The Christmas Economy
A commentary by Howard Davis
United Church of God elder, Portland, Oregon
Myths at the foundation
of the Christmas tradition and the world's economy are not
normally connected in people's minds. But one great myth binds them together
in a morass of religious and economic customs.
In Christmas, ancient pagan traditions are combined with a host
of business, political, and media pressures to browbeat Western
nations with the fiction that Santa, Jesus and the winter solstice
are all part of a divine plan to distribute happiness, peace and joy
to everyone.
Bah humbug! You and I know better in our heart of hearts.
For starters, every year TV documentaries, newspapers and scholars
of every persuasion circulate the fact that nothing in the Bible, or
in what Jesus said or did, authorizes the myths that promote Christmas
and its customs.
Jesus was not even born in December. This also is now widely known.
When He was born, sheep and shepherds were comfortably spending
nights out in the fields of the hilly country around Bethlehem, not far
from Jerusalem (Luke 2:7-8). Had it been December when they were in the
fields, chances are those sheep would have been blocks of ice, feet in
the air in the brutally cold winter of the Judean highlands.
We also know it was not too cold for His mother to bed the newborn
Jesus in a manger because no room was available for them at the inn.
The entire population of the region was engulfed in the first census
taken during the reign of Caesar Augustus (verses 2-5).
Based on the gospel accounts, Jesus was probably born shortly before
the fall rainy season commenced in late September or early October—about
the time of the biblical Feast of Tabernacles, when it was still
warm enough for regional travel.
But such facts deter few people from clinging to their cherished myths.
They harbor the illusion, the fiction, that Christmas is the birthday
of Jesus. Sad to say, even those sincerely thinking that keeping it shows
respect for the Son of God simply shut their eyes to the true facts.
No reliable biblical or historical evidence supports such assumption.
The mythology of Christmas is merely a popular but delusive tradition.
The real reason people enjoy keeping Christmas is unrelated to truth.
It's about having fun. Fun trumps truth 99% of the time. Enjoyable
myths about Santa are much more appealing than facing disturbing truths
about the mythological roots of Christmas.
Also, there is a globally significant economic dimension to Christmas.
America's appetite for fun during the Christmas season has turned
into the alarming tradition to overspend. Families borrow heavily
to set their offerings to materialism under the Christmas tree, pretending
all the while they are gifts from Santa. This season of make believe
is always followed by many painful months of debt repayment.
The year round, debt ridden Christmas economy has become a fiscal monster.
In the last 5 years, America's trade deficit alone increased from
$200 to $700 billion dollars a year. The United States now must
borrow trillions from other nations to pay for imported goods it cannot
afford.
There was a time when the U.S. put limits on borrowing. But with the
expansion of credit card debt that commenced in the 1980s, the use of
debt to finance lifestyles that most Americans could not otherwise afford
started to become a way of life, especially at Christmas time.
Credit purchasing now extends beyond Christmas. America's business
leaders promote the economic delusion that we can borrow ourselves rich,
that there really is a Santa who gives us what we want when we want it—if
we just have plastic.
The American current rate of family savings is 0%. A typical family
now incurs nearly $20,000 in credit card debt. Most college students
also graduate deeply in debt.
In Empire of Debt, a New York Times best
seller published two weeks ago, the case is made that America will
enter an economic depression as its debt-built economic house of cards
begins collapsing.
The lesson is clear, the more we sell ourselves on believing that Santa
bestows luxurious gifts, the more the stark truth must hit home later.
Santa gives nothing. But debt charged for the illusions we create for
ourselves have to be repaid.
What the whole world should be learning about America's year long Christmas
mentality is that debtors have to pay when debts come due. America's
Christmas-like economic illusions threaten to undermine the economic
health of the entire world.
  Learn
more about how to keep the myths and illusions of Christmas from undermining
your life and finances. Request, read online or download now our informative
free booklets, Making
Life Work and Holidays
or Holy Days: Does It Matter Which Days We Keep?
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