For years, I have traveled to South Korea for two weeks to teach for the Handong International Law School, a Christian law school in Pohang. South Korea is probably the most Christian nation in Asia and regularly sends missionaries abroad. I have often told them they should send missionaries to the United States!
In sharp contrast, North Korea is probably the most totalitarian and repressive of all Communist states. Ruthless in its suppression of Christianity, the Christian church functions underground. But the regime went from repressive to ridiculous when it protested the lighting of a large Christmas tree display in the Aegibong Peak Observatory in Gimpo, South Korea, about a kilometer south of the Demilitarized Zone, and by some accounts visible across the border. North Korea denounced the Christmas tree display as an “unpardonable provocation,” “psychological warfare,” “an unbearable insult and mockery,” and even “a direct declaration of a war” against Pyongyang, North Korea.
Communism’s hostility toward Christianity is not shocking because Marxism is atheistic to its core. As Christmas is the most visible celebration of Christianity, Communist efforts to suppress it are also not surprising. But most Communist regimes have been more subtle:
Communist China requires that all religious groups, especially Christian churches, be subordinate to the Communist state. Christmas is watered down to a commercialized shopping event and sharing of gifts on what is called “Peaceful Night.” Those who celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ risk arrest and their churches are frequently demolished. In recent years the Communist Party’s persecution of Christians has increased.
Communist Cuba banned Christmas from 1969 to 1997. The ban was lifted at the request of Pope John Paul II, but public religious expressions remain subdued.
The Soviet Union banned Christmas celebrations but tried to secularize Christmas traditions. St. Nicholas became Grandfather Frost, delivering gifts on New Year’s Eve rather than Christmas Eve. Christmas trees were banned, but New Year’s trees were encouraged. The Soviets thought that by stripping Christmas of its Christian content, but allowing the traditions to continue in secular form, people would be less likely to resist because their lives would not be changed that much. People can go through the motions of a winter holiday, hardly realizing that the holiday has been stripped of its Christian doctrine. Thankfully, many Christians in the Soviet Union bravely risked arrest by singing carols in the streets in defiance of the ban.
A favorite Ukrainian Christmas carol is “Nova Radist Stala” (Joyous News Has Come to Us). It originally began:
"The joyous news has come which never was before. Over a cave above a manger a bright star has lit the world, where Jesus was born from a virgin maiden….”
But when the Soviet Union occupied Ukraine, Communists revised the carol:
“The joyous news has come which never was before, a red star with five tails [a common Communist symbol] has brightly lit the world.”
A later revision ran as follows:
“The joyous news has come which never was before. Long-awaited star of freedom lit the skies in October [the month of the Communist Revolution]. Where formerly lived the kings and had the roots their nobles, there today with simple folks, Lenin’s glory hovers.”
As I observed while lecturing in Ukraine in 2015, the Ukrainian people always opposed Communism, now more than ever, and today they sing the original “Nova Radist Stala” with renewed vigor and intensity.
Sometimes, to find out what to be for, see what the devil is against. If Communist regimes expend so much effort to suppress the Christmas observance, does that mean Christmas is worth celebrating and preserving?
The West’s war on Christmas is waged for different reasons. Often, the motive is not to suppress Christianity but to avoid offending people, or sometimes because of a mistaken understanding of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Despite the misunderstanding of some local officials and school superintendents, courts have said we can have public Christmas displays so long as they balance the secular and religious aspects of the Christmas holidays, and public schools can have Christmas programs that include traditional Christmas carols so long as they are balanced by secular songs as part of a general holiday observance.
But the culture has changed. In the 1800s and early 1900s, almost everyone knew and sang, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” “It Came upon a Midnight Clear,” “Silent Night,” and “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” Gradually, more secularized Christmas songs (songs, not carols) made their appearance. At first, they were wholesome and heartwarming: “White Christmas,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Home for the Holidays,” and “Jack Frost Roasting on an Open Fire, Chestnuts Nipping at Your Nose” (or is it the other way around?). That may not be entirely bad; God created the sacred and the secular realms, and Christ is lord of both. But as Southerners know, secular Christmas music is like kudzu; it tends to take over.
Much secular “Christmas” music is no longer wholesome: “Jingle Bells” and “Sleigh Ride” have degenerated into “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” “Santa Baby” (gaagh!), and (I am not making this up) “H___ of a Holiday.” Which is worse – transforming “Nova Radist Stala” into a Leninist anthem, or setting Christmas carols aside in favor of “Winter Wonderland”?
I don’t mean to be offensive, but Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, and Christianity is not merely a personal preference. People are free to disagree, but that Jesus was born of a virgin, and that He died on the cross for our sins and rose for our justification, is objective truth. “Let God be true, and every man a liar.” (Romans 3:4) If Christian faith were just a personal opinion, it wouldn’t save anyone and wouldn’t be worth a dime. We are saved by faith, only because that faith is grounded in the objective reality that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.” (II Corinthians 5:19)
This Christmas season, I will look for opportunities to share with others the good news of Jesus Christ. I will sing Christmas carols loudly and lustily. I will display the Christmas Star and the Cross on my front lawn. When store clerks wish me “Merry Christmas,” I will respond firmly, “Thank you for saying that.” And when they wish me “Happy Holidays,” I will respond, “Merry Christmas to you as well!”
I hope you will do the same. And if you get in trouble for doing so, contact us at the Foundation for Moral Law. We’re here to defend your liberty!
Colonel Eidsmoe serves as Professor of Constitutional Law for the Oak Brook College of Law (obcl.edu), as Senior Counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law (morallaw.org), and as pastor of Woodland Presbyterian Church of Notasulga (woodlandpca.org). You may contact him for speaking engagements at eidsmoeja@juno.com.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
Don’t miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
