Base tree-lighting event pulls no punches on Christmas references

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Base tree-lighting event pulls no punches on Christmas references

By Gene Rector, The Macon Telegraph (Macon, Georgia), December 8, 2005

Robins Air Force Base - In a decidedly Christian ceremony, Robins Air Force Base officials lit a 40-foot Christmas tree Wednesday evening and formally ushered in the holiday season.

Several hundred parents and children watched as Maj. Gen. Michael Collings, joined by 5-year-old Katerina Hixson, applied power to the blanket of lights adorning the tree in front of the base chapel. Collings is commander of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center. Katerina is the daughter of Staff Sgt. Andrew and Heather Hixson. Andrew Hixson is currently deployed to Iraq.

Flanked by the tree and a Nativity scene, 78th Air Base Wing chaplain Lt. Col. Thomas Fey opened the program with prayer, asking that the lights "always remind us of the joy we celebrate because Jesus came into the world to be our savior."

How much freedom the base would have to reference Christ and Christmas was questioned earlier this year. The Air Force issued interim guidelines in the wake of religious intolerance allegations last year at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. There was speculation that holiday observances might have to be subdued.

But that was overblown, Fey stressed. "It was based on poor information," he said following the ceremony. "My marching instructions are to provide religious services to everybody on base. That means we also have to meet the needs of the Christian people in the Robins community. In the mix of verbiage, that somehow got lost."

And Christmas is very definitely a Christian holy day, Fey added. He said he was under no pressure to call the tree a "holiday tree" or to diminish any references to Christ.

"Christmas is our primary celebration of the Lord's birth," said Fey, a Catholic priest. "That's what this season is all about. That's why we call it Christmas. It refers to 'Christ Mass' which we always celebrate on the eve of Christmas."

Senior Protestant chaplain Maj. Bill Burrell, a Progressive National Baptist minister, said the mandate of chaplains is to ensure freedom of religion for all faith groups.

"I think some people who provided information on the guidelines didn't have good information," he said. "There has been talk and some emotion on this subject, but our mandate remains to ensure freedom of religion for Team Robins."

Pentagon spokesman Capt. David Small said during a November interview that final religious directives "are being worked out, although their nature and scope remain unclear." The issue was complicated in October when a former academy cadet, Mickey Weinstein, filed suit against the Air Force claiming some cadets and senior academy leaders forced evangelical Christianity on others. Weinstein, who is Jewish, is a 1977 graduate of the academy.

Col. Greg Patterson, the 78th ABW commander, said he had fielded a number of questions on whether the base would have a Christmas tree and a Nativity scene. He said his answer has always been "absolutely, yes."

He told the large crowd during brief remarks that Robins is a community with many faiths. "But yet we get to fellowship," he said. "That doesn't always happen in other places in the world. We can do it here because of our freedoms." Patterson closed by requesting a moment of silence to honor the 484 Robins airmen who are currently deployed.

Fey closed his prayer with the same reference. "May their families be filled with hope and comfort as they await the safe return of their loved ones," he said. "We make our prayer in the name of the Christ Child, our Savior, who was born in Bethlehem in a manger over two thousand years ago."

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