[Please see the updated, 2010 version of this here.]

Palm Sunday commemorates the day Jesus entered Jerusalem on the back of a colt (or donkey) with throngs of Messianic enthusiasts paving the way with palm fronds.  Celebrations of this holiday therefore often include palms.

In some regions, however, this tropical plant has been difficult to acquire, particularly in the past when shipping methods were primitive.  For this reason, local trees were often substituted for palms, and the name of the holiday revised to match.

Were Christians who celebrated “Yew Sunday,” because their culture knew yews and did not know palms, practicing a heresy?  Other-Than-Palm Sundays certainly could be described as “un-scriptural” but are they un-Christian? We don’t think so, and we think that this is a critically important point that supports our idiomatic, rather than dogmatic, approach to religious creed. Continue reading →