A grinch wants Christmas tree removed from lobby

Dahn Batchelor's Opinions

It never fails. The fools emerge when the full moon appears in the sky and they also show up at Christmas time. A Toronto judge standing firm by her decision to keep a Christmas tree out of her downtown courthouse lobby, created a furor in Toronto during the second week of December 2006. Madam Justice Marion Cohen ordered the tiny plastic tree removed saying it's not an appropriate symbol to non-Christians. I can’t help but wonder if she would have given such an order if she was a Christian instead of a Jew. Court employees called the move stupid and insulting, considering the fact that the tree has been in the lobby every Christmas for decades.

Many people of all faiths regard Christmas trees as a symbol of peace and that symbol should negate the feelings of people who believe that the Christmas trees are merely placed in public buildings as a means of pushing the Christian faith on non-believers. Such decorated trees are things of beauty and as such, is an entrenched touchstone representing peace with every culture and faith represented in Canada and elsewhere.

This isn’t the first time this kind of stupidity has surfaced. An airport on the West Coast of the United Sates had to remove their decorated trees because of a threatened lawsuit by a Rabbi. There is some Christmas controversy at the Michigan capital. The tree at the statehouse in Lansing has some people upset. On December 13, 2006, atheists joined with the group, Americans United for Separation of Church and State to protest calling the tree a Christmas tree. The protesters say calling the tree a Christmas tree endorses Christianity and violates the First Amendment.
The clauses in the First Amendment of the American Constitution states that the establishment of religion and free exercise of religion not only protect the diversity within Christianity, but also guarantee religious liberty and equality to the infidel, the atheist, or the adherent of a non-Christian faith such as Islam or Judaism.

During the 1986-1987 Christmas season, the government of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, permitted the Holy Name Society, a Roman Catholic organization, to display the nativity scene on the grand staircase inside the main part of the county courthouse in Pittsburgh. The issue as to whether or not this contradicted the First Amendment of the American Constitution was decided upon by the US Supreme Court in July 1989. A majority of the members of the court joined in an opinion holding that the nativity scene display violated the establishment of religion clause. Their reason was that the Nativity scene was displayed in a manner that violated the establishment of religion clause, because the county, by associating itself with the display, did not merely acknowledge Christmas as a cultural phenomenon but celebrated the holiday in a way that had the effect of endorsing a patently Christian message.

Justice Blackmun, writing for the court also added however that the Christmas tree was the predominant element in the display and it by itself did not endorse Christian belief and for this reason, it could stay. He also said that the display of an 18-foot Chanukah menorah; owned by a Jewish religious organization placed in front of a city-county office building from December 22 to January 13 of the following year did not have the effect of advancing religion so as to violate the establishment of religion clause of the Federal Constitution's First Amendment, where the menorah stood next to a 45-foot Christmas tree.

Not all religious celebrations of Christmas located on government property violate the establishment of religion clause of the American Constitution's First Amendment; since it is not unconstitutional for a group of parishioners from a local church to go caroling through a city park on any Sunday in Advent or for a Christian club at a public university to sing carols during their Christmas meeting, and because activities of this nature do not demonstrate the government's allegiance to, or endorsement of, the Christian faith; notwithstanding that not all proclamations of Christian faith located on government property are permitted by the establishment of religion clause just because they occur during the Christmas holiday season.

I would be remiss however if I didn’t mention that the Christmas tree does have some historical roots going back to Christianity. Some historians trace the lighted Christmas tree to Martin Luther. It has been said that Martin Luther began the tradition of decorating trees to celebrate Christmas. One crisp Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moonlight. When he got home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ's birth. He attached lighted candles to a small evergreen tree, trying to simulate the reflections of the starlit heaven---the heaven that looked down over Bethlehem on the first Christmas Eve. Obviously for safety sake, Christmas lights have replaced candles.

Late in the Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope in the forthcoming spring. Our modern Christmas tree evolved from these early traditions so it follows that evergreen trees being placed inside homes and buildings and even outside did have other meanings other that which Martin Luther envisioned.

The Christmas tree tradition most likely came to the United States with Hessian troops during the American Revolution, or with German immigrants to Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Christmas tree market was born in 1851 when Catskill farmer Mark Carr hauled two ox sleds of evergreens into New York City and sold them all. By 1900, one in five American families had a Christmas tree, and 20 years later, the custom was nearly universal.

If Martin Luther’s reasons for placing candles on the evergreen trees was to symbolize the stars of heaven that were seen on the night of Jesus Christ’s birth, why can’t they simply be regarded nowadays as a means of adding beauty to the trees? Admittedly, placing angels on the tree or a lighted star at the top of the tree are definitely symbolic of the Nativity Scene but beautiful glass balls are not nor are any other decorations.

If the Jews and the Muslims and any others of varying beliefs want to celebrate this holiday season by putting up decorations in public places during this time of the year, let them do it but they shouldn’t be objecting to anyone putting up Christmas trees in public places if the purpose of the display is to remind everyone who sees them, that it is evidence that we wish upon all people, peace and goodwill.

A few days after the grinch in the Toronto courthouse told the staff there that the tree had to be removed, the Attorney General of Ontario ordered that the tree was to be put back were it was. He also said that in the new year that he would hold meetings to decide whether Christmas trees could be placed in provincial public buildings. The premier of Ontario quickly said that there will be no such meetings and that Christmas trees can be placed in such public buildings during the Christmas season.