In Defense of Ebenezer Scrooge
When I was a kid, one of my favorite things about December was that the television networks played all the best Christmas specials. I remember watching the stop-motion Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the animated Frosty the Snowman and A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Jim Henson’s A Muppet Family Christmas and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. But my favorite must-watch special every year featured my favorite cartoon character, Goofy, along with all his pals, in Disney’s version of a Christmas classic entitled Mickey’s Christmas Carol. I must admit, Goofy’s portrayal of the ghost Jacob Marley was frightening for a me as a four-year-old boy. However, if I closed my eyes to avoid seeing Scrooge McDuck’s door knocker turn into the phantom face of his deceased partner, I truly enjoyed the rest of the story. Based on the beloved Charles Dickens novella, A Christmas Carol, the miserly Scrooge is known to the people of London as a mean-spirited grouch who hates all things Christmas. After being visited by Marley and three other spirits, he eventually has a change of heart and promises to change his life and to keep Christmas in his heart from that day forward.
Perhaps the best-known Christmas story of all time, A Christmas Carol has been rereleased in the form of books, plays, audiobooks, television specials, and movies. Just about everyone is familiar with the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, who, in addition to Scrooge McDuck, has also been portrayed by the likes of Michael Caine, Patrick Stewart, Kelsey Grammer, Tim Curry, Walter Matthau, Buddy Hackett, Bill Murray, Jim Carrey, and countless others. Nearly everyone knows about Scrooge, a stingy, introverted businessman who happily issues property evictions and underpays his employees, especially Bob Cratchit. One Christmas Eve, Marley’s ghost appears to him and tells him that he will later be visited by the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and yet to come (you may stop reading here if you don’t want me to spoil the story’s ending, but if you don’t know the ending, is that really my fault? I mean, the book was written close to 200 years ago!). Through a journey of self-discovery, he recognizes he’s been “doing Christmas wrong” for years. And maybe, just maybe, he should be taking better care of Cratchit and his family. This is especially true because Bob’s son, Tiny Tim, is in poor health. When he comes to this realization, he buys the Cratchit family an elaborate holiday dinner and vows to become something of an uncle to Tiny Tim. It’s easy to understand why this story of self-growth and transformation has won the hearts of the faithful for generations. In case you were wondering, my favorite version of the story appears in A Muppet Christmas Carol. In my opinion, the Muppets created the gold standard of how the story ought to be told.
But as beloved as the story is, and as much as I enjoy watching it and reading it every year, I have some real problems with how the story plays out, especially when it comes to the way Ebenezer Scrooge is treated by the author. Although my opinion may be an unpopular one, this week’s reflection will discuss how Scrooge is misunderstood, and I don’t approve of the techniques used to evangelize him. Although the efforts were successful, the ghosts and living characters use unhealthy tactics to convince Scrooge to change his ways. Wait, what? How can I say this? After all, Scrooge goes from being one of London’s most feared and despised, stingy characters, to a generous, loving, and kind man. Isn’t this the outcome we want for anyone? Doesn’t this reflect personal growth and self-awareness? And the answer is a firm… kinda? Let me explain.
Although A Christmas Carol is not overtly Christian in its themes, there are subtle references to faith practices. Bob and Tiny Tim return to Christmas dinner after spending time at church. And because everyone in the story celebrates Christmas, we also can assume that they are Christians to some extent. Essentially what the story’s characters are doing, including the ghosts, is to evangelize Scrooge and to help him see that he needs to return to the fold in order to be saved. How many of us have been evangelized by people of faith whose beliefs were different than ours? How comfortable did it make us when they attempted to force their ways on us? How did it feel the last time someone told you that their religion was the “one, true faith” and yours was not? In A Christmas Carol, this kind of black and white thinking is promoted. Those who celebrate Christmas are seen as good and those who do not are seen as bad. There’s no in between. And while Scrooge doesn’t always treat people very nicely, his biggest flaw that people see in him is that he does not observe Christmas. But I’ve got news for you. Plenty of good people do not celebrate Christmas. In fact, plenty of devout Christians refrain from celebrating Christmas as anything other than a religious feast day. Although it is indeed a wonderful time for many people around the world, Christmas isn’t a joyful time for everyone. As we read or watch A Christmas Carol, we see that Scrooge has many good reasons for ignoring the holiday. This is also true for a lot of people in the real world.
From a pastoral perspective, when we encounter someone like Ebenezer Scrooge, we have to assume that he has experienced some kind of trauma in the past. In fact, the Muppet Christmas Carol even approaches this kind of an understanding. A group of carolers sings about Scrooge, “He must be so lonely, he must be so sad. He goes to extremes to convince us he’s bad. He’s really a victim of fear and of pride. Look close and there must be a sweet man inside.” How sweet and compassionate! Except, immediately after singing these lines, they look to one another, shake their heads, and agree, “Naaahhhh!”
Have you ever heard the expression that says, “hurt people hurt people”? Well, that is a true statement. It doesn’t mean it’s ok for a hurt person to hurt someone, by the way. But if someone is mean and hurtful, like Scrooge is in the first few chapters of the novella, then it’s a telltale sign that that person has experienced pain. And, as silly as it might sound, most of us don’t really know ourselves very well. So someone like Scrooge is probably hurting, and his dislike for Christmas is very likely the result of something bad happening in his life around Christmas. When Christmas comes around, his grumpiness is amplified. This is likely true for many people in our world. Have you noticed that hospitals, fire departments, police forces, and other emergency assistance organizations are open 24 hours per day, even on Christmas? Well, that’s because emergencies don’t take holidays off. Tragedies happen every day of the year, including Christmas. And when they do happen on Christmas, they leave scars and emptiness that can discourage us from feeling jolly in subsequent years.
Did you know that, statistically speaking, more people die in the United States around Christmas and New Year’s Day than they do the rest of the year? There are a number of reasons this is true. Firstly, in much of the country, it’s very cold this time of year. It is dangerous for people who have inadequate heating or nourishment, and these can lead to death in some cases. People also tend to overconsume alcohol and high-calorie foods during the holidays, which can lead to health problems. Accidents are also higher around the holidays. Improperly cared for Christmas trees can become fire hazards, ice on the roads can lead to auto accidents, people have heart attacks while shoveling snow, and sometimes people fall off ladders while hanging Christmas lights. There’s a whole lot that can go wrong this time of year! And when it does, it affects us and the people around us. If my grandma died on Christmas Day a few years ago, then I might choose to refrain from celebrating. If I had a romantic breakup around the holidays, then the season might be ruined for me. If someone I love died earlier in the year and this is my first Christmas without them, then I might be feeling sadness instead of the joy that everyone around me tells me I ought to be feeling. And when we read the story of A Christmas Carol, we can see that many of those things happened to Scrooge in his life.
As he’s visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, we see that Scrooge was left at boarding school over the holidays by his parents as a youngster. We see that as a young man, he did still celebrate Christmas with his friends and family members, but they eventually drifted apart. And we see that he had a romantic relationship end around Christmas. While all these traumas do not justify him treating people poorly, they give us some understanding about why he is not exactly “in the Christmas spirit.” And it isn’t exactly fair to shame him into changing the way he feels.
So what can we learn from A Christmas Carol? Well, firstly, we can learn compassion. When we see someone who is struggling around the holidays, we can offer to be present with them on their own terms and not ours. It can be really hard to go through a season when everyone around you is telling you that “it’s the most wonderful time of the year” when it really doesn’t feel that way. We can reach out to those who are sad, home bound, injured, or struggling. And, instead of doing what the people in Scrooge’s life do (telling him why he’s wrong for ignoring Christmas), we can listen to their reasons for choosing to not celebrate. It isn’t exactly helpful if I tell you that you have to celebrate a holiday the way I want you to celebrate it. But it can be helpful if I listen to you tell me why you celebrate the way you choose do. And it might even be helpful for me to tell you why I celebrate the way I do. What is not helpful is me setting expectations on you and then becoming angry with you for not following my expectations.
This is true when it comes to evangelism. If I tell you that you should be a Christian because you’ll face severe punishment if you don’t convert, well, then that’s spiritual abuse. It’s also faulty. While Jesus Christ does say he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, he also gets to enforce things the way he wants to. God is bigger than anything we can understand, and God can offer salvation to whomever he chooses (I happen to believe that means all of us, but I am not God). If I tell you that you have to celebrate Christmas a certain way, then I’m imposing on you. If I tell you that you have to eat turkey, otherwise you’re “doing it wrong”, then I’m imposing on you. What if you’re a vegetarian? Or what if you’re allergic to turkey? I just excluded you from “doing Christmas right.” Instead, it’s much healthier if I say why I choose to follow Jesus. Here’s what I get out of it and here’s why it brings me fulfillment. Here are the reasons why I practice my Christmas traditions and eat the foods I eat on Christmas. See how it’s a gentler approach? It might even influence the person I’m talking to. But it isn’t shaming, and it doesn’t take away the other person’s autonomy. And just because the other person doesn’t change overnight like Scrooge does, it doesn’t mean they won’t change eventually. People need time to process information. It takes time and it takes compassion.
Go ahead and watch A Christmas Carol if that is something that brings you joy. Watch any version you’d like, including one of those Hallmark remakes like It’s Christmas, Carol! And continue to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the world, including the joy of the incarnation celebrated at Christmas. But don’t be forceful about it and don’t push your beliefs and practices on someone else who doesn’t see things the same as you do. A healthy spirituality can keep us strong in faith and it can help us to overcome the pain and losses we experience. Don’t treat people the way Scrooge did before his conversion. But if celebrating Christmas just isn’t your thing, for whatever reason, then it’s perfectly ok to say Bah Humbug this year instead.