A Guy in the Pew

E.J. Dionne has a very appropriate Christmas column today on faith and hope. Here are some highlights: Even more than faith and love, I think, hope is closest to the heart of the Christmas story. In an anthropological sense, Christmas celebrates new life and birth, a theme that crosses cultures and traditions. This sense of Christmas has a beauty all its own and embodies a nearly universal quest for renewal. But in the theological sense as understood by Christians, the holiday is even more radical. Christianity -- drawing on the Jewish scriptures, particularly Isaiah -- revolutionized the concept of the divine by putting aside deities who dominated humanity in favor of a God who entered the world in human form. . . . I'm not trying to convert anyone here, but I do want to suggest that Christmas might help us see that both Christianity and Judaism are fundamentally progressive traditions. I do not use "progressive" in a narrow political sense. All great religious tradit...

RMJ at Adventus has a fun post on War on Christmas through graphic art. Here are some of his posters: Find them all here .

David Kuo and I come from very different backgrounds--both politically and theologically. Still, more often than not I find myself nodding in agreement with his postings. Here is the latest example: I used to be in the ticked off camp. Christmas is, after all, the big deal of the holiday season. More people - by far - celebrate it than celebrate any of the other holidays. It isn't even close. But I don't think that anymore. It really doesn't matter what retailers do. It really doesn't matter what governments do. At Christmas it matters what churches do. At Christmas it matters what families do. We waste too much time and too much energy focusing on things that aren't important to faith. What does it matter if stores and governments acknowledge Christmas as the celebration of Christ's birth? It simply doesn't. These issues are a grand distraction to our faith. They are things that can make Christians feel good about their faith without requiring anything of...

The latest video from Peter Carey. Enjoy!

I t appears that I am not the only Christian that wants to put an end to the War on Christmas craziness. Bill Berkowitz reports that there is a coalition of clergy forming to try to put an end to this silliness, and to remind us all what the real threats to Christmas really are: Last year, the Alliance Defense Fund, American Family Association, Focus on the Family, and Concerned Women for America banded together for a special Christmas Project. "Chief on its agenda," Religion News Service reported at the time, "is a list of `nice' retailers that use the word `Christmas' in their stores and catalogues and `naughty' ones that do not." The "War on Christmas" apparently has been good for the bottom line of several conservative Christian organizations. In 2006, the American Family Association maintained that it sold more than 500,000 buttons and 125,000 bumper stickers bearing the slogan "Merry Christmas: It's Worth Saying." The Allian...

The Diocese of Washington has a wonderful online advent calendar that includes art, music, reflections, the Daily office and a suggestion giving activity (today's action was Give a family milk-producing animals ). If you are not too busy shopping ort organizing a battle in the War on Christmas, check it out here .

In the past week, I have blogged about faith and money , and I have blogged about the inane obsession by some on the so-called "War on Christmas". Well, today I read an article that puts the two together. It seems that a group of clergy have formed a so-called Advent Conspiracy that aims to wage it own Christian war on Christmas--not the religious holiday of Christmas, but the secular comemrcialization of Christmas: Americans will spend about $475 billion this year on gifts, decorations and parties that many won't even remember next year. They will run themselves ragged--shopping, wrapping and celebrating. And some won't pay off their Christmas debt until March, if they're lucky. "We celebrate Jesus' birthday by giving ourselves presents," McKinley says. "We don't give him anything." McKinley is pastor of the Imago Dei Community, a Christian church of about 1,500 members that meets in a high school auditorium here. It dawned on McKinley...

Well it has officially started. Its that festive time of year when some Christians decide that they must demand that businesses say "Merry Christmas" and not (the horror!) "Happy Holidays". As the Christian Post is reporting, Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group, has released a “Naughty or Nice” list that advises Christians where to shop for Christmas. Businesses and retailers are placed on the “Nice” list if they recognize Christmas and on the “Naughty” list if they censor such references. The list is part of the fifth annual Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign, in which the legal group is pledging to be a "Friend" to those entities which do not censor Christmas and a "Foe" to those that do. This is crazy, and downright un-Christian. Here is my take: First, we live in a country that is dominated by Christians. We are, by far, the majority faith. Can you name one other religious holiday that is recognized as both a state and federal holiday in ...