When Lutheran immigrants came to the United States from Germany, Scandinavia, and Eastern Europe, they sometimes received a chilly and perplexed reception from American Protestants. Sabbath-keeping was a major emphasis in nineteenth-century Protestantism, and here these Lutherans, after going to church on Sunday mornings, would go to beer gardens! They would listen to concerts! They would watch and play sports! And then on Christmas, they would decorate evergreen trees in their homes and even churches, like Druid tree worshipers! Are these people even Christians?
