Do Christians hate trees?

[MrPeabody]

When one studies the history of Christianity as well as present ongoing actions of Christian missionaries, it appears that Christianity has a hatred of trees going back thousands of years. In fact, people today who express any admiration for trees are branded by Christian conservatives as "tree huggers", a pejorative term for someone who may be a tree sympathizer.

EXAMPLE 1 - Tree hatred by missionaries in Nepal

A Nepali pastor identifying himself as Bharat Bhattrai, writing to the Nepali evangelical newsletter The Good News of Nepal made the following observations: "Three years ago when I came to pioneer a church in Banasthali, which is an area of Kathmandu, I came across a tree which was being worshipped by the local people. This challenged me to proclaim that Jesus is lord of all the earth. Every time I walked by that tree, I would say, "Jesus is Lord" and I would then pray in tongues. In four months time about 15 people were converted to Christ. Together, we began cursing the tree in Jesus’ name. Gradually, we noticed that the tree was beginning to die and the people stopped worshipping it. Now that the tree is completely withered, people are saying that the Christians did it. No; Christians did not do it but Jesus did it in response to our prayers" (Good News of Nepal, ND: 7). When this particular story was shown to a Nepali Buddhist, his response was "why would Jesus want to destroy a tree?"

Example 2 - Tree hatred goes far back into Christian history

On coming to the throne in 768, Charlemagne launched a vicious campaign of evangelism against the Saxons of Germany by cutting down their sacred tree – the World Tree or Yggdrasil – located in the north German forest near present day Marburg. The Roman roads, un-maintained but still serviceable, aided the rapid deployment of his troops.

The Saxons resisted 'conversion' with a passion and in 772, at Quierzy (today an insignificant village on the Oise about a 100 miles northwest of Paris). A frustrated Charlemagne, urged on by his bishops, issued a proclamation that he would kill every Saxon who refused to accept Jesus Christ. From that time on he kept a special detachment of Christian priests who doubled as his executioners. Pagan practices, such as eating meat during Lent, cremation of the dead and pretending to be baptized ("dogs returning to their vomit") were all made punishable by death.

In fulfillment of his vow, in a single day at Verden in 782, Charlemagne had 4500 Saxon prisoners beheaded for slipping back to their old gods. He then went off to Mass and had his dinner.

Is this the source of the problem?

Early in the morning, as he (Jesus) was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.

Matthew 21:18-22


Wow, that's pretty harsh. Most people are mature enough to not blame a tree for their problems. Now every year, it is a Christian custom for every Christian to cut down a tree and decorate it with gaudy lights and tinsel as a warning to uncooperative trees.

[odbo]

well Christmas is a pagan holiday "Christians" are suckered into celebrating, where the Christmas tree represents a pyramid and the star represents the light of Lucifer. Even if you don't care about symbology and superstition, nobody can deny it's a satanic holiday which celebrates materialism and money. As far as people hating trees goes, here's a good quote for that:

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

Forgive them for they know not what they do.