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Some Christians Shun Christmas and Its Trappings
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For the approximately 8,000 Jehovah's Witnesses in the Washington area, the "day will go on as normal," Walker said.
Like the Jehovah's Witnesses, the United Church of God -- which has 216 congregations in the United States, with a total weekly attendance of 13,000 -- sees no biblical basis for the holiday.
Todd Carey, a Mechanicsville, Va., United Church of God minister, last celebrated Christmas in 1984.
As a child, "I always liked it," Carey recalled. "I could use it to get gifts. That was the big pull."
But after unsuccessfully searching the Bible for an edict to celebrate the birth of Christ, Carey joined the United Church of God and now shuns the Christmas season.
"You want to be respectful to the scripture and the Bible and what it says, and Christmas isn't there," said Carey, whose teenage sons have never celebrated the holiday.
To many Christians who celebrate Christmas, the non-Biblical elements of the holiday have become so beloved that they have evolved into an integral part of the celebration of Christ's birth. There is no need, they say, to throw out the entire holiday because some aspects aren't in the Bible.
Pastor Johnny Barton of Glenarden Church of Christ in Lanham says he takes care to warn his flock that they can't lose sight of the sacred reality of Jesus's birth in the midst of the commercialization. That's when Christians run into trouble, Barton said.
Christian leaders who celebrate Christmas acknowledge that Jesus never commanded anyone to celebrate his birth. "But he didn't tell us not to, either," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow with the Woodstock Theological Seminary at Georgetown University.
"Because we believe that Jesus is so important to who we are as Christians, we want to remember and celebrate his birth, his death and his resurrection," Reese said.
Others who don't celebrate Christmas have a more secular concern: the commercialization that has risen up around it. Redmond said he began urging members of his congregation to drop the Christmas-season hoopla a dozen years ago.
"I really believe it is Satanic," he said. "It feeds into our selfish nature, that the season is really all about me."
Redmond acknowledges that some newcomers to the church have difficulty taking to the doctrine.
"It's a hard pill to swallow," he said.
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