A Christmas Tempest in a Teapot

Christian fundamentalists have decided to brew up an enormous controversy over the decision of judge Marion Cohen to remove a Christmas tree from the lobby of a provincial courthouse in Toronto. Judgee Cohen ordered the removal of the tree saying that it is not appropriate to have a Christian symbol in the foyer of a secular building. That is entirely correct and right. We have a theoretically secular state here in Canada, and it is anathemic to such a secular state to display religious symbols of any religion in government buildings.

The Christian fundies are trying to turn this into an enormous issue, though they are trying to get at it through the back door. The fundies are trying to insist that the Christmas tree is not, in fact, a Christian symbol. The fundies claim that the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol, a symbol of nature religion predating Christianity. The roots of the use of trees at the time of Christmas is certainly pagan, but the tree has been whole-heartedly adopted as the symbol of Christmas. If you show any person living in the western world a picture of an evergreen tree covered in ornaments and lights and ask them what it makes them think of, they will tell you Christmas. The Christmas tree is a symbol of Christmas (the Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ) in the modern context. To claim otherwise is to be at least preposterous and at worst disingenuous.

Good on Judge Cohen for making a stand to advance the secularism in Canada, and shame on the fundamentalists of this country who are lying to the people. We should be putting our theoretical secular state into action.

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