Merry CHRISTmas, Dr. Dawkins!

How do the new post-Christian atheists celebrate Christmas? Recently Roger Kennedy of The New York Times mused about the observance of Christmas by the new crop of atheists who have books selling off the shelves of Borders and Barnes and Noble, authors such as Sam Harris (The End of Faith) and Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion).

As “post-Christian” atheists, they are content to wish one another a purely secularized “Merry Christmas,” shorn of the Christological content and evangelical implications. In a recent blog by Al Mohler, he characterizes Dawkins as follows: “The self-identified ‘post-Christian atheist’ argues that Christmas long ago ceased to be a ‘religious festival.’ He dislikes silly Christmas songs on the basis of aesthetic judgment (a judgment shared, by the way, by many Christians) and is happy to ‘wish everyone a Merry Christmas.’"

Just as God used Balaam’s ass to speak forth his truth, so the creator who came into his creation two thousand years ago seems quite able to speak forth his message through the vehicle of an evolutionary Oxford professor, despite himself. Whether he likes it or not, “Merry Christmas” cannot be so easily separated from the underlying core of truth: It is Christ who transforms our brutal alienation into a truly merry reconciliation.

As the Christmas card I am giving this year (designed by the good folks at Answers in Genesis) puts it: "As promised from the beginning, the Creator stepped into His creation to give the greatest gift of all. Have a blessed Christmas!"