Brooke Coen sang Christmas carols on Saturday during the Parade of Lights in downtown Denver.
Steve Peterson for The New York Times
I was reading an article about people outraged over the PUBLIC holiday displays in Denver not being Christian enough.
For many years, this city's annual Parade of Lights was as bland as butter and content to be so. Organized by the local business community, the event shunned politics and anything remotely smacking of controversy, including openly religious Christmas themes that might offend.
The star was Santa, not Jesus, and the mood was bouncy, commercial and determinedly secular.
This year, Jesus came anyway. A local evangelical Christian church called the Faith Bible Chapel sought but failed to get permission for a religious-themed float with a choir singing hymns and carols. By coincidence, Denver's mayor chose this year to change the traditional banner on the roof of the City and County Building. "Merry Christmas" was out. "Happy Holidays" was in.
Like a spark in dry tinder, the result was a flare-up that caught even some church leaders by surprise. A holiday rite that had drawn thousands of paradegoers annually suddenly became a symbol, for many Christians, of secular society run amok.
I was struck by the name in the caption. I don't know anyone named Coen that sings Christmas carols.
