Great Caesar’s ghost! How they “dislike” the name of Christ…
I noticed several years ago that B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini — “In the year of our Lord”) had been silently replaced by C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in historical writings penned by non-Christians. At first, I pretended not to notice. Now it’s all too common. This article by Selwyn Duke brought it all back. He writes:
The idea is that B.C. and A.D. are reflective of Christianity, and since not everyone is Christian, it’s insensitive and religio-centric to use them. Well, mercy me! We’ll just have to relegate our culture to the dustbin of history lest we offend someone with our existence. After all, it’s obviously better to perish as a civilization than to meet our maker with the burden of having offended someone weighing on our souls.All joking aside, their reasoning is the epitome of specious logic. B.C. and A.D. certainly are reflective of Christianity, but everything is reflective of something. For instance, since we’re talking about our calendar, it’s instructive to note that every single month’s name is of Roman origin. A few examples: July and August were named after Julius and Augustus Caesar. January and March were named after Janus and Mars, the Roman pagan gods of war, and of gates and doors and entrances and exits, respectively. September, November and December are named after the Latin [which was the language the Romans spoke] words for seven, nine and ten, respectively. Should we rename our months? After all, relatively few people are of Roman descent…
Methinks much offense can be taken, so some remedial action is in order. Here are my suggestions: our months should be renamed and referred to as “Common Month One,” “Common Month Two,” etc. Then, our alphabet can be called “the Common Alphabet,” our numbers “the Common Numerals” and English “the Common Language.” Then we must resolve to rename our states “Common State One,” “Common State two,” all the way up to fifty, assigning them the Common Numbers based on the order in which they entered our Common Union. The end of this good start — but only the beginning of a journey toward total sensitivity — will be to take the lead among nations and rename America “Common Nation 192.” Why Common Number 192? Well, that’s how many nations exist at present, and we wouldn’t want to be so insensitive as to take Common Number One for ourselves simply because we were so privileged as to be sensitive first. Now, I don’t expect other nations to follow suit immediately, but I reckon that when our common-sense extends across the Common Oceans and to the common folk, Common Continents one through six will become sensitized to sensitivity.
“Common Nation 192″ cracked me up. 
Common era or Anno Domini — it doesn’t really matter. One day everyone will know the truth:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3: 10-13)
And:
But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Matthew 24:36-44)
French revolutionaries in the late eighteenth-century did rename the months and days of the week–and for the same reason: so as not to recognize the religious origins, pagan or otherwise, of any of these words which were obviously in daily use. The idea was to stamp out anything felt to be “superstitious,” which took in anything remotely religious. Consequently, Nov. 21-Dec. 20 was renamed “Frimaire,” “month of frost or sleet,” and March 21-April 19 called “Germinal,” meaning “month of seeds.”
We all know where the noble ideals of the early French revolution–”Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite”–led: to the guillotining of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, along with thousands of other political “undesirables” during the “Reign of Terror” of 1794-95. A little historical lesson of what can happen all too easily when religion is sneered at and stamped out in the name of “progress.”
Napoleon reinstated the Gregorian calendar in 1806.
Comment by Funky Ph.D. — 11.18.04 @ 1:50 pm
La Shawn,
I prefer to use the OTHER meaning for CE and BCE when I encounter them while reading. That is “Christian Era” and “Before Christian Era”, which, by the way, is also referenced in your link.
I smile to myself when I do so, because I can just imagine how some PC, revisionist writer would wince at the thought.
Comment by Montie — 11.18.04 @ 1:56 pm
Actually, Messianic Jews use C.E. and B.C.E and what I have found, they love Messiah Y’shua as much and understand Him more than any Christian.
As A.D. and B.C. are pagan-based under Rome’s “Sol Invictus” (the Invincible day of the Sun) rather than the Scriptural lunar calendar, this is probably not a bad thing when you get right down to it.
Comment by MORSteve — 11.18.04 @ 2:05 pm
Yup once more we see them trot out a five legged dog.
Folks you’re still dating time with Jesus, you just changed the name so people will not notice as much. Frankly I use the Christian Era and Before Christian Era because it fits the sentiment properly and prevents fights about whether AD is “after death” or “anno domini”
Comment by Jeff the Baptist — 11.18.04 @ 2:25 pm
That’s hilarious, La Shawn, and startlingly reminiscent of Orwell’s and Huxley’s imagined super-secular worlds. Secular humanism, as most Christians have realized by now, is merely a substitute religion, one in which humans are glorified above all.
Comment by Salim — 11.18.04 @ 2:39 pm
I think this stupidity will slowly go the way of the he/she business. For centuries of good ol’ common-sense English writing, you said “he”. Which, of course, excluded females, so then you had “he or she”. Which got kinda awkward & long-winded, so then you had to use “he” half the time & “she” half the time… Which got kinda confusing. So in my college English class, the prof announced that academia is trending back towards “he” again, with the understanding that it is meant to be a gender-inclusive “he” (but wasn’t it always?). I’m sure, though, that the standard has probably been updated again in the five years since I took that course, so now I don’t know what to write any more…
Seriously, this is stupid. When you mess with the way people have been doing something for centuries, just b/c it’s not quite as inclusive as you think it might be, you’re just begging for trouble. And sooner or later, people will revert back to the old way of doing things anyways (after all, they must learn both methods in order to understand anything that was written before the past few decades), so it will have been a waste of time.
Comment by Mayflower — 11.18.04 @ 2:43 pm
When I first came across C.E. and B.C.E., many years ago, it was in Watchtower (Jehovah’s Witness) publications. I can’t pretend to know what their intentions were in embracing that designation so early, but it is an interesting question.
I believe B.C. and A.D. are best reflective of the truth of human history–that the world once waited for the Redeemer’s appearance for His work of propitiation, and now it waits for His return in judgement and glory. But in the end, it doesn’t matter what they call it. He’ll still come.
Comment by Dory — 11.18.04 @ 2:55 pm
Funky, the French revolution was one that was supported by many America’s own revolutionaries and intellectuals.
And i have no problem with using B.C and A.D. Changing this is a just a tad over the top….
Comment by TheMariachi — 11.18.04 @ 3:41 pm
Should we rename many or our cities? I’m surprised no one has yet taken offense to city names such as San Francisco or San Diego or St. Augustine, with their Christian connotation. While it’s easy enough to change those names by removing the “St” prefix, so much of history and heritage will be removed as well.
And how about cities such as Los Angeles and Sacramento? Chane them to Common City One, Common City Two…?
Comment by Elizabeth — 11.18.04 @ 6:35 pm
We have many cities with Christian-soounding names. I’m surprised no one was offended yet with city names such as San Francisco, San Diego, St. Augustine, etc. And what about Los Angeles and Sacramento? Common City One, Common City Two…?
Comment by Elizabeth — 11.18.04 @ 6:39 pm
Common Era eh? Somehow I don’t see a lot of commonality between 100AD & 2000AD other than the rise of Christianity. My, my. Oh well, I’ll be perfectly happy to co-opt Before Christ Era and Christian Era.
Comment by Andy — 11.18.04 @ 9:27 pm
Mariachi, the difference was the French had a Godless revolution and ours was founded on Godly principles.
One more thing about this era nonsense, if the moonbats really want to take God out of the calendar, then substituting the terminologies won’t be enough, they may as well adopt StarDate or some other arbitary metric system and pick another frame of reference than 1AD.
Perhaps today should be known as LibDate 3.186131387. With 9/11’s first strike as 0 day/0 second.
Comment by Andy — 11.18.04 @ 9:39 pm
Yeah it bothers me to that they are using this CE and BCE nonsense its like them going around and telling us we came from a ape who came from a reptile who came from a from who came from a fish who came from a ameba its getting so stupid this is this PC nonsense they dont want to offend the atheists and freaks and how long will it be before they,ll want christmas changed to some dumb idea and the same with easter
Comment by firebird — 11.18.04 @ 10:01 pm
Already Christmas Carols are banned in New Jersey schools, firebird. ‘Twon’t be long now I think.
Comment by Rick — 11.18.04 @ 10:37 pm
All I can say is: resist! Continue to use B.C. and A.D. (If any woman would have me, if I got married one day, I am going to insist that the words “In the year of our Lord” be used, as in “We are gathered here in the year of our Lord two thousand six”.)
I also like to write “Nov.” instead of the generic “11″ when asked to date anything; and use the old state abbreviations on my correspondence, the more elegant “Colo.” instead of the generic made-for-computer “CO” for Colorado, “Ark.” instead of “AR”, etc. Go on, try it… it’s fun to be a reactionary resistor!
Comment by Mark Slater — 11.18.04 @ 11:10 pm
Actually, I believe I have heard of Libs complaining about Los Angeles, so they probably have complained about the others, too.
Comment by WayneB — 11.18.04 @ 11:23 pm
Wait until they start trying to change the names of cities & towns, street names, etc. in the Southwest. Many such names reflect the influence of Spanish Catholics and some reflect Aztec and even Mayan influences. Everywhere in the US there are reflections of American indian tribes.
Los Angeles (the angels), San Francisco (St. Francis), Corpus Christi (body of Christ). The ACLU et al are going to have their work cut out for them with hundreds of thousands if not millions of such names.
Comment by Allan — 11.19.04 @ 1:37 am
There is much work to do here.
My suggestion is to reform the point of departure for counting time to the most significant point in human history. THE ADVENT OF BLOGGING.
From this point forward time will be counted as Before (the) Advent (of) Blogging Or BAD or Following (the) Advent (of) Blogging or FAD. The specific demarking day would be a bit difficult to place, but we have the same problem with B.C. and A.D. (BAD or FAD, I like it)
My suggestion is to just pick the start of the Democrat Primaries for this election cycle. I think that places us somewhere in 2 FAD.
What do you all think?
Comment by Allan Yackey — 11.19.04 @ 2:19 am
Its early in the morning. I think there is a typo in my prior post.
It would be year 2 FAB not FAD. Sorry.
Comment by Allan Yackey — 11.19.04 @ 2:25 am
Allan-Wouldn’t it also be BAB?
Comment by Rick — 11.19.04 @ 6:16 am
Heck, the good old BC & AD acronyms can still work for everyone;
As intended - for Christians
“Before Chimpanzees” & “After Darwin” - for evolutionists, non-believers, hate-filled liberals, etc., etc.
Comment by Dave in AZ — 11.19.04 @ 6:49 am
‘I noticed several years ago that B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini — “In the year of our Lord”) had been silently replaced by C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in historical writings penned by non-Christians. ‘
Isn’t it a good idea for non-christians to stay away from referencing christ?
Comment by actus — 11.19.04 @ 9:30 am
No, it’s not. Referencing Christ is a start…
But some will not be convinced until it is too late.
Comment by Tom_with_a_dream — 11.19.04 @ 9:42 am
Personally, I prefer to use “BC” and “AD”, and will continue to use them indefinitely. However, if people are going to insist on using “CE” and “BCE”, I think they should stand for “Cromulent Era” and “Before Cromulent Era”. I think those terms embiggen the impact of the secularized terms.
Comment by AWG — 11.19.04 @ 9:43 am
‘No, it’s not. Referencing Christ is a start…’
A start to what? I always get in trouble with my more christian friends when I reference the bible.
Comment by actus — 11.19.04 @ 9:53 am
Isn’t it a good idea for non-christians to stay away from referencing christ?
Try replacing “christians” and “christ” with with signifiers of any other belief system (e.g. “Isn’t it a good idea for non-Buddhists to stay away from referencing Buddha?”, “Isn’t it a good idea for non-athiests to stay away from referencing athiesm?”, “Isn’t it a good idea for non-Democrats to stay away from referencing the Democratic Party?”, etc.), and the logical fallacy of your premise becomes readily apparent.
Christianity has impacted civilization more profoundly than any other movement, philosophy, religion, or event in history; its genesis is still the axis upon which history swings. The sign (names) may have changed, but the signifier remains the same. If it’s truly detrimental for non-Christians to reference Christ, and it’s subsequently beneficial for non-Christians to invent new names for BC and AD, would it not be even more beneficial to invent an entirely new calendar system altogether that doesn’t use Christ and the effects of Christianity as its referent?
Comment by AWG — 11.19.04 @ 10:05 am
‘ the logical fallacy of your premise becomes readily apparent.’
I think the logical fallacy is in your analogy. Christ is the lord and savior to christians, something that’s not present in your other analogies. Its something christians are pretty possessive of.
Comment by actus — 11.19.04 @ 10:15 am
This post could just as well have been titled ‘Common Contempt for Culture’.
The PC crowd didn’t get coined ‘bleeding heart liberals’ for nothing. Their heart bleeds for any’one’ at the expense of the ‘Common Culture’ of America, to the point of the appearance of ‘Contempt’ for its heritage. In their ’sensitivity gone wild’ behaviors, they are unwittingly(or on purpose)attempting to change the full, rich, spicy and unique ‘American Soup’ for a lite, poor, bland, and neutral ‘World Soup’.
In fact, if you look at the pattern(behavior), they have big problems with America in general. They don’t like its founders heritage, its religious heritage, its self-reliance heritage, its capitalistic heritage, its war heritage, its patriotic heritage, its moral heritage, etc, etc. If in doubt about this, don’t read their lips during an election, watch the behaviors between.
What they do like is the ‘freedom’ given to them by our founders and defended for them by our war dead; the freedom of assembly to desecrate our flag, the freedom of speech to desecrate our fighting men, the freedom of press to support our enemies and demoralize us during war, the separation of powers to remove ‘God’ (horrors) from everything including the Constitution (the goal post) via un-elected Justices, the freedom of speech to use our educational institutions to rail on our culture and our country before our children, etc, etc, etc.
I am not a Christian with a religious agenda nor am I advocating change of our freedoms wisely written into our great Constitution. I am just saying to those so ‘freely’ and ‘harshly’ accusing and abusing the country their freedoms derive from;
Where’s the Respect?
Where’s the Responsibility?
Where’s the Love?
Comment by Jim R — 11.19.04 @ 12:18 pm
“I think the logical fallacy is in your analogy. Christ is the lord and savior to christians, something that’s not present in your other analogies. Its something christians are pretty possessive of.”
True, Christ is Lord and Savior to Christians; that is, he’s the object of the faith of Christians. It’s not fair to say, however, that other belief systems and philosophies aren’t as committed to (”possessive of”) the objects of their faith, as it were. Most athiests I’ve encountered are pretty “possessive of” their disbelief in God, Buddhists are quite sure that their way is the path to Enlightenment (to the point of being “possessive of” it), and Democrats are “possessive of” their positions on issues and preferred policies. In each case, many people who espouse these belief systems will argue their positions with passion, intensity, and dare I say, zeal to rival any Christian. To sum up, people who adamantly hold to their belief system of choice (even to the point of attacking others who don’t share their beliefs) are not exclusive to Christianity. It’s unfair of you to state, either explicitly, implicitly, or by logical extension, that dogmatism is 1)inherent to Christianity and 2)found in Christians alone.
And you still haven’t addressed the logical fallacy of your statement, which seems to imply that people should only discuss topics with people with whom they agree. Consensus is not a prerequisite of reasonable discussion.
Comment by AWG — 11.19.04 @ 2:01 pm
I have used “Christian Era and Before Christian Era” in a few of my papers for a course on Religion and Philosphy I am taken. The professor “hates” it:-)
I can feel her tensing whenever I have to lead the discussions because she knows I will use it. I can’t help it. It’s to much fun. Just rolls of the tongue.
Comment by Renee — 11.19.04 @ 9:53 pm
My rabbi once got a note from a rabbinic organization that started out, “Happy Secular New Year”. He got quite a kick out of that.
Comment by Axinar — 11.19.04 @ 11:50 pm
“If everybody’s somebody, then no one’s anybody”
Gilbert & Sullivan, The Gondoliers
Calling everything and everyone and everyplace “common” this or that makes everything and everyone and everyplace equal. UTOPIA!
Can’t wait for the day, pass me the labeling machine.
Comment by Allan — 11.20.04 @ 1:34 am
Has anyone noticed that the people who push this are very big on tolerance–tolerance of everyone but Christians?
Comment by Evon Bachaus — 11.20.04 @ 8:39 am
‘And you still haven’t addressed the logical fallacy of your statement, which seems to imply that people should only discuss topics with people with whom they agree. Consensus is not a prerequisite of reasonable discussion.’
Its not about having to agree, its about when agreement/disagreement is tangetial to the point.
Comment by actus — 11.20.04 @ 1:24 pm
The zodiac which liberal like to check everyday is just new age pagan simbols i mean why should we conservatives even bother reading those silly things in the papers and bisides the papers are the biggest supporters of the pagans all the planets in the solar system save for ours is named for a pagan deity and think about the other things around and while the aztecs are honored by many they were bloody pagans who commited human sacrifice and the same gose for many native american tribes in fact they praticed slavery and many other tribes turned to the white man for protection and in fact the aztecs themselves would raid other tribes in the areas and use them for the human sacrifice for much that they would latter join up with the spaniards to attack the aztecs and whipe them out
Comment by firebird — 11.22.04 @ 9:12 pm
Show Trial #29
The backlog of self-confessed criminals alone continues to mount. The work of State Commissariat for Prosecution of Cyber Criminals (SCPCC) must continue, through heroic Stakhanovite labor of its apparatchiks, who will doggedly toil on (NO THANKS TO CR…
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