Marginal Christianity

Michael Sean Winters    |   Nov. 29, 2016 You know the celebration of the birth of our Savior is nigh when Fox News starts yapping about the "War on Christmas."  Their website  has usefully collected a series of stories that expose the liberal plot to rob Americans of our most cherished holiday. Once again, liberals have stolen a cultural inheritance that most Americans have always enjoyed. This is all hooey best ignored, of course. Until it results in an Electoral College victory, at which point you can no longer ignore it. First, the hooey. Those referred to as "early Americans" had a positive aversion to Christmas. Heirs to the most radical variety of Reformation ideology, the Puritans banned any celebration of Christmas which they viewed as a pagan observance that had crept into Christianity thanks to the anti-Christ (that would be the pope to us). Christmas became popular in America more on account of the popularity of Charles Dickens' "A C...

There is a "War on 'Christmas'" going on!  It's the Gospel itself that wars against the 'Christmas’ we all know and love/hate.  It says: -Turn Black Friday into a Good Friday by practicing Advent. -Turn away from Norman Rockwell and Thomas Kinkade visions of Christmas and learn to see what happened in the inn as the first step in an intentional campaign of “sabotage” (C.S. Lewis) against the very world the Rockwell/Kinkade vision sentimentalizes and underwrites. -Turn to the ancient image of Mary as “wet-nurse of salvation” to counter gnostic tendencies that fail to take the real fleshliness of the incarnation and our salvation seriously and allow themselves to be coopted by intellectualistic and commercial interests. -Turn to the cross/resurrection as the fulfillment of the incarnation and the fullness of the meaning of his birth, life for us and for our world.  In this sense the great Isenhiem Altarpiece of Grünewald picturing John the Baptist pointing his l...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/diana-butler-bass/fox-news-war-on-advent_b_2279277.html Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Joyful Whatever! With FOX News seeking to expose those who refuse to say "Merry Christmas" as secular collaborators to the War on Christmas, I confess that I am confused. FOX holds itself up as the network that stands by traditional values defending America and faith from heresies and infidelities of all sorts. Did FOX get the wrong memo? According to ancient Christian tradition, "Christmas" is not the December shopping season in advance of Christmas Day; rather, it is Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the Twelve Days following that run until early January. During most of December, Christians observe Advent, a four-week season of reflection, preparation and waiting that precedes the yearly celebration of Jesus' birth. In many mainstream and liturgical (and even liberal and progressive) churches, no Christmas hymn will p...