By Norman Jameson
No trees adorned with twinkling lights will bless — or aggravate — visitors to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s two main libraries this year, according to a Dec. 5 story in the Raleigh News and Observer.
After many years of displaying Christmas trees in the libraries, this year the trees are stuck in storage because some library employees and patrons were bothered by the Christian display, according to Sarah Michalak, UNC’s associate provost for university libraries.
Puritans temporarily banned Christmas celebrations in Boston in the 17th century. Since then, of course, our nation has gladly taken the Christian holy day to heart and even recognized it as a federal holiday.
Now, the tree ban at the libraries is another drop in a steady stream of protest that overtly Christian symbols (not that a decorated tree is overtly Christian) are unwelcome in many public venues of our pluralistic society. America hosts both adherents of many religions and advocates of none. More and more of them seem to resent the historic willingness of our society at large to accommodate the Christian celebration in December.
This could be a good thing.
I have reached an age at which it is too late to die young. During most of my life, Christian friends have lamented that Christmas is becoming too secularized; it is losing its religious meaning; businesses have appropriated the religious symbols of Christmas until they are nothing more than decorations to sell merchandise.
Saints have morphed to Santas; tributes are diluted to toys and holy days are simply holidays. And all this seasonal fiscal flavor is salted with crèches, camels and caravans; stars, sheep and shepherds; wise men, mangers and drummer boys.
If, as the English proverb says, familiarity breeds contempt, it is logical that Christmas symbols floating in the marketplace unattached to their religious meaning will themselves become meaningless.
Can it be that, when Christians advocate for symbols of faith in public venues, we contribute to the emasculation of their meaning?
As Christians, we want to live in a society that respects our right to believe and practice that belief in public as we see fit. That was easier when our nation was considered “Christian.” Although unspoken and certainly unlegislated, there was a long era when being a Christian was “required” for a healthy business or election to political office or even to secure many jobs unrelated to religious work. It was an identity that greased the wheels of social interaction.
Christians felt good about that because we lived in a geographically massive Christian enclave that stretched 3,000 miles between two oceans. Non-Christians gritted their teeth and bore it during public prayers at football games or to open city-council meetings. To do otherwise would create a stink and backlash that would be unhealthy for business and for seamless meshing of societal gears in the PTA or grocery store.
Those days are gone as more non-Christians react negatively to overt Christian presence and pressure in public venues. Surprised and resentful that others would react negatively to a century or more of tradition and to our well-meaning and harmless efforts to infuse the atmosphere with happy reminders that Christ has come, we Christians have had our own negative reactions in return.
Perhaps we are reacting to the time 20 centuries earlier when the first Christians could only identify themselves covertly to each other, with a subtle fish drawn in the sand or a cross etched in a doorpost or woven discretely into a bracelet or necklace. No one joined the early Christian church to gain a political or commercial advantage. No one corrupted Christian observances with garish, impotent, ubiquitous displays whose purpose is to lift dollars from our pockets via gift purchases to “honor the Christ child” who would rather we feed his sheep.
What will it mean if the public forum gradually closes to overt displays of Christian symbolism?
Perhaps those consumed with consumption can continue their mind-numbing, bank-breaking bondage to “the holiday season,” and those who celebrate the Christ of Christmas can busy ourselves with service and worship undeterred by the annual indigestion over how our special day has been corrupted.
Let those harried by holidays be tethered to expectation in an atmosphere absent symbols of our faith. It is not destructive to us. If Christian Christmas displays must disappear from courthouse lawns and public buildings and school houses, it will add spiritual meaning to displays of Christmas joy in the places where they belong: in the churches, yards, homes and hearts of people who truly love the Christ child.