This is an article that appeared in the Christmas Day edition of the Orange County Register back in 2001. It was written by award-winning religion reporter Carol McGraw (now of the Colorado Springs Gazette) and featured a large illustration by the Register's staff illustrator Lisa Mertins. It was a fun Christmas morning piece, and is now long gone from their online archiv...
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Today, the day after Christmas, the Church wisely decided to celebrate the Feast of the first martyr, Stephen. We are reminded that not everyone was happy about the Good News.
This feast has a carol associated with it that also reminds us of the nature of good Christian governance.
Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep ...
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Here's a song, here's a gift
for the day after Christmas
When the presents have been opened
And your spirit has crashed.
When all the colored lights are turned off
And the yule log is an ember
And you've returned that crap to K-Mart
And the tree is in the trash.
You've got to hold on, hold on
To the season's inspiration:
More than a sweet memory,
More than yul...
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And I Joseph was walking, and was not walking; and I looked up into the sky, and saw the sky astonished; and I looked up to the pole of the heavens, and saw it standing, and the birds of the air keeping still. ... And I saw the sheep walking, and the sheep stood still; and the shepherd raised his hand to strike them, and his hand remained up. And I looked upon the current o...
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My favorite version of Christmas Carol has the Muppets taking on the Dickens' classic. I would feel badly about this, but our resident theologian Fred Sanders agrees, thus making my ego secure against the sneers of the purists who prefer bald star ship captains or crusty Americans as Scrooge.
Give me frogs, pigs, and the Great Gonzo.
A good musical, which a Muppet's Chris...
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Featured Essay
Santa Claus, bless his heart, may be a corporate shill who is constantly used to elbow Christ out of Christmas, but he is based on a historical figure who had a different agenda.
St. Nicholas of Myra, a bishop in what we now call Turkey, lived in the fourth century. He must have been quite a guy, because while we have pretty much no reliable documents about him from his o...
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Part of the duty of every Christian is to perform acts of compassion to the poor and needy. He cannot have a cold heart at Christmas to the needs of any human. The sin of ignoring the poor is a common theme of the prophets of the Old Testament.
Lately, the degenerate West has become enamored with self. This cult of selfishness disguises a hard heart behind "minding one's own...
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We mean well, but do badly.
We intend to love our neighbors, our kids, and our spouses, but end up being hateful for all the wrong reasons. How many marriages have been ruined over a missing cup of coffee?
One response is just to give up and accept the fact that we are selfish. Good luck to those people, but here is hoping they stay out of my neighborhood. For the rest of...
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), somewhere deep in his American epic poem Christus: A Mystery, puts these words in the mouth of Martin Luther (1483-1546):
Nothing can vex the Devil more
Than the name of him whom we adore.
Therefore doth it delight me best
To stand in the choir among the rest,
With the great organ trumpeting
Through its metallic tubes, and sing:
...
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Here is a prayer I said at the wedding of two friends today, Dec. 21, 2007. Congratulations to Mark and Shelley.
Our Father in heaven,
We thank you and praise you for all you are and for all you have done. You are the one who said in the beginning, “let light shine out of darkness,” and you are the one who has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge...
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I accuse.
I accuse a cabal of Christmas Insiders, centered in the North Pole (dominated by Christmas mastermind Rudy the Red-Nosed Reindeer) of keeping out Middle-America's Christmas heroes.
There is one certain way for artists, performers, or writers to achieve pop culture immortality.
Associate your work with Christmas.
Bing Crosby was a good crooner and a fine a...
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Michael Wyschogrod is an American Orthodox Jewish theologian. He writes a piece asking the question: ‘Why Was and Is the Theology of Karl Barth of Interest to a Jewish Theologian?’ Wyschogrod resonates with the theology of divine initiative and the theology of the Word that both play such central roles in Barth’s theology.
Of particular note are some remarks he makes o...
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