Roanoke, VA began it's "Dickens of a Christmas" celebration last night with the lighting of the "Holiday Tree." The print and broadcast media have had a field day with this politically correct nomenclature. Television stations have been running polls about what area citizens feel about this. About 89% seem to be quite upset that the tree is not called a Christmas tree.
What's the fuss? Christmas trees are rooted more in folk lore than religion anyway. If you really push it, you have to admit that they were "borrowed" from the pagans long ago. They certainly are not mentioned in the Bible as being a part of the birth of Christ. In reality, there is little to commend the practice from a theological perspective.
National, state, and city Christmas trees are merely an exercise in civil religion. Civil religion, or state sponsored quasi-religious ceremonies and customs are always watered-down, least-common-denominator type of "spiritual" exercises that lack the vitality of the real thing. What civil religion brings is form without substance. It offers the outer form of religiousness without the life that true spirituality brings.
Christmas tree, holiday tree-- call it what you will. The reality of it is that you should not look to the government to promote religion. If you do, you will be sadly disappointed and will have to settle for some generic, please-all expression that falls far short of the life-changing reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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