I wonder if you have ever realized how the word "bedlam" entered our language? Here's how it came about. St. Mary of Bethlehem was founded as a hospital in England in 1247. Two centuries later it was restructured as an institution for the hopelessly insane. The noise and confusion of the hospital became widely known throughout the country. The cockney accent, over the years, contracted Bethlehem into Bed'lam. So "bedlam," which means "a place, scene, or state of uproar or confusion" is simply a contracted form of the peaceful word "Bethlehem," which Phillips Brooks described in his beloved carol, "O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie." 

If there were no more here than the corruption of a word, we would be unconcerned. In many ways we do make bedlam out of Bethlehem. The …