With respect, Eugene, doesn't it make sense to find out how various Christians understand the meaning of Christmas trees before leaping to a categorical acontextual conclusion as to its meaning for Christians?
While I am not sure that I completely agree with Doug on the question of the display of Christmas trees, surely a possible basis for Doug's view is that Christmas trees are religious symbols. If, in fact, that is what they are, or at least some reasonable number of Christians so believe, then isn't Doug right, or at least very close to being right? (If I disagree with Doug, it is because I am still attracted, perhaps irrationally so, to the notion that the government can properly express support and appreciation for our various forms of diversity, including religious diversity. Although I would be the first to argue that the devil is in the details, and I might, for prudential reasons, want to be cautious in approving such expressions.) -----Original Message----- From: Volokh, Eugene [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 1:47 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: RE: Christianity as taint Doug's response assumes, it seems to me, that a Christmas tree is an issue of religion (as opposed to abortion, which is treated as not an issue of religion). Michael (see below) suggests that it is, because there's not much of a distinction between religious symbols and symbols associated with religious holidays; but I don't think that's right: Egg nog, Easter egg hunts, the Easter bunny, and for that matter the Winter holiday gift-giving tradition in the U.S. are all associated with religious holidays, but they do not themselves carry a religious message, or (to use the modern Establishment Clause test) a message that endorses a particular religious viewpoint. The Christmas tree, it seems to me, fits within the same category. Finally, Marty asked, near the start of the thread, "Does any of us 'complain[] about publicly displayed Christmas trees'?" It seems to me that some recent posts make clear that the answer is "yes." The complaints are often quite thoughtfully expressed (as Doug's are), but they certainly are there. Eugene _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
