Amy Welborn has a series of posts sparked by the news that a particular mega-church in Kentucky decided to close for Christmas to give its staff the day off. Here’s her first post about the KY church. Here’s a second one, in response to a post by a Canadian Presbyterian who blogged his disappointment that his own church would have no Christmas Day service. Here’s a third, highlighting commentary by an "excellent Scripture scholar."
When I first read these posts and the news articles that accompanied them, I was immediately sympathetic to the Protestants who criticized the churches for not having Christmas services.
Then I realized that the criticism was not so much because they weren’t having Christmas services, but because Christmas happens to be on a Sunday this year. The criticism was mainly: "Hey, they canceled Sunday services because of a holiday!" And certainly that is a problem.
I thought that was weird. Don’t Protestants usually go to church on Christmas Day, whatever day of the week it falls on? Or is that just a Catholic thing? (Late Christmas Eve services count as Christmas Day services, btw, under the same logic that lets us go to Mass on Saturday evening to keep our Sunday obligation.)
Let me tell you, even after thirteen years, I still have a lot to learn about being a Christian in the United States.
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