LIMA — As people gather in churches to celebration Christmas Eve today and Christmas on Monday, area church leaders acknowledge they have some work to do.
For the faithful, it’s a time for many Christians to mark the birth of Jesus. For others, it’s more of a time to give and receive gifts and be with family in a non-religious way.
“There’s much less emphasis on the religious nature of the Christmas holiday, but it’s true of any other religious holiday for that matter,” said Father David Ross, pastor of St. Rose and St. John Catholic parishes in Lima. “I think the whole notion of religion and the holiday has been subsumed by materialism and the culture.”
That means fewer people in the pews and less support for traditional Christian teachings, according to a Pew research study released this month. A declining number of Americans believe the biblical Christmas story reflects actual historical events.
“Not surprised at all,” said the Rev. Ben Shaw, who assumed his duties at Ottawa Presbyterian Church on Aug. 1 and celebrated his ordination Nov. 19. “Especially, I’m looking at the numbers, and it’s especially lower among younger adults. I’m myself pretty young, so it’s not at all a surprise to me.”
The key is delivering a stronger message when people are listening, Ross said.
“If that says anything to me, it says that I’ve got to do a better job of re-emphasizing the religious nature of the holidays without laying a guilt trip on people at the same time,” Ross said.
The survey says…
The Pew research study released this month shed some light on how people perceive the Christmas holiday.
In 2014, 73 percent believed Jesus was born to a virgin. In 2017, that figure was 66 percent.
In 2014, 81 percent believed baby Jesus was laid in a manger. This year, that number dropped to 75 percent.
When asked about whether they believed wise men, guided by a star brought Jesus gifts, 75 percent believed it in 2014, while 68 percent now believe it.
As to whether people believe an angel announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds, 74 percent believed it in 2014. That number dropped to 67 percent in 2017.
Those who believe all four events were historical events went from 65 percent in 2014 to 57 percent this year.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all. That’s the culture in which we live,” Ross said.
Going to church?
The Pew survey also looked at whether people would attend church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. In 2013 that number was 54 percent. In 2017, it dropped to 51 percent.
“It doesn’t really bother me. I would love it if lots of people found it to be worth their time and had those shared values, but no it certainly doesn’t bother me if people don’t [go to church on Christmas or Christmas Eve],” Shaw said. “I’m a lot more worried about if my congregants were not going, if that makes sense. I find that I can’t really worry too much about what people in a survey are doing.”
Ross said the numbers do concern him.
“Then again, it’s indicative of our culture that people oftentimes don’t see the need either to worship God with the rest of the community in a church,” Ross said. “Or it’s the second element of our culture is that there’s a belief observed in the culture today that everybody who dies automatically goes to Heaven, if they believe in Heaven, and therefore why would you need to gather with other people to celebrate something like this, and why would you need to go weekly for that matter?”
Religious displays
The Pew survey also noted fewer people now say Christian displays should be allowed on government property without representation of other religions.
“It’s not an either/or for me. I have no problem whatsoever with, for example, celebrating the Jewish faith by putting Menorahs on during the season of Hanukkah,” Ross said.
This area didn’t concern Shaw.
“That certainly makes sense to me,” he said. “As a pastor, I’m not encouraging local displays to have Christian symbolism. I’m perfectly OK with us keeping church in church and having public displays be sort of a more secular nature. That doesn’t bother me at all.”
The Pew survey also looked at how customers are greeted for the holidays, with one-third preferring stores or businesses to use “Merry Christmas,” while half now say it doesn’t matter to them.
“I think that most people who say ‘Happy Holidays’ are doing it to be considerate of people who don’t necessarily celebrate Christmas,” Shaw said. “People who are saying ‘Merry Christmas’ hope people who do are having a good holiday. I’m among the people who doesn’t think it’s important. I think it’s just people being friendly, either way.”
Is secularism taking over?
Ross said he was concerned secularism overshadowed Christmas and the reason to celebrate, the birth of Jesus.
“Yes, I’m concerned indeed. But it’s just not Christmas,” he said. “It’s almost every holiday where the materialism of the culture seems to overshadow the religious nature of the season. …
“I’m 68 years old, and from my perspective it used to only be the Christmas season began to be celebrated after Thanksgiving, at least the day after Thanksgiving, where I would go down to Stippich Hardware here in Lima and sit on Santa’s lap, and Mom would take me downtown to do her Christmas shopping, where today it starts the day after Halloween. … It’s incumbent upon religious leaders to do more, so to speak, not in beating people over the head for the materialism of the culture but rather preaching, from my perspective, the Gospel message.”
Skipping church entirely
In 2015, a Pew survey found fewer American were going to church. It’s a trend that still exists today.
“Within the Catholic community, we’ve also observed a decline in church attendance. There are some individual places where this is not so. It’s just the reality of the present age. Why aren’t they coming to Mass within the Catholic community, I think in many cases like the rest of the culture people believe everybody who dies goes to Heaven,” Ross said.
Shaw said his congregation is remaining steady.
“Our numbers are pretty stable here in Ottawa. Definitely not high growth, but part of that’s just the area,” Shaw said.
Ross said he believes what many sociologists have found about memberships in general.
“What they’re talking about is every single social organization in the United States has declined in numbers, except one, and the only social organization that really hasn’t declined is AARP because with AARP. you don’t have to attend any meetings,” he said. “You don’t have to do anything. You just send a certain amount of money, and they’ll fight for you in Congress.”
The challenge for churches is to push back against the culture, Ross said.
“A lot of people are not coming because we live in an age where what they call individualism, where people don’t think they have any responsibility to community,” Ross said. “From our perspective, at least as Christians, we believe that Jesus tells us to join with each other on the weekends on the day of the resurrection on Sunday. We believe Jesus calls us to join with each other at that time, and that’s how we worship God, by coming together.
“In so many words, you say Jesus would say, ‘If you love God, you love the people God created,’” Ross added.
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