[T]here's nothing Christian or even religious about the Christmas tree. Is there? Its roots are in paganism. A tree is nothing more than a traditional Christmas symbol.
- - Jamey Tucker
Where did WKRN's Faith and Ethics Reporter ever get the notion that evergreen-decking pagans were not religious? And what kind of convoluted logic is it for the same reporter to say that a Christmas Tree is devoid of Christian reference, when a whole culture war is being waged around him over calling it a Christmas Tree?It would be one thing if any old garden-variety reporter had these lapses in logic about the admittedly difficult subject of religion, but this is WKRN's "Religion" Reporter: the guy who is supposed to have a firm handle on this subject.
Let's not forget this is the same "ethics" reporter who crashed Matthew Winkler's funeral. I haven't listened to or read a word he's uttered since that day.
ReplyDeleteJB
You raise a fair point, Mike, that Jamey may have gone a little far in saying the tree has no religious meaning.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time, I think you can infer that there is no longer anything solely religious about Christmas trees. They are highly secularized at this point.
I agree with Jamey's last point: The Christmas tree itself, as it is understood in modern times, has about as much to do with Christianity as the Easter Bunny does.
I believe that as long as there are Christians who find sacred meaning in Christmas trees, then they are not a secular symbol, regardless of their use outside. That is the primary problem with government agencies putting up Christmas trees: preferring the sacred symbols of some over the sacred symbols of others.
ReplyDeleteThe whole view that there can be a true Christianity outside of the Christianity that syncretizes other religious symbols (like evergreens) is misguided. From the beginning, Christendom syncretized other religious symbols around it in order to survive and prosper.
The fact that Christmas may have become more of a secular than a sacred holiday in the 20th Century had less to do with the forgotten pagan roots of evergreen hanging and more to do with Irving Berlin.