To: TaraP
"My point is a Christmas Tree does not signify anything in Christianity unless Jesus was really born under a Scotch Pine and not in a manger."
It's a tradition that came later but it's called a Christmas Tree for a reason. Because it's a symbol of Christmas.
To: GovernmentIsTheProblem
You seem to think that what *Man* dictates is more important than GOD's word?
Easter Sunday is far more important than Christmas as a religious holiday in the Christian faith.
Christmas is suppose to be a season that people will reflect on Jesus's Birthday and will bring goodwill, giving of there time and gifts to people who have little or nothing...
Christmas should be in everybody's heart not one day or one month a year but everyday. Feeding the homeless, giving to charity, bringing smiles to children all over the world who look forward to Christmas by the gifts you give them is honoring Jesus's teachings, so maybe a Christmas Tree is a message of Love to the world that Jesus Christ wants us to share the meaning and giving of Christmas.
But since we are talking technicalities A Christmas Tree is Secular.
202 posted on
12/11/2006 12:38:00 PM PST by
TaraP
To: GovernmentIsTheProblem
"It's a tradition that came later but it's called a Christmas Tree for a reason. Because it's a symbol of Christmas."
It's called a Christmas tree because people put it up at about Christmas time, including many people who aren't Christians or who don't believe the Biblical account of birth of Jesus is based on historical fact.
But there is no particular religious symbolism involved in a Christmas tree, no more than there is in candy canes, reindeer, snowflakes, snowmen, mistletoe, and many of the other decorations that are put up at this time. Christmas is a unique holiday in America because it is simultaneously religious and secular, with the religious aspect predating the secular accretions.
Virtually all levels of government treat it as a paid holiday despite its religious significance. Some people object to calling them "holiday" trees because they think it is a PC attempt to entirely remove the religious connotations of the holiday. A Christmas tree is a multivalent symbol, and calling it a "holiday" tree is an attempt to reduce it to one of its aspects. But, again, there is nothing INTRINSICALLY Christian about a Christmas tree, which is why the symbol has so easily been secularized.
221 posted on
12/11/2006 1:51:48 PM PST by
Steve_Seattle
("Above all, avoid the moor, where the powers of darkness are exalted.")
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson