All the years that Merry Christmas! was permitted, the new year was referrred to as A.D., anno domini, the Year of Our Lord.
Obviously THIS couldn’t be allowed to continue. So it is now the Common Era.
Which, when you think about it, is WORSE, not better, from the point of view of removing religion from politics.
But if you think, you’re not PC so that’s not really a problem, is it?
When 1900 AD it was very specific. It was a CHRISTIAN calendar and if anybody else needed to use it, they put in the AD where necessary to make sure everybody knew this was a Christian dating.
Jews use the same sort of convenience all the time. Jews refer to their first name as their “Christian” name.
My Dutch Uncle is probably not Dutch.
So while it was AD it was the Christian dating used by others.
With the advent (so to speak) of Common Era, the approximate dating of the birth of Christ as a convenience is no longer a Christian convention ADOPTED by others. It is now the ONLY, the OFFICIAL dating for the entire planet earth.
It used to be your call. If you wanted to use Chinese New Year or Islamic dating or Jewish New Year, that was up to you. Nothing was OFFICIAL.
Now it’s official. The approximate date bassed on the birth of Christ is now the Common Era of all mankind, no matter what their faith. no matter whether they live in Munich or China or athiest North Korea or in Tel Aviv or in Damascus.
All UN members have to refer to the Common Era.
Isn’t that just a teenie weenie bit more of an establishment of white gentile thinking as the official thinking for the whole world than anno domini was?
#1 by Elizabeth on 12/31/2005 - 2:19 pm
Definitely!
#2 by Shari on 12/31/2005 - 6:27 pm
This reminds me of Psalms 2, about imagining a vain thing. That same psalm says something about He who sits in the heavens laughing and having them in derision. I like to think of that when I feel so sick and tired of so much boring stuff.