Seems a bunch of Rhode Island “Christians” got upset when Governor Chaffee referred to the big evergreen displayed in the state house as a “holiday tree.” Their chosen method of protest? Interrupting a children’s choir performance at the tree-lighting with a renegade singing of “O Christmas Tree.”

“Oh Christmas Tree.” A largely secular little ditty which pays tribute to a symbol of the season with largely non-Christian origins*.

This wasn’t about a Nativity scene, or the state’s resistance to putting one up. This wasn’t one of those “reason for the season” protests. It was nothing but a reflexive tribal reaction to the state rightly choosing to be inclusive by substituting one word for another, all while being dicks about it by interrupting a performance by a passel of cute little moppets.

I’m kind of a fan of Governor Chaffee’s statement in response to the protest, which both honors Rhode Island’s strong tradition of church-state separation, as well as suggesting a course of action for protestors that feels a lot more in the spirit of Christmas and Christianity in general than interrupting a bunch of kids with a flash-mob sing-a-long:

Calling the 17-foot-tall spruce a holiday tree is in keeping with Rhode Island’s founding in 1636 by religious dissident Roger Williams as a haven for tolerance, where government and religion were kept separate, independent Gov. Lincoln Chafee said.

“I would encourage all those engaged in this discussion – whatever their opinion on the matter – to use their energy and enthusiasm to make a positive difference in the lives of their fellow Rhode Islanders,” Chafee said, offering an initiative to feed the needy as a good place to start.

The protestors’ actions here present just one more example of people being reflexively indignant and turning the pleasant phrase “Merry Christmas” into an agressive euphamism for “F**k you.” It it any wonder that I continue to get discouraged about this particular time of year?

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* – Of course, the Christmas tree tradition‘s claim to pagan roots isn’t totally clear – the modern “Christmas Tree”, cut down and brought inside and such, first appeared in Germany or Eastern Europe in the 15th century. There are several theories regarding the origins of the tradition, calling on both pre-Christian ritual and connections to the tree in Genesis (I’d suspect that a serious nature-focused Pagan tradition would have problems with cutting down a tree for such a frivilous reason; my money’s on adaptation). Early American Christians had a pretty serious problem with trees and decorations and stuff for Christmas, as such things desecrated a the sacredness of the event.

The practice of decorating homes with evergreen boughs and the like seems to date back at least as far as the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, which fell in December, and included, amongst other things, the exchanging of gifts, which were later adopted into Christian tradition.