December 7, 2011, here on slacktivist: Confused Rhode Islanders sing secular song to defend Pagan symbol
What better way to defend “our religion,” he decided, than by singing, “O Christmas Tree” — a thoroughly secular holiday song that has as much to do with religion as “White Christmas” or “Merry Christmas Baby.”
So for these Christianists, the best way they could think of to promote their sectarian view was to sing a secular song in defense of a Pagan symbol.
As ridiculous as that is, it makes sense according to the internal logic of the hegemonic civil religion these folks practice. That religion is primarily tribal. It’s not about a set of shared beliefs or a set of shared practices — that’s why these folks were so angrily dismissive of Chafee’s suggestion that they help the poor. What it’s about is a set of shared symbols– totemic tribal gestures, buzz-words and commodities that can be used to keep track of which tribe is winning.
Such tribal symbols don’t have to have anything to do with the nominal Christian faith on which this tribal religion has been appended. The Bible may not say anything about Christmas trees, but then it doesn’t say anything about guns either. Or the American flag. But whenever anyone says anything that might be remotely construed as questioning the sacredness of those, such comments will be made into the focus for the next performance of IndigNation theater and the pre-existing offendedness of the tribal Christianists will be projected in that direction for a while.
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