THE QUESTION: What were the sources for the Bible’s accounts of Jesus’ birth? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: If it’s Christmastime, we expect the media will look around for material to deconstruct cherished church traditions. One 2019 example is a series of December articles about Jesus’ Nativity on this very interfaith site (www.patheos.com/blogs/messyinspirations) from a Catholic “channel” contributor who for some reason wants anonymity and calls himself “fellow dying inmate.” The “inmate” is correct to debunk some sentimental Christmas folkways. Typical... Read more

THE QUESTION: Bible trivia: How long is a cubit? What does a shekel weigh? How much does an ephah contain? THE GUY’S ANSWER: Readers of the Bible, particularly those wedded to the revered King James Version from four centuries ago, will keep running across esoteric words for weights and measures in ancient times. Many editions today help out by providing modern equivalents in the text or footnotes. But don’t take those equivalents too literally. Specialist Marvin Powell’s advice is that... Read more

THE QUESTION: Can we rely upon New Testament texts that were copied and recopied over centuries? THE GUY’S ANSWER: It’s hard to think of any question more central for the Christian faith than that. The Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council and subsequent catechism proclaim that the New Testament books provide “the ultimate truth of God’s revelation.” The church “unhesitatingly affirms” that they “faithfully hand on” the “honest truth about Jesus” and the history of his words and deeds. Yet consider... Read more

THE QUESTIONS: Reviving big Catholic issues: Should priests be married? Should women be deacons? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Those two epochal changes in Catholicism are posed to Pope Francis in the final report from an October synod for Catholic delegates representing South America’s Amazon region. Francis expects to issue his formal response in a pronouncement by the end of the year. Catholics in that region can go for months, even years, without seeing a priest due to a severe shortage... Read more

THE QUESTION: Should U.S. religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage lose tax exemption? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: At CNN’s recent “Equality Town Hall” for Democratic presidential candidates, co-sponsored with the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, anchor Don Lemon prodded Beto O’Rourke on whether “religious institutions like colleges, churches, charities” should “lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage.” O’Rourke (who identifies as Catholic) immediately answered “yes,” because “there can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break, for anyone,... Read more

THE QUESTION: What should U.S. college graduates, and high school graduates, know about religion? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: A Gallup poll for the Bible Literacy Project 15 years ago found only about a third of U.S. teen-agers knew about Islam’s holy month of Ramadan or that the Quran is the religion’s holy book. The youths generally did better on Christian questions, though only a third could identify the significance of the “road to Damascus” and a tenth couldn’t say what... Read more

THE QUESTION: A four-letter topic raised by campaign 2020: What does Christianity teach about cussing? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: The vulgar lingo associated with military barracks, so tiresome and over-used in movies, cable TV shows and pop music, is filtering into U.S. politics. Several candidates this campaign have gone potty-mouth, but it’s a specialty of “Beto” O’Rourke. He dropped the f-bomb in his Texas Senate concession speech last November and promised to “keep it clean” when a perturbed voter complained,... Read more

THE QUESTION: This cosmic theme is raised by a British Broadcasting Corporation article under the headline “Tomorrow’s Gods: What is the Future of Religion?” THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: In its early history the BBC (born in 1927, the year of the U.S. Radio Act) was nicknamed “Auntie” for its comforting, old-style tone. But The Beeb goes futuristic in a current online series that takes “the long view of humanity.” An August article offered the forecast about  religion: www.bbc.com/future/story/20190801-tomorrows-gods-what-is-the-future-of-religion Writer Sumit... Read more

THE QUESTION:  What is (and is not) “fundamentalism”? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: One of The Guy’s weekly memos for getreligion.org recently proposed that “fundamentalism” has become such an abused and misunderstood label that maybe we media folk should drop it altogether. The Guy was provoked to go public with this heretical idea when The New York Times Book Review  assessed a memoir of life among Jehovah’s Witnesses. The reviewer, who teaches at Harvard Divinity School, said repeatedly that Witnesses are... Read more

BRAD ASKS:       I think Trump is a bad president. Is it right of me to pray for his defeat? THE RELIGION GUY’S ANSWER: Or turn Brad’s question around. Will it be proper for others to pray for the defeat of the Democrats’ 2020 nominee? The President has provoked the most ferocious pro-and-con political emotions in our lifetimes, so prayers inevitably result. That’s because prayer is a virtually universal phenomenon. We all know the phrase ‘foxhole religion” about desperate... Read more