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The irony in Tucker's rather glib response to the Milwaukee story is that the etymology of the word "Christmas" itself is not Protestant: the word derives from "the Mass of Christ." Since Protestants do not have "Mass," then calling the tree a Christmas Tree would exclude a major cross-section of the denominational spectrum outside of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. (And I don't even favor extending Tucker's flawed logic of semantic purity to the word "Christmas" itself. I like and I use the word. I'm just not obsessed with it).
And what of the etymology of the term "Christmas Tree"? That term first appeared in America in the early 19th Century as a translation of the German Weihnachtsbaum, which literally means "Sanctified or Consecrated Night Tree." So, why not choose "Weihnachtsbaum" or "Consecrated Night Tree" over "Christmas Tree"? We already have purity-run-wild in the culture war over "Holiday" vs. "Christmas," so why stop with a term, like "Christmas," which does not precisely fit the way that Protestants actually worship Christ?
The culture warriors really can ruin the spirit of Christmas with a lot of posturing that eventually has little to do with how people actually celebrate the season in their homes. I personally hope that Metro does not put up a tree at all in Riverfront Park this year. It will save us from listening to axes ground by the more strident among us. Do away with Metro's tree and we do away with the whole debate. I wouldn't miss it for a single minute.
so...what part of my reporting on this story was not ojective?
ReplyDeleteHeck, I don't think Jamey is "obsessed" with the word Christmas . . . many of us are, however, "obsessed" with pushing back against the efforts of a vocal, demanding, agenda-driven minority to have references to Christianity purged/whitewashed from the culture.
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