Altering history? Changes have some asking 'Before what?'

"I find this attempt to restructure history offensive," Lori Weintz wrote, in a letter to National Geographic publishers. The West Jordan woman had just started reading the Geographic's "Concise History of the World." She had just stumbled across the letters C.E. and B.C.E.

The awareness that something has changed comes to many Utahns in exactly this way. If you are a student, you've known about B.C.E. and C.E. for some time now. Instead of B.C. and A.D. ("Before Christ" and "Anno Domini," Latin for "in the year of the Lord"), the dates in your textbooks are followed by B.C.E., for "Before Common Era" or C.E., for "Common Era."

But if you have been out of school for a while, as Weintz has, it can come as a shock. One day you will pick up a book, or read a sign at a museum. C.E.? B.C.E.? You may feel as though something as basic as time has shifted somehow.

Weintz's letter continued, "The forward to your book says B.C. and A.D. were removed so as to 'not impose the standards of one culture on others.' Whether or not someone believes in Christ, the culture and politics of his time eventually came together to form our way of keeping historical time."

She continued, "It's 2006 this year for anyone on Earth that is participating in day-to-day world commerce and communication. Two thousand six years since what? Most people know, regardless of their belief system, and aren't offended by a historical fact."

Weintz never got an answer to her letter. She figures whoever read it at National Geographic thought she was "just some Christian wacko."

In the end, she was not so offended that she returned the book. She loves the way the "Concise History of the World" lists various cultures side-by-side, so you can see what was happening all around the world.

Still she is bothered by what B.C.E. and C.E. imply — that Jesus is the starting point but we mustn't say so. She's bothered also because the National Geographic company sells Christmas cards. She says, "It's like they are playing both sides."

Ed Davies, a professor of history at the University of Utah, confirms that B.C.E. and C.E. are the terms of choice in most history books these days. He understands and supports the purpose, but agrees that the new term can't get away from the question: 2006 years since what? He says, "It is an attempt to secularize, but it is kind of odd."

And as an attempt to secularize, Davies believes abbreviations will be as far as it goes. To redo the calendars and computers of the world, based on some heretofore undetermined but universally accepted date — well, Davies doesn't see it happening.