Flap over `holiday trees' at Auburn riles conservatives

[Thom Little]

Student leaders at Auburn University were inundated with more than 20,000 irate e-mails and a flood of phone calls from people upset that the campus Christmas tree was called a "holiday tree." Despite the outpouring, the Student Government Association this week rejected a resolution to rename the tree-lighting ceremony, the latest point of contention in a campaign by conservatives to demand that Christmas traditions be referred to by their traditional names.

The Auburn SGA and other groups began sponsoring a program in 2000 called the "Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony." Besides a tree, the event includes both Christian and secular carols, free hot chocolate and an appearance by the school mascot, Aubie.

The name of the ceremony never got much attention until Laura Steele, a student senator and head of Auburn's College Republicans, heard the "Holiday Tree Lighting Ceremony" mentioned at an SGA meeting.

Steele drafted a resolution calling for the event to be designated a "Christmas Tree Lighting," and conservative Christian activists quickly picked up on the demand.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AL_CAMPUS_TREES_ALOL-?SITE=ALMON&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[misanthrope]

1. They can be as upset...

...as they want to be but things like this are hardly "the ruin" of the holiday.

Human culture is a dynamic thing, it shifts with the passage of time. Our big winter holiday is now called Christmas but it's actually derived from much older pagan roots. It has been thoroughly secularized and is a lot more than a winter commemoration of one religion.

[AUYellowDog]

2. It was a cry for attention.

Here's what an insider said about it (first post):

http://www.livejournal.com/users/cmdbuddy/

If you want more details on it, PM me, but basically what happened is that Steele, with a disregard for the rules of proceedings, decided to give the university a black eye in order to cry wolf.

[liberaltrucker]

3. O-M-F-G

Fundies: The Next Generation:puke:

[AUYellowDog]

4. Welcome to my life

This is the kind of bull that I have to deal with on a daily basis. Begining January: Fighting fire with fire.