7 things @ 9 o’clock (12.9)

1. “From anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.”

2. This is an astute observation by Scot McKnight, discussing Molly Worthen’s new book Apostles of Reason: “Molly Worthen’s book, I am suggesting, will become a potential watershed in that she has revealed why the coalition mindset that many of us want and believe in struggles to find genuine centrality among evangelicals because the gatekeepers would prefer less diversity at the table while also wanting the numbers for support in the movement.”

This is why the category is unwieldy in its diversity but at the same time is constantly being defined in very narrow, tribal ways. Gatekeepers gloss over the diversity while pretending to be the sole representatives of the entire larger movement because it’s only by anointing themselves as the spokesmen for that larger movement that they appear to be powerful, influential people and not just a rump-end faction of a sprawling, chaotic spiritual stream. That involves embracing contradictory ideas in a way that seems indistinguishable from just plain lying.

3. The stockings are hung by our chimney with care. And this year, I’ve finally got a “real” stocking. My wife and the girls had these nice monogrammed ones with the first letter of their names on them. It took us a few years before we found the same style with the letter “F” for me. But it wasn’t until we got them all hung that we realized our names created something of an R-rated Christmas:

4. Jason Pitzl-Waters discusses “The Ongoing Ugly Legacy of the Satanic Panics” — “We just don’t know how many more innocent people are still rotting away in jail cells, accused of unspeakable acts and quickly locked away during a time of moral panic.” And, of course, the Satanic Panic is still happening, which isn’t surprising, since the politics of Satanic baby-killers that drives it remains a central, shaping force of our public life.

5. Well done, Sir Elton John. It’s not easy to be punk rock when you’re a 66-year-old member of the Order of the British Empire and your set-list includes “Tiny Dancer” and “Candle in the Wind,” but I think Joe Strummer and Pussy Riot would approve of that statement.

6. I would guess that the old preacher embellishes a bit to sermonize this story, but it’s still a pretty great story:

He continued, “I had been diagnosed just a few weeks when my president, Nelson Mandela, asked me to chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.”

“I said to him, “‘No, no. I am the wrong person. You need someone else.'”

Tutu reported that Mandela pressed him even harder.

“But, my president, I am not fit to do this job.”

“Why?” asked Mandela.

“Because,” said Tutu, “I laugh too easily. I cry too easily. I am weak.”

Tutu reports that Mandela looked at him and said, “My dear Desmond. This is why you are perfect for the task. If you can laugh too easily, you know about the absurdity of life (Truth). If you cry too easily, you understand about the fragility of life (Reconciliation). And, if you understand your own weakness, you understand the power of God.”

7. December means Christmas music. This terrific collection of “New Wave artists aging gracefully” — along with the four inches of snow that just fell here — made this seem appropriate: