Word: secularization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...umbrella organization that has been overwhelmingly secular since its inception. Today it remains dominated by the secular nationalists of Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization. Before Oslo, the PLO's affiliate organizations, which included smaller leftist groups such as the PFLP and DFLP, operated from exile in the Arab world. The PLO's various factions maintained small guerrilla wings that periodically carried out terror attacks against Israeli targets, and also operated illegal underground structures in the West Bank and Gaza...
That said, take the trees down already. Inappropriate as it is, the swastika comparison shows that to some people, public endorsement of a Christmas tree might be the spiral arm of something dire. And if Christmas trees are so harmless and secular, why are we bent on erecting them? To prove that Our Fun can’t be spoiled by Some Whiny Minority? Let’s find a new way to decorate, one that generates festivity and spirit instead of bad analogies. I recommend bright fabric, big jars of pasta and squashes with wigs...
Some have complained recently about the presence of Christmas trees as “religious symbols” in the Houses. In response to this anguish over the existence of a tree with lights on it, several Harvard commentators have said that the Christmas tree has mostly become a secular item. Even where it is not purely secular, they say, it has no overtones specific to any one faith...
...This secular argument is compelling when based on the history of Christmas. None of the complainers would be able to find any scriptural references to decorated trees being used to celebrate Jesus’ birth. The practice did not gain cultural appeal among Christians until the 16th century in Germany and the 19th in England and America (long after the coming of Christianity...
...widely associated with Christmas in America until a bit over a century ago, it should give some people pause to hear that it is an integral part of Christianity. However, Pforzheimer House Committee President Teresa L. Bechtold ’02 believes that, regardless of the current secular nature of Santa Claus, past religious connotations should be enough to make Santa “exclusive...