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COMMENTARYMerry Christmas.No, honest, as in “the 12 days of” you know what between Dec. 25 and Jan. 5.If you doubt the accuracy of this statement, you can head over to the Web site of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. There you will find an interactive calendar that bravely documents the fact that, according to centuries of Christian tradition, the quiet season called Advent has just ended and the 12-day Christmas season has just begun.Read more of this commentary.
Members of a church in Kansas City, Ks., are protesting the secularization of Christmas by dressing like Jesus at their jobs, malls and restaurants.Pastor Kelly Lohrke advised parishioners of the Praise Chapel Christian Fellowship to wear at minimum a crown of thorns and a sash or robe during the week leading up to Christmas.Read more of this story.
Stages are set, sermons are ready, and tickets are nearly all reserved for the thousands of seats in megachurches across the country as they begin numerous Christmas services this week.But while everyone anticipates a joyous and grand Christmas observance, many preachers are rejecting the hoopla around the season and pointing people to a moment in history that’s far humbler and darker than people typically hear about. Read more of this story.
Worship services may still be the USA’s most segregated hour, but fewer congregations are now completely white, finds a study comparing churches, synagogues and mosques last year with a decade ago. The National Congregations Study says 14% of primarily white congregations reported no minorities in their midst last year, compared with 20% in 1998. Read more of this story.
James Mumford is a well-dressed 27-year-old from the posh London neighborhood of Pimlico. He holds degrees in philosophy from Oxford and Yale and, like many of Britain’s elite, spent a post-graduate stint working in London’s finance industry. But tonight he wants to talk about how he came to accept the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart. "I don’t mind talking about my faith," he says, sheepishly. "But it’s a touch embarrassing. Just don’t brand me as a mindless evangelical." That peculiarly British reticence may be one reason that an unexpected spiritual awakening among London’s high society has gone unnoticed in recent…
Using powerful computer software, an Australian astronomer says that he has re-created the night sky over Bethlehem in the year 2 B.C. and discovered a planetary conjunction that may have been the Star of Bethlehem that drew the Magi to worship the baby Jesus.Astronomer Dave Reneke said the close proximity of Venus and Jupiter created a spectacle in the night sky just before the summer solstice that year. Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported that Reneke went so far as to suggest that perhaps Christmas should be celebrated on June 17 rather than December 25. An interesting idea, since the December Christmas…
Merry Christmas. Seriously. And some people do mean seriously. A vocal faction of believers, grumpy about Christmas gone wild, insist that Christians should get a theological grip."Christmas is being marginalized every day of the year, when pastors fail to preach who Christ really was," says Michael Horton, who blasts these trends in his new book, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church.Read more of this story. |||It’s a Narnia Christmas – Laura Miller, New York Times|||
NEWS RELEASE New study shows children in such families have fewer problems at home and at schoolMadison, WI – A new study released by Wisconsin Family Council finds that children have fewer problems at school and home when they live with both biological parents and frequently attend religious services. Drs. Nicholas Zill and Philip Fletcher co-authored the new study which analyzes data from the National Survey of Children’s Health.
The sudden crush of worshipers packing the small evangelical Shelter Rock Church in Manhasset, N.Y. — a Long Island hamlet of yacht clubs and hedge fund managers — forced the pastor to set up an overflow room with closed-circuit TV and 100 folding chairs, which have been filled for six Sundays straight.In Seattle, the Mars Hill Church, one of the fastest-growing evangelical churches in the country, grew to 7,000 members this fall, up 1,000 in a year. At the Life Christian Church in West Orange, N.J., prayer requests have doubled — almost all of them aimed at getting or keeping…
This year’s big Christmas controversy has been the suddenly in your face anti-religion tactics launched by some atheists. I wrote about what I considered to be a mildly amusing advertising campaign by atheists in Washington D.C. But some people in Washington state have taken a rather ugly turn in their attempt to have a voice during the Christmas season. A group called Freedom From Religion placed this sign near a nativity scene at the state capitol."Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."…Dan Barker, Freedom From Religion Foundation co-president, said he intended the sign to be…