Why do the Christians rage?

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Anointed ..." (Psa 2:1-2).

A valid question. Why do the unsaved rage against God? But the psalmist asks it well, so I won't go there. I am asking something of the opposite.

Over the last few years we've seen Christians up in arms because those dirty, rotten heathens are attacking our Christmas. They change "Christmas" to "Xmas" and they change "Christmas tree" to "holiday tree" and, oh, so many bad things. We started with the saintly Nicholas and they made Santa Claus. It's wrong, and we're not going to stand for it. There have been boycotts and battles trying to force merchants to stop the practice of minimizing Christ in Christmas and minimizing the celebration of Christ's birth that is Christmas. And it makes me wonder. Why do the Christians rage?

We are told that the unbelievers of this world are blinded by the god of this world, that they are hostile to God and dead in sin, followers of the prince of the power of the air. We are told that our Gospel is folly to them, foolishness at best and offensive at worst. Do we Christians not know this? So why are we anticipating, expecting, requiring of them to "play nice"? Why are we demanding respect? We are promised suffering and "holiday tree" hardly comes close to suffering. Why are we expecting something better?

You may not know this, but Jesus wasn't actually born on December 25th. There were no wise men at His birth. (They came later.) There were no Christmas trees. There wasn't even room for Him in the inn. You may not know this, but Christians actually stole Christmas from the heathens of their day. They took the celebration of the birth of the sun god to be a celebration of the Son of God. (Please note: I'm playing with words -- "sun" and "son" -- but they didn't.) The traditions we've come to know of Christmas were taken from various places -- sometimes pagan -- and adapted for our use. The tree was stolen from the druids who believed there were spirits in the trees and we argued against them. The mistletoe was a pagan fertility rite that we stole to be a show of love. Oh, and that whole "Xmas" thing that so irritates so many Christians ... that was actually taken from Greek. The "X" in Greek was the word for "Christ". (Perhaps you've seen the fish sticker with IXOYE in it? That "X" is "Christ".) It was never intended as a slight.

Look, Christians, we are not promised benevolence from the world. We are promised hostility. And we don't own December 25th. No matter how much we stamp our feet and complain, people will miss the genuine message of Christmas and the world will not be our friend and the heathen will still be our enemies. So why not just celebrate Christ's birth without trying to force people who don't even believe to "play nice"? Or, as others have said, preach it by walking it rather than saying it.