The War On Advent

Starbucks launched its wall-to-wall Christmas music playlist three weeks before Thanksgiving. President Trump invited a group of Catholic nuns in full habit to sing at the lighting of the White House Christmas, not “holiday,” tree, two years after campaigning specifically on encouraging Americans to wish one another a “merry Christmas” again. Secular leftists continue to wage their war on Christmas, but Christmas is winning.

This welcome change should not lull cultural conservatives into a complacent and false sense of victory but rather call their attention to a more insidious and widespread winter struggle: the war on Advent. Yesterday marked the beginning of Advent, the penitential period leading up to Christmas during which Christians contemplate the mysteries of death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. The term “advent” derives from the Latin word meaning “to come.” This solemn season asks us to consider what is to come, in this world and beyond—a crucial charge not merely for Christmas but for us all.