Wake Forest University Chaplain Sends Email to Students About Christmas Service That Doesn’t Mention Christmas
“the university chaplain just can’t bear to use that word for fear of offending”
When did Christmas become controversial and why do people still put up with this?
The College Fix reports:
Campus chaplain’s email for Christmas service avoids word ‘Christmas’
A recent email sent to the Wake Forest University campus community announcing its annual Lovefeast, a service to mark Christmas, did not include the actual word “Christmas.”
The 275-word email sent Dec. 1 to students and staff from university Chaplain Tim Auman only referenced the “holiday season.”
Wake Forest University — originally founded by Baptists — also hosts a “Winter Celebration” for employees. No mention of the word “Christmas” was in the Nov. 28 memo to staff announcing the event.
Copies of the two emails were provided to The College Fix by a member of the Wake Forest University community who expressed disappointment.
“The university does not recognize that the second most important day on the Christian calendar is coming up later this month. But it does seem to recognize the pagan holiday of the winter solstice,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.
As for the Lovefeast, the campus source said it is a Moravian Christian tradition held to celebrate Christmas, as the Moravians were the first European settlers in the WFU region of North Carolina.
“But the university chaplain just can’t bear to use that word for fear of offending, well, I don’t know who exactly objects to celebrating Christmas on the campus of a historically Christian university,” said the source.
Auman did not respond to requests for comment.
While the email to the campus community did not use “Christmas,” the WFU website does include the word “Christmas” in describing the service itself, held Dec. 3. The event included many Christian traditions, including lighting of an advent candle, scripture readings, and traditional Christmas songs and hymns about the birth of Jesus.
As for the “Winter Celebration,” it is a “gathering for all faculty and staff celebrating the end of the semester,” campus spokesperson Cheryl Walker told The College Fix via email Monday.
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originally founded by Baptists
Maybe so, but you can’t celebrate any religion but Progressivism, nowadays, in the work place.
Also, it’s currently the Advent season, not Christmas. Christmas runs from 25 Dec to 6 Jan (which is Epiphany).
If you’re celebrating Christmas now, you’re not doing church seasons.
Season greetings for winter break. Enjoy the winter solstice at stonehenge.
If you’re Catholic, maybe. WFU was founded by Baptists. We don’t observe “Advent,” and “Christmas” is one day…Dec 25th.
“We don’t observe ‘Advent’ …” which is true but sad. There’s nothing wrong with this observation anticipating Christ’s birth, which is celebrated by most Protestant denominations. Not sure about the use of quotation marks around the word.
“… and ‘Christmas’ is one day …” Also not clear on why the twelve days of Christmas aren’t likewise observed – not that we do it in the Presbyterian Church in America other than celebrating Epiphany but there’s certainly nothing wrong with it either.
I sometimes wonder why some denominations have dropped such celebrations. We have lost our church history to willful ignorance.
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I cannot be the first…
Woke Forest?
If you read his bio in the Wake Forest website it all becomes clear. He’s a United Methodist Church minister married to a United Church of Christ minister. He also lists his affiliation with an “Engaged Buddhism” organization. Care to bet where his sympathies lie in the current unpleasantness with Hamas?