School considers canceling Nutcracker trip because it has a Christmas tree
A Massachusetts elementary school canceled — and then reversed its decision to cancel — a field trip for students to view the classic ballet, The Nutcracker, because the production features a Christmas tree. The cancellation occurred after the school's PTA became concerned that students from non-Christian backgrounds would take offense at the ballet's marginally religious content, which far more prominently features soldiers made of gingerbread and a Mouse King.
Critics have noted that, by the PTA's logic before the reversal, students also would be unable to view many famous works of Renaissance art, which frequently include far more explicitly religious themes and characters.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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