My wife and other women I know all love the Hallmark Channel. This is especially true during the Christmas Season. That popular cable network presents dozens of nice stories, mostly about young couples (men and women- I haven’t seen a same-sex romance yet) finding true love around the holiday events. The stories are generally wholesome and morally clean. If they were movies they would all be rated PG. Even children can watch them without being exposed to sex scenes or vulgar language. We can only hope this practice continues in the future.
That being said, whenever I watch Hallmark Channel and other holiday TV programs I usually come away feeling that, as positive, clean, and heartwarming as the stories may be, something vital is missing. That “something” is the real reason Christmas even exists. In very few instances is there even a mention of the biblical story of Jesus’ birth. It is as though Christmas is nothing more than a time of good cheer (often alcohol induced), parties, family reunions, big meals, opening presents, and budding romances. But we almost never hear just why we have anything good to celebrate about.
This, of course, only a symptom of the continued secularization of American culture. Unless you purposely attend a church service this Christmas season, chances are you will hear nothing at all about Jesus. As our society goes deeper into the secular sinkhole, Christians will need to be more creative in getting out the saving message of the coming of God in Christ. We can only depend on Hollywood or TV just to make it more obscure.