It’s that time of year again: there’s a chill in the air, malls are playing the same music over and over, and the whining about the alleged attempts to expunge Christmas has begun.
There are many symbols of the season, but the Christmas tree is the most iconic. Most skeptics know that the tradition of taking in a tree for the winter pre-dates Christianity’s arrival in Europe by many years, but that is not enough to dissuade those complainers who have been usurping pagan traditions since year one. For them we must take a more forward approach and confront them with their own words—the Bible itself.
When next you hear the inevitable grumbling about it being a Christmas tree, dammit, not a %$&#ing holiday tree, whip out this little biblical admonition:
Jeremiah 10:2-4 (King James Version):
2 Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Hmm, seems as if there’s a wee bit of sinning going on in Christendom, because I’m sure that those hordes at the tree lots every year aren’t all worshipping Mother Earth.
My family? Yes, this happy band of atheists gets a tree. It’s traditional, a part of our culture. Like the Ikea commercial says, it’s a six-foot-tall, pine-scented air freshener!
Merry x-mas!
The trouble with being accused of taking biblical phrases out of context is; who determines the context? Much of the bible is ambiguous, vague, and open to many interpretations, and much of it is metaphor. Five different people might interpret the same phrase five different ways, or might not even try because they can’t figure it out.
A lot of Christians use that passage in Jeremiah to condemn Christmas trees, but that Scripture, I believe, isn’t about taking a tree in the house & decorating it. It’s about making household idols, because, back in those days, they’d cut down a tree, & carve an idol out of it, overlaying it with gold, silver & fine jewels. The works of a man’s hand. So it’s taken totally out of context, as are many Bible verses. Regardless, I for one am not going to bow down & worship my tree, so this Christian will happily & without any condemnation, decorate my blingy tree & enjoy watching my 5 year old look at it with joy in his eyes.
As much as I enjoy hearing this same junk repeated in various ways each year at this time, I’d just like to point out a few facts.
These verses are taken out of context. The point was not that you shouldn’t put up a Christmas tree. At that particular point in history, there was NO Christmas. Christ had not been born yet. These verses refer to the fact that people were worshipping their own wealth. The tree was brought into the house and adorned with silver and gold so the people could brag and show off. If you read on, verse 5 says (NIV): “Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm, nor can they do any good.”
So, no, it not a sin to put up a Christmas tree, unless you make that your focus of the Christmas season. It’s not having a tree that’s a sin, but rather the sentiment attached to it by each individual. As atheists, it’s actually a sin (even though atheists don’t believe in sin)to be putting up a Christmas tree, making it the idol in the Christmas celebration.
Christmas, as we know it, didn’t even begin with the birth of Christ. At that time, there was no celebration of His birth except by the angels of Heaven and a very small number of people who had been told of the virgin birth and the prophesy that this baby would be the Messiah.
Please don’t assign sin. Enjoy your Christmas tree. And allow others to do the same.
Out of context? I think you’re taking the ‘christmas’ tree out of context because the practice is pre-christian.
You can’t just put up a tree and call it a scientology tree now and assume that you’ve started a whole new tradition. The general population at the time of the writing of the bible was already taking a tree down to decorate it in winter and to exchange gifts as a symbol of oneness and solidarity not just for a display of wealth.