of faith. I have four children who still dash to the tree on Christmas morning with joy overflowing. My house glows like a multicolored beacon for passing planes. We carol the streets with friends who wear elf hats and reindeer antlers, so I would like to unequivocally assert that I am not a Grinch.

I do, however, lament the loss of the primacy of the faith as the focal point of the holiday among Christians. Please note the qualifier “among Christians” in my lament, as non-believers get a free pass. We should not expect them to celebrate that which they do not believe. But we, the Christian believers, should.

There has always been a tension between secular expressions of holidays and religious expressions celebrating the divine. Between believers and secular society, our duty as Christians is to be able to give expression to our belief, to be able to explain the reason for the hope that is within us.

There has also often been tension and disagreement between believers. Between believers alone, the tension is more difficult to recognize, to understand, and to address.

Our Protestant forbearers opposed Christmas as a Catholic holiday, a “mass” to celebrate Christ’s birth, with its timing super-imposed upon secular celebrations of the winter solstice.[1] Given the tensions between the Catholic Church institution and the newer expressions of the Christian faith found in the Protestant churches, it is understandable that separation on multiple levels was important. It was important for the distinctions to be made on theological points, and it was important for there to be distinctions in the way in which the various churches were seen by society at large. The new church could not bow to the traditions of the old church simply because they found it acceptable to accommodate the secular culture’s holiday schedule; it compromised the integrity of their historically-based theological interpretation.

Honestly, the Catholics seem to have gotten it right on the timing aspect of the holiday; great marketing, to be sure. But what are we marketing now?

The biggest threat to Christianity is not from unbelievers, but from professed believers who water down the Gospel, slowly and steadily devaluing the miraculous and divine, to the point that the Christian message is virtually indistinguishable from the society it would seek to save.

It should be patently obvious that you cannot save one from error by affirming the error itself. But that is precisely what so many contemporary Christian “main line” denominations are doing. And not only does it render impotent the ability to bring others to belief, it undermines the belief of those already in the church.

So what is our response to be? What should the Christian leader do? Go back to the basics we see in Scripture. As Jesus said, you are to be the light of the world, and you are to let your light shine so that others may see your good works and give glory to God in heaven.[2] And as Paul told us, be ready in season and out of season to give account of the hope that is within us.3 And we hope because the Word of God became flesh in the person of Jesus and that required a nativity, which we celebrate as Christmas.

So, in the midst of the frenzy of the season, I encourage you as believing Christian elders, deacons and general laymen, to find an opportunity to calmly and quietly share your faith with another. Just tell someone of your belief in the historical accuracy of Scripture, of the birth narrative, of Jesus as God incarnate, born of a virgin mother, in Bethlehem, as it is written in the Bible.

Let your faith be a light for others this Christmas.

Forrest A. Norman III is a member of Hudson Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Hudson, Ohio. He is chairman of the Board of Directors and chief executive officer of the Presbyterian Lay Committee. This article first appeared on The Layman website and is used with permission.

[Editor’s note: Original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]