It is time to settle once and for all the key debate: just how long should you leave your Christmas tree up?
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Christmas
What to get the kids you know for Christmas this year
Not sure what to get the kids you know and/or parent for Christmas this year? This gift guide is for you!
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There was apparently no room in Greg Abbott’s inn this Christmas eve.
It’s Christmas. That means it’s time for evangelical politicians to use aslyum-seeking migrants for their political stunts. Here is CNN: Several busloads of migrants were dropped off in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, DC, on Christmas...
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Merry Christmas!
I’ve pointed this out before, but I will point it out again. Notice that Linus drops his security blanket when he says “fear not.”...
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The original message behind the American Christmas was not very evangelical
Historian Daniel K. Williams, a Current contributing editor, explains in a recent piece at Christianity Today. A taste: Conservative evangelical Christians have sometimes been eager advocates of the modern campaign to “keep Christ in Christmas” and preserve the traditional religious meaning of...
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Episode 50: “Happy Birthday Jesus!”
The Christian Right tries to “put the Christ back in Christmas” Episode 50: “’Happy Birthday Jesus!;’’” dropped today. Subscribers to Current at the Longshore level and above have access to new episodes of this narrative history podcast. Here is a teaser: If you like...
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Merry Christmas!
Last year someone pointed out to me that Linus drops his security blanket in the middle of the speech:...
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Gerson: Christmas should remind us that God is a God of hope who “offers a different kind of security than the fulfillment of our deepest wishes”
The Washington Post columnist is battling cancer, but he will not despair. Here is a taste of Michael Gerson‘s Christmas column: …from a young age, if we are lucky, we are taught that hope itself sustains. It is one of...
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Current!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at Current. Thank you for reading, following, and supporting us this year and engaging our efforts to reflect on some of life’s most important questions!...
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Tom Nichols: All Christmas specials are terrible except…
Here is Nichols at The Atlantic: Let’s begin with the granddaddy of them all, the stop-motion puppet show Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Produced by the team of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass in 1964, Rudolph became an industry, spawning toys and collectibles and...
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Why is Christmas on December 25th?
Messiah University history graduate and historian of early Christianity Andrew Henry explains at his web show “Religion for Breakfast“:...
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From the archives: “Was There a Golden Age of Christmas in America?”
This piece first appeared in the Pacific Standard (now defunct) on December 11, 2011 —JF The so-called “War on Christmas” has reared its ugly head again. Conservative Christians—most of them evangelicals—have hit the airwaves and lecture circuits to warn their...
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Kentucky congressman asks Santa to bring him more ammo
As you can see from his family Christmas photo above, Kentucky representative Thomas Massie is celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace. Some of you may remember Rep. Thomas Massie from this video:...
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‘Tis the Season!
Messiah University may no longer have a history department, but our history majors are doing their best to hold on to the department’s time-honored traditions. This weekend the History Club did some Christmas caroling at faculty homes (History and Politics...
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Merry Christmas!
I’ll be taking a few days off. Someone recently pointed out to me that Linus drops his security blanket in the middle of the speech.
The court evangelicals continue to mix biblical faith and Trumpism
So what has happened in the United States since our last court evangelical update? Donald Trump continues to claim he won the 2020 presidential election, refuses to sign Congress’s COVID-19 relief package, and pardoned two murderers and two members of...
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Nicholas Kristof’s interview with Jim Wallis
The New York Times columnist talks with the progressive evangelical leader about Christianity. Wallis talks about “secular fundamentalists,” the meaning of the word “evangelical,” Christmas, and abortion. Here is a taste: Kristof: I’ve seen conservative evangelicals do heroic work, including...
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Out of the Zoo: Traditions
Annie Thorn is a junior history major from Kalamazoo, Michigan and our intern here at The Way of Improvement Leads Home. As part of her internship she is writing a weekly column titled “Out of the Zoo.” It focuses on life as...
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The American Society of Church History is Coming to Town!
Martin Spence is Associate Professor of History at Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is writing for us this weekend at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association in New York City. Enjoy! –JF It may be January...
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What a Historian Who Writes About Donald Trump Gets for Christmas
My daughter Allyson likes to customize her Christmas gifts: ...
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