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With wishes for a Merry Christmas Clay Nelson acknowledged that he was a pacifist in the Christmas wars. In a sermon where he questioned whether or not Jesus would think he was the reason for the season, he explored the history of Christmas as a history of class conflict.\n\n"There are plenty of preachers, however, who do take up the standard. You will know them by their insistence that Jesus is the reason for the season while chastising those in their congregations who come only once a year to hear about him. They will rant about consumerism and the commercialisation of Christmas, as if boosting the economy wasn\u2019t the modern reason for the season. They even go so far as \u201cdissing\u201d Santa. These soldiers for Christ view the culture as a threat to the true spirit of Christmas. But I do wonder if the true spirit of Christmas really requires bashing others for not celebrating it the way we do?"\n\nFull text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=907.