holiday trees?

You may have read this post on facebook, or one similar to it.

"It was announced that there will not be Christmas trees at the White house this year. They will be called Holiday Trees. Obama says this is no longer a Christian Country, it's a country of many faiths. We as Americans must send the message to Obama that this Country was founded on Christian beliefs and we are STILL a Christian Country. Please repost this and let's stand up for CHRIST! MERRY CHRISTMAS! May God have mercy on this nation! THEY ARE FREAKIN CHRISTMAS TREES....Go home if you don't like it!"

Now, I'm all for Christmas. I go around my day-to-day activities and my shopping during this season greeting random strangers and cashiers with Merry Christmas. Granted, the traditionally festively decorated evergreens are associated with Christmas. However, in all fairness, this is not a Christian country. The founding fathers may have been Christian men who did daily devotions and had Christian principles in mind when writing the original documents to govern our country, but until the actions of this country's government align with the teaching of Jesus Christ, this can not be called a Christian nation. One of the basic principles that this country was founded on was freedom of religion, and those many religions in this country have differing holidays during the winter season. So it seems contradictory to demand that traditionally decorated trees in the home of the nations leader be referred to as Christmas trees. Yes, they are Christmas trees. They are not Kwanzaa trees, Hanukkah trees, Yule trees, Eid trees or Diwali trees. But if you were the President of a nation that boasts freedom of religion, would you not call them holiday trees in an effort to be sensitive to all the religions that are practiced in your nation? Let's not get all bent out of shape now shall we?

global collage

It strikes me how while aimlessly scrolling through my news feed on facebook, the posts are so drastically different. One is a status that says, "GO BIG RED!" And my heart inside says, "Yeah GO BIG RED! Win today! Beat Penn State! Carry on the Husker legacy!" The next won is a shared photo of a man's feet, from a third world country. The shoes on his feet are plastic bottles that have been flattened, and he used some type of root or twine to make them into thongs. And my heart falls and thinks how sad I am for him, and how ironic it is that I'm viewing this on my laptop from my heated dorm. The next is a small collection of blurry photos of a happy couple newly engaged. I smile and my heart leaps in joy because I like them, and they are good for each other. A pep talk from the Cornhuskers facebook page. A shared photo of a comic depicting the difficulty of awakening, "So true," I think. A status: "GO TCU! Win for my birthday!" A shared link of an inspirational contemporary Christian song on You Tube. A shared link of an article raising awareness of anti-LGBT groups and their cruelty.

Facebook has made a global collage. Of all we think, dream, live, believe, love, hate, do, wish, talk, see and hear. Sometimes I think we "share" these things without thinking, our hand on the left-clicker of our computer mouse is disconnected from our brain. Later we browse through everything those we love or don't know have "shared" with our eyes/heart disconnected from our hand. Hmmm.