Not with a bang, but a whimper. (To adapt T. S. Eliot’s lines from “The Hollow Men.”) Today we see if the Mayans were right. I worry that the world will end and that I’ll miss it. So if you see any signs of a
Not with a bang, but a whimper. (To adapt T. S. Eliot’s lines from “The Hollow Men.”) Today we see if the Mayans were right. I worry that the world will end and that I’ll miss it. So if you see any signs of a
In another in his series on the historical roots of Christmas (see our post on why he says it takes place on December 25), Pastor Joseph Abrahamson explodes the scholarly myth that Christmas was a Christian attempt to co-opt the pagan feast of the sun
Christians typically every year take up the cause of keeping Christ in Christmas. The American Atheists organization has taking up the cause of keeping Santa in Christmas and dropping Jesus. Here is a sign they put up in Times Square: Steadfast Lutherans » Keep the
In the fiscal cliff negotiations, President Obama wants to renew the Bush tax cuts for everyone except those who make $250,000. House Speaker Boehner, in what he is calling his “plan B,” is saying that Republicans would be willing to let taxes go up for
Pastor Joseph Abrahamson has started a fascinating series on why the church celebrates Christmas on December 25 and when this started. He includes a number of links and references, and he critiques the notion that Christians co-opted a pagan holiday. I was fascinated by the
Another level of New Age syncretism: Going to a Star Wars filming location to await the Mayan apocalypse (scheduled for tomorrow) because “the force is strong here.” At the center of the rebel base where Luke Skywalker took off to destroy the Death Star and
Time Magazine has proclaimed Barack Obama as the Person of the Year for 2012. Here, according to the magazine, is his significance for American culture: There has been much talk of the coalition of the ascendant — young people, minorities, Hispanics, college-educated women — and
As is our custom, after Time names its Person of the Year, we discuss our choices. Who do you think most affected the year 2012 for better or worse? (That’s Time‘s criteria.) Or, if you prefer, how about just in your own life?
Philipp Melanchthon was the great Renaissance scholar of the humanities who became Luther’s right hand man and a major Lutheran theologian, being the author of the Augsburg Confession and its Apology. Melanchthon also more or less invented the Reformation schools, giving them a curriculum grounded
Income taxes for everyone are not the only taxes that will jump up, should we jump off the fiscal cliff. The estate and gift taxes will also soar dramatically. George Will is sardonic about it: If you have worked hard for five decades, made pots
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