Kirk Cameron's 'Saving Christmas' Belittles Christians

On Friday, November 14, 2014 Kirk Cameron's "Saving Christmas" will be opening in select theaters across the country for only two weeks.

This movie is all about making fun of any Christian who doesn't think like or agree with Kirk Cameron and his company. According to Kirk and friends, one of the main purposes of "Saving Christmas" is to dispel the beliefs that most of our traditional Christmas practices e.g., decorating Christmas trees, feasting, mistletoe, gift exchanges, etc., are from pagan origins or fabricated myths about actual people who lived during the fourth-century—namely Saint Nicholas of Lycia, commonly known in the United States as Santa Claus.

"Our focus on December 25 came from the Roman holiday called Saturnalia. This was a pagan observance of the birthday of the unconquered sun. Saturnalia began December 19 each year...Many of our Christmas customs have their origins in Saturnalia, which was marked by feasting, parades, special music, gift giving, lighted candles, and green trees. As Christianity spread through the Roman empire, the pagan holiday was given Christian connotations."

~John MacArthur, The Miracle of Christmas, p. 50

From the Puritans in England during the 1600s to the early Puritans here in the States, celebrating Christmas in a pagan-like revelry was considered a sin and was therefore avoided altogether. Similarly, there are many Christians today who still hold this view and according to God, are free to do so. However, Kirk Cameron and his crew disagree and portrays the main character of this film, Christian White (Darren Doan) as one "who represents the typical white Christian male and he’s got a bad case of religious bah humbugs," because he feels common Christmas celebratory practices aren't about Christ, but about pagan and secular jubilees.

"One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor for the Lord and give thanks to God.

"The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."

~Romans 14:5-6, 22-23 (ESV)

In the trailer, another character rejoices saying, "the scales have fallen off" when Christian White is convinced by Kirk Cameron's character that "Everything you see inside of there, it's all about Christmas. It's all about Jesus." Of course, what's in "there", that is, the house, is Santa Claus, feasting, gifts, a Christmas tree, gifts, etc.

The makers of this movie belittle those who remain steadfast in their beliefs to abstain from Christmas celebrations. And by default, encourage others to do the same. To ensure I was clear regarding one of the main purposes of this film, Darren Doan who not only plays the lead character, but also scripted, produced and directed the movie, tweeted this to me the other day, "but the film does make fun of Wannabe Berean [sic] unimaginative Christians who need to lighten up."




Furthermore, to make matters worse, Kirk purports his movie "provides a biblical basis for our time-honored Christmas traditions and celebrations..." When I first read this on the movie's website, and heard him say it on a Catholic radio program (Busted Halo) he was recently interviewed on, I was confused by which Christmas traditions he could be talking about. I hoped he just misspoke and actually meant his movie provides historical Christian traditions rather than actually claim our "time-honored Christmas traditions and celebrations" are actually found in the Bible. So I asked him.

Screenshot from "Saving Christmas" website

I contacted Kirk through his website and also talked to a mutual friend who had Kirk call me to discuss my concerns regarding these claims of "biblical basis" for all our Christmas traditions.

This was tough for me because I used to be one of those who "blindly" followed Kirk due to his former and faithful work for the Gospel between 2004 - 2011. So I asked Kirk again and more specifically, "When you said our time-honored Christmas traditions are biblically based, you didn't mean things like decorating Christmas trees, Santa Claus, exchanging gifts, etc. are actually in the Bible, did you? You just meant some may have historical Christian foundations, right?" To my surprise he answered, "No, I meant they're all in the Bible. I know, I was surprised too when I read it myself." Kirk also shared that Christmas trees represent the Cross of Christ. When I asked him for the chapter and verse for his claims, he said, "Well, I'd rather not tell you because it's in the movie and I want you to see the movie."

Thanks to Brannon Howse of Worldview Weekend, I'm able to share this 30 second audio clip (below) of Kirk's interview on the Busted Halo radio program that's hosted by a Catholic priest, Dave Dwyer. In this interview Kirk once again claims, "Saving Christmas...is all about understanding the biblical foundations to all of the celebrations and the traditions that we have at Christmastime; including everything from Santa Claus, to Christmas trees, to the nativity, to all the presents, to the celebrating and feasting and all that kind of stuff..."





Kirk and team are promoting this film as one that will frustrate atheists as he shared in his interview with TheBlaze, “I assume they’re going to get frustrated to see some of their best arguments deflated by this movie, because we take on some of the most commonly parroted myths about the origins of Christmas.”

Unfortunately, I don't think this movie will so much frustrate atheists as it will injure Christians.

While my family and I do celebrate Christmas in many of the traditional ways, we don't however, bemoan those who abstain. We truly believe all that's in God's Word and since there's nothing in Scripture about whether or not one should or shouldn't celebrate Christmas, we do what God says in Romans 14, we leave this decision to each person's conscience.