Christmas in Harvard Square is the first recording of the St. Paul’s Choir school, the only Catholic boys’ choir school in America. Led by Mr. John Robinson, a former assistant from Canterbury Cathedral, the boys take their music and their faith seriously. Continue Reading »
In Maryland, the Montgomery County School board has stripped Christmas, as well as all religious holidays, from the school calendar. The vacation days are still there, but under new names that make no religious reference. In Piedmont, Alabama, the Freedom from Religion Foundation pressured the small southern town to drop its “Keep Christ in Christmas” parade on grounds that it was unconstitutional. The bottom line: Christians need to stop alienating their secular neighbors and celebrate something more inclusive. The war on Christmas is real. Continue Reading »
Complainants, a same sex couple, alleged that they were unlawfully discriminated against when Respondent refused to perform their marriage. Continue Reading »
I used to think that the annual Christmas Wars were strictly an American thing, like corn dogs and attorneys’ contingency fees. Only in America, I thought, do people seriously argue about whether to allow Christmas trees in public parks or to permit public school choirs to sing “Silent Night” at holiday concerts. The issues become more and more bizarre. This year, a Maryland school district decided to remove even a reference to “Christmas” in the school calendar–as though the reference amounted to religious oppression and removal would make people forget what holiday comes round every 25th of December. Continue Reading »
The Board of Education’s decision to remove Christmas from the calendar has only succeeded in creating religious conflict. Continue Reading »
In many churches, Christmas Eve is the first time we hear the Gloria since Advent began. We have been awaiting the coming of glory, and now here it is, the angels singing Gloria in excelsis: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace (Luke 2:14). Both the song and the occasion speak of a new . . . . Continue Reading »
My friend’s six-year-old son wanted to be God the Father in the Christmas pageant. He reasoned that he was too old to play the second person of the Trinity, whose part in any case had been assigned to a doll. Continue Reading »
Many of those here only know a verse of any given carol, sometimes less— sometimes an isolated phrase or terse refrain like “Gloria.” Most still confess the apostolic faith, though as naïve in its theology as those days when as children they would sing on Christmas Eve in church. Now . . . . Continue Reading »
Have there been good Christmas rock songs? I mean Christmas music here, not happy holidays fare like “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” etc. The classical canon is of course full of beautiful evocations of Christ’s birth, the annunciation, the flight to Egypt, etc. And then . . . . Continue Reading »
It’s easy to step back and denounce the excesses of the Christmas season: the orgy of spending, too much food, too much drink, too many parties, and expensive ski vacations that bring aching credit card hangovers. Easy, but mistaken. Continue Reading »
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