Today's Daily Lesson, a commentary on Santa, parenting, and the ethics of truth telling:
Did you see the pastor who confronted all the parents and their children at the Amarillo mall waiting in line to see Santa with the "truth" that the man in the red suit isn't real? He wanted all the little children to know that their parents were blaspheming against the true meaning of Christmas which is Jesus. He filmed and shared it all for America's edification.
Talk about putting a turd in the Christmas punch bowl.
Easter Bunny beware.
Here's my take:
From the very beginning, Irie and I were honest with our children about Santa. We told the kids we wanted them to know the truth about the meaning of Christmas and not confuse it with the make believe Santa and his elves. We did so basically for the same reasons Pastor Grinch told those parents in Amarillo they ought to come clean with their children.
Well, sort of.
We also told our kids not to spoil all the fun for the other children. We told them Santa is a fun, make believe game parents play with their children. "If they believe let them believe," we told them, "they'll figure it out eventually."
To my knowledge all have. And I don't know that Christmas has ever been permanently damaged by the revelation.
But Christmas etiquette aside, the whole thing raises an interesting question about the ethic of telling on others and/or forcing them to come out with "the truth". And I take it that the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is not always synonymous with facts.
I take it because Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave it to me. In a very thoughtful, and agonizingly-written piece he wrote from a Nazi prison cell, Bonhoeffer wrestled with truth telling. It was no doubt coming out of his own experience as a Christian and pastor who was made to lie in order to deceive and attempt to undermine the Nazi regime. In the reflection, he said there are times when a lie is closer to truth than a fact. There are things, he said which are indeed factually true but also spiritually false.
Bonhoeffer used one example that I think has bearing on the Santa brouhaha. He imagined a teacher demanding that a student stand up in class and admit that his father is a drunkard. The father is a drunkard; so the teacher is demanding something factually true. But to reveal this truth the student also has to shame his father and himself before his classmates. This, Bonhoeffer, said, is not truth at all. It is a fact; but it is not the truth because the truth never shames, never outs, and never wields more light than can be beared.
What we saw in Amarillo was an attempt to shame those parents before their children's eyes. It was cringeworthy for all of us; but even worse ultimately a false witness to the truth we have been given in Christ, which comes always in relationship and never solely in dogma. This is the Christ who comes not with truth only but "full of grace and truth".
Pastor Grinch missed the grace part.
But on the more positive side, if there were any true witness to the real reason for the season I would say it was those parents, standing in line, holding their children's hands and their response to the wanna-be prophet. What those parents did and did not do spoke much deeper and louder of the truth of Jesus than anything that was said by the preacher. What they demonstrated in their calm, their composure, and their character -- all caught on film also -- was Charity, which the Apostle Paul tells us is "patient" and "kind" and "never rude".
I don't care whether you tell your kids the truth about Christmas or not, if you love the truth and live it with grace even when the obnoxious comes along, then the odds are they'll end up getting the true meaning of Christmas.
Good job parents. Some may say there's no such thing as Santa -- and there may not be -- but you have shown us there is indeed something to believe.
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