Christmas tree vote causes 'non-believer' councilwoman in New Jersey to briefly resign

The seemingly innocuous vote to rename of the annual 'Tree Lighting' to 'Christmas Tree Lighting' caused a stir

Members of Crosby, Stills and Nash perform on stage during the National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony at the Ellipse in Washington (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

The so-called “war on Christmas” has found a new battleground in New Jersey.

The council of Roselle Park, a borough of Union County, New Jersey, voted on a seemingly innocuous matter on 3 December: the renaming of its annual “Tree Lighting” to “Christmas Tree Lighting.” The measure passed 4-2, and with it followed much controversy.

At the centre of it was Councilwoman-at-Large Charlene Storey, who walked out of the meeting shortly after the vote and proceeded to submit a resignation letter to the municipal clerk’s office, according to NJ.com.

“I cannot in good conscience continue to be part of a council that is exclusionary or to work with a Mayor who is such,” said Storey, who noted that the change “cuts non-Christians out of the loop and favors one religion.”

Storey has lived in Roselle Park for 26 years and served on the borough council for the past two. She was raised Catholic, but has been open about now being a “non-believer.”

NJ.com reports that Storey had checked tree lighting events at other municipalities and found none which included the word Christmas.

News of Storey’s resignation spread rapidly. A debate raged on the NJ.com article that originally reported it, and the office of Mayor Carl Hokanson, who proposed the renaming, was bombarded with calls mostly in support of his stance.

“A Christmas tree is a Christmas tree,” Hokanson told NJ.com. “Just like the Easter Bunny is the Easter Bunny and not the Holiday Bunny. It was never my intent to insult anyone’s beliefs or religion.”


 The skirmish is the latest in a season that has welcomed all manner of debates over the Christian holiday
 (REUTERS/Abdelrahman Younis)

Still, the mayor said he valued Storey’s involvement on the council. After her abrupt resignation, Hokanson asked Storey to come to his office, and in the true spirit of Christmas, offered her an olive branch.

Though the “Christmas Tree Lighting” will remain as is, Storey will now head a new committee on diversity. According to the Associated Press, she has officially rescinded her resignation.

The skirmish is the latest in a season that has welcomed all manner of debates over the Christian holiday, from movements against Starbucks cups to strife surrounding a Christmas-turned-“winter” concert at an Italian school.

People on one side argue that Christians should be able to fully celebrate the occasion without interference from “political correctness”; on the other side, those like Storey have pointed out that the emphasis on Christmas excludes non-Christians and other holidays that fall within the same time period.

Readers following the Roselle Park incident on NJ.com expressed opinionsfalling on both sides of the “war.”

“This is dopey,” wrote one commenter. “There’s nothing exclusionary about calling a holiday decoration after the holiday festival it is associated with. That’s how multiculturalism works. Nobody calls a ‘menorah’ a ‘holiday candelabra’, for example.”

Another commenter opined: “I think the forcing of one’s religion on public property is rather un-Christian. Say that you are invited to the town’s Ramadan Party, where most of the attendees are going to be celebrating Islam. How do you think you’d feel there?”

Roselle Park’s Christmas tree lighting will take place on 11 December. Councilwoman Storey will not be in attendance.

Copyright: Washington Post