Have you ever seen a sign that said “Keep Christ in Christmas!”?

I remember signs like that, in the Christmas season, since I was a boy. That is an important message for someone. The idea is important for many people, around the world. I am writing this as a Christian. People like me agree with the sentiment, but some people take it further, and post the message in public places.

I remember, when I was young, there was a movement to celebrate “Xmas” instead of “Christmas” and I remember my mother being very annoyed by that name. She didn’t like it when businesses canceled “Christ” and sold us boxes of Xmas cards. Where I live, Xmas seems to have disappeared as a holiday. We are back to the original Christmas, now.

During this Christmas season, there is a controversy about “Christ in Christmas” in a city in Canada. Apparently, the Knights of Columbus put up a nativity scene, in a public place, and they have done this for many years.

The Knights of Columbus is a Roman Catholic fraternal organization, so it’s not surprising that the organization puts up a Christmas nativity/manger scene in their community every year. That’s the kind of public statement we would expect from that group.

Things got controversial with the manger scene, when someone posted one of those signs, telling us to “Put Christ in Christmas.” Apparently, the sign came later, and it was not part of the original display. The Knights of Columbus are not being blamed for the added sign.

If you want to learn more, from a local news source, there is a video:

There are some lessons here.

It is important to know that if you believe something, other people will disagree. Convictions always come with a cost. Christians believe what they believe, and they probably feel good about their direction in life. The Knights of Columbus must feel good about their annual public display. Whoever added the “Christ” sign believes something sincerely, and they believe we all need to learn the message.

So, what do we do when someone complains to the authorities, and they remove the sign?

In history, Christmas is not completely accurate. Baby Jesus was probably born in the springtime, around April, according to the experts. The December date replaced the old Roman festival of Saturnalia, which was not Christian, at all. You may know that the Eastern Orthodox tradition celebrates the birth of Jesus on January 7.

However we got there, today, for many millions of people, the birth of Jesus is celebrated on December 25. And now we have signs telling us to keep “Christ” in CHRIST-mas, a major Christian festival.

It is easy to agree with that.

We also have a group of Atheists and Humanists, according to the reports, who are offended. The city also has a government that agrees with the critics, and they agree enough to send out enforcers to take down the sign. Christians will react, and they could be angry with this slap from their critics, or they could just roll their eyes and groan, or they could laugh out loud.

Should we be offended if Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah? What if working people take a day off from work on Labor Day? The list could go on. Every major religion and ideology has celebrations, including Atheist Communists, on ‘May Day’, May 1.

So, someone is offended that some CHRIST–ian put up one small sign, asking to keep CHRIST in CHRIST–mas. This is clearly ridiculous.

There is another lesson here. Our enemies are our friends and we must have critics if we want to succeed. Imagine a sports team running around on a field with no other team to play against. That would not be popular on television.

I do not live in the city where the sign incident happened, but I can imagine myself driving past the nativity scene with a small sign beside it. I might notice the sign, but I would probably focus mostly on staying alive in traffic. Probably only a few people actually saw the sign, and thought about it, and on December 26 it would become irrelevant.

Everything changed when the critics called the city administration, to complain. Now, many more people know about that sign and its story, including you and me. If you watched the news video, you were probably not driving in busy traffic, and you had time to think. Also, the news outlet that created the video interviewed a Christian pastor. Notice that he preached a short sermon, and his video audience was probably much larger than the group of people in his church, for his Sunday sermon.

This controversy created an opportunity for Christians, and some took advantage.

That lesson is given to us in the Bible:

In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil. (1 Peter 3: 15 to 17)

Answering the critics is an old story: