In the U.S., we divide ourselves into two great camps: those who wish each other "Merry Christmas," and those who prefer "Happy Holidays." In Britain, they've found another way to divide the sheep from the goats. The BBC has announced that from now on it will use C.E. (Common Era) and B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) in place of B.C. and A.D. According to a recent article in the Washington Post (here), the decision has proven unpopular in several circles. A number of Christian groups, of course, are mad because they see in the decision a denial of Britain's Christian heritage. But others scoff at the BBC because it will still count its years from (or before) the birth of Christ; changing the name pastes over that fact. And then there are those who have little use for political correctness of any kind and see the decision as just more of "that sort of thing." The BBC justified the change as one that replaces Christian-oriented terms with neutral ones that are more appropriate to Britain's pluralistic society.Scholars have used the C.E./B.C.E. convention for years mostly because it replaces a religious-leaning convention with one that doesn't show bias toward one religion. The idea is, in part at least, that using B.C. and A.D. suggests that Christianity is the benchmark by which all else is measured. At the end of the day, this is another one of those things that one can make a case for both arguments. Indeed, Daniel Wallace, writing on the bible.org website (here) presents a cogent case from an evangelical Christian point of view for C.E. over A.D.
In the church, we will continue to use the traditional abbreviations because they express what is true for us: Jesus is the axial moment in our history. But it really shouldn't be a matter worth getting all bothered about otherwise. Using the newer abbreviations acknowledges the fact that we do live in a pluralistic society. It also replaces an obscure Latin abbreviation, Anno Domini, with an English one. But, truth be told, the BBC's critics are right when they note that changing the terms doesn't change the fact that we still count our years based on the birth of Christ—in our calendar, at least. Now, in Thailand, the year is 2554 B.E. (Buddhist Era), and Christians in Thailand count the years from the Buddha just as readily as do Buddhists. On a daily basis no one stops to think why it is 2554 instead of 2011. Just like here, in Europe, and even in Britain, we use 2011 day in and day out and rarely stop and say, "Oh, yes, it is 2,011 years since Christ."
Maybe some people take this abbreviation stuff too seriously. Ya think.
