One the quotes by Randall Falk, a Jewish Rabbi, was this
I have to tell you that, as a Jew, I've always been thankful that we didn't have to deal with Santa Claus, primarily because the day has to come when you tell the child there really isn't a Santa Claus that we've built up as this benevolent giver. And then the child, I think, begins to wonder, "Well, if there isn't any Santa Claus, maybe there isn't a God." This whole business of rectifying the mythology that we've created can be a very hard problem.This has been a quote that has stuck with me for nine years, obviously. And it's something that I've really wondered about. I don't remember when I stopped believing in Santa Claus. I think it was about the time that I figured that unless he could stop time, there was no way Santa could be in every boy and girl's house at exactly midnight. So, I could buy the fat man coming down the chimney after flying from the North Pole with eight reindeer, but not his ability to stop time. Even with that, it's something that obviously didn't affect my belief in God, but I do wonder if the close association of the birth of Jesus and Santa Claus could lead some people to doubt God.
It strikes me that Santa is the first tangible experience of faith that most kids have. They are told that if they are good, then they will receive a reward of that (kind of a conditional love that the article discusses as well). And lo and behold on Christmas morning, they do receive those gifts and so their faith in Santa is encouraged and cultivated until they hear at school about parents putting the toys together or the child that didn't get much of anything, if anything for Christmas.
Now, I love that Kinsey believes in Santa. I love that she truly believes that he is coming down our gas fireplace on Christmas Eve and putting together her toys. However, I really want her to know that Christmas is more than that, and more particularly that Santa Claus is NOT God. God doesn't answer prayers the way Santa fulfills the Christmas list. God is not a jolly fat man that's just waiting to give us every present we want, the Sky Fairy as Donald Miller has called this ideology. And God does not love us conditionally, only being good to us when we are good. And Christmas has to be about more than receiving, more than a Materialism Day. Otherwise, it would be a heck of a lot more profitable to believe in Santa and not God.
I wrote last year about the birth of Christ, about how he was born into scandal and blood and poverty. As we are about to celebrate his birth again and to lavish love on the people around us, I hope we can remember our place in this, as the enactors of his mercies on those around us.
The gift of the love of Christ has been given. I hope we can also give it to others.
13 comments:
I think it's a stretch to say that telling a child Santa isn't real could make them doubt God. I don't remember ever really associating the two as a child. Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy are all little games that make holidays fun, but I think those games end far before someone becomes old enough to really start grasping the idea of faith in God. At least faith that is their own, that they have beyond believing because Mom and Dad do. This whole question is worthy of consideration, as is anything affecting the spiritual growth of a child, but like I said, it seems to be a pretty big stretch.
I also think it's a stretch to go from not believing in Santa Claus to not believing in God.
The points you are making with Kinsey are good. I think I'll go home tonight and go over those points with my kids too.
Merry Christmas,
Rob Cox
I disagree with anon and Rob. I think there is a striking parallel between Santa and how we come to faith in Jesus. Basically, any religion is chosen for you at birth. If I or Phil or anyone else had been born into a Jewish family (just to pick one of the major religions), we most certainly would be Jewish.
I understand that there becomes a point in aduthood where faith has to become one's own and not his parents, but it's pretty rare that someone jumps from one major religion to another, proving my point that faith is a result of geography and demography. I understand that it does happen (jumps from one religion to another), but honestly not very often.
Phil, on the subject of Jews and Jesus, our friend Amy-Jill Levine has just authored a book about Jesus called "The Misunderstood Jew" (sorry for the quotes, I don't know how to italicize). It is reviewed in the Nashville Scene at the address below.
For those of you who don't know, AJ Levine is a new testament scholar at the Vanderbilt Divinity School who happens to be Jewish.
Daren
http://www.nashvillescene.com/Stories/Arts/Books/2006/12/21/A_Very_Jewish_Jesus/index.shtml
I tried to spark a discussion on this issue with my post Discipleship v. Santa Claus but only got a few comments. I hope you get a better response. The Santa Claus issue may not cause someone to not believe in God, but the real issue is how do people handle the inevitable reconcilliation of their beliefs with the disparities in this world, with injustice, with bad things happening to good people.
I do believe the realization of no Santa Claus may trigger some questioning in our children earlier than we might anticipate. As parents we best be prepared to deal with the tough questions that come along with Christianity and discipleship. And that takes preparation.
Tony
Why are Christians afraid that their children will doubt God or his existence? Is it because there is really not much hard evidence for the existence of God? Will children be unable to face this themselves as they learn about life through there experiences?
Do parents indoctrinate their children at an early age through Sunday school classes to believe in God by telling stories of arks, ferrocious lions, parting seas, people turning into salt, plagues, miraculous healings, etc. before they realize that things like that don't really happen?
I say that it is exactly like our approach to Santa Claus. The difference is that adult Christians don't believe in Santa Claus; they do believe in arks, ferrocious lions, etc. Does this strike anyone as peculiar? There is no hard evidence that supports Christianity just like there isn't any to support a toy factory in the North Pole.
Tony, what "preparation" are you suggesting?
Brent
I think the questioning Tony is talking about is good. It causes our children to realize that they shouldn't believe that something is true just because someone tells them it is, even their own parents.
Brent, for you I should have typed "there" own parents.
Daren
Daren,
Thanks for correcting my grammar (or is it "grahamar"?). I know that it is very important in the blogworld to spell correctly. It makes people wonder if I really have a P.H.D. Of course, we could also discuss the usage of the passive voice and whether it is appropriate or not. Or should we talk about comma placement instead..... I'm sorry if anyone was confused or offended by my error. I sincerely apologize.
Brent
We never brought Santa Claus into the equation. When my daughters first noticed him at the mall and asked, I told them that he was a man dressed in a costume who symbolized the spirit of giving.
The only problem seems to be that we have had to deal with a couple of phone calls over the years from parents asking us "please have S-- stop telling my son that Santa isn't real."
Why not talk about Santa? Because I want to be the kind of parent who tells the truth, especially about things that are "supernatural." That is in no way meant to condemn other ways of doing things; it’s simply our choice as parents.
My kids like Santa, and this year they wanted to sit on his lap and have their picture made. It was a great picture. But we treat it like we do all aspects of the religion called Secularism. It can be fun, but it has no real meaning for our lives. No fundamentalistic condemnation, but no syncretism either (at least in this case!).
Brent,
You might consider blogging under a pseudonymn. That way your spelling errors wouldn't be attibuted to you.
Daren
Um, I hate to inform everyone, but St. Nick IS REAL. How about shifting the argument from whether or not the North Pole cosmic superman is real or not to the real "legend" of St. Nicholas. Parts of the legend are precisely that, but he was a real saint who did good things, worthy of mention.
We've taught our young ones that St. Nick is real, and they feel sorry for the dumbing down many kids have to endure...the real St. Nick is much more endearing and exciting and morally persuasive than the fat guy in red.
kevinh
"You might consider blogging under a pseudonymn. That way your spelling errors wouldn't be attibuted to you."
Daren,
Weren't you pointing out a word usage error on my part and not a spelling error? Are you a teaching assistant for Grammar 101 or something? Wait, that isn't a college course.... Are you a volunteer at a grammar school, one that helps point out such errors to 5th graders?
Enough joking already - we're messing up Phil's blog. Surely he isn't too happy with us.
Seriously though - tell us more about what you mean by the inheritance of our beliefs (my paraphrase). Are you suggesting that the belief in the mythical Santa Claus is similar to the belief in Jesus Christ?
Brent
Brent,
One could argue that either you misspelled the word "their", or misused the word "there". Either way, I can appreciate the temptation to grasp at straws and try to make it personal after losing an argument.
Brent's glaring insecurities aside, he does ask a valid question. Yes, I am suggesting that our initial faith in the existence of God comes about by being told so by our parents, just as does our faith in the existence of Santa Claus. For some that faith never really gets called into question as they move into aduthood. For others, it does get questioned, but rarely does that questioning lead to a jump from one major religion to another.
I would suggest that questioning usually leads to a complete loss of faith, or a confirmation of it. Now, the confirmation may lead to faith in a differnt form (conversion from Catholic to Protestant, for example), but I would suggest rarely does it lead to a completely different religion (Christianity to Islam, for example). I'm not saying it never happens, I'm just saying it's rare.
The conclusion I draw from that (and I concede many may differ), is that faith is indeed largely inherited. I must also point out that I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. I also reserve the right to change my opinion 6 months from now.
Daren
I guess I'm a little late to the conversation, but I have to say that your comments came to mind as I sat Christmas night and watched my traditional holiday move, Christmas Vacation. I think Ruby Sue summed up your thoughts, Phil, when she told Uncle Clark, "Sometimes, I think all that Santa stuff is a bunch of bull. We didn't do nothin' last year, and we still got the shaft!"
I bet those "less than fortunate" kids find out the truth about Santa a whole lot quicker than my kids.
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