binary four, Maba?
Demigod: Where’d you find that out? I always thought it had to do with the “Px” sign from Christianity’s early days (before the cross was adopted) or due to the omission of God’s name in print.
There is a trend in various institutions to use the phrase “Happy Holidays” in lieu of “Merry Christmas.” I’m not particularly worried about that. If it makes good business sense to avoid alienating anyone, that’s cool.
But a “Christmas tree” is just that. It is a symbol used in Christian celebrations of their Christmas holy day. If I remember the lore correctly, Joseph of Aramathea prosletyzed to a bunch of heathens in Britain during their winter celebrations by transforming one of their sacred oak (yew maybe?) trees into a fir tree, whose triangular profile he used as an anolgy for Christianity’s triune God.
This is probably a sort of folk origin story, but it does establish the use of a pine tree as a Christian symbol. Its symbolic meaning is specifically Christian, although other religions could appropriate it; there’s no law to stop them. I haven’t seen a Kwanza tree nor a Hanukkah tree yet though. So I agree with Sat and 984 that it’s overcautious. Why not call a Menorah a “Holiday Candelabrum” while we’re at it?
I’ve heard, however, that certain schools have taken to disallowing students from handing out candy canes or wishing other students a merry Christmas. This goes beyond caution. I’ve heard no mention of bans on other religious expression.
Logically speaking, though, in the interests of thoroughness the school should ban images of Santa Claus, or “Saint Nicholas.” They should also ban the Easter bunny, and Easter eggs, both holdovers of pagan fertility symbols.
Parenthetically, I also think that so long as legal action is being taken to kill off native american sports mascots, they should sue the New York Yankees, as their name is a racial/ethnic slur. Some white guy might be offended.
If you were given to the slippery slope argument, you could construe these trends as a conspiracy against Christianity, taking away all the symbols that belong exclusively to it, either by banning their use or sterilizing them so that they are no longer uniquely Christian. You can only claim something like this is happening, though; collusion would be impossible to prove, much less disprove. And the belief that the inability do prove a negative is evidence for the positive is a common weakness in the reasoning of religious people, New Agers, UFO chasers and other people we like to deride as “nuts.”
As for Jerry Falwell, in the interests of being charitable in my appraisal of things, I think when he talks about people “profiting from Christ’s birth” he’s referring to the commercialization of the holiday. Don’t kid yourselves, Christmas is the major holiday this season that drives consumption for the last two to three months of the year, or, as Lewis Black put it, “…the American economy is tied to Santa’s ass.” I imagine he thinks that so long as you’re predominantly selling your wares to people who are celebrating Christ’s birth you should acknowledge it.
