Why I Love the Bible’s “Christmas That Isn’t Christmas”

John

light

Light in the darkness

Seasonal Holidays

2023-12-29T15:37:06-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today’s Massacre of the Innocents in Gaza and Israel

Last updated on: December 29, 2023 at 3:37 pm By Matt Schur

Some Sobering Numbers Over 8,800 children have been killed in Gaza, Israel, and the West Bank since October. Let that sit for a moment. Almost nine thousand children. In a little under three months. Nobody’s hands are clean when it comes to these deaths. Hamas massacred those Israeli kids (along with over a thousand adults) in October. It’s safe to say that Israel has been entirely too indiscriminate in their response—they have killed twice as many women and children than... Read more

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Politics and Religion

Massacre of the Innocents

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Seasonal Holidays

2023-12-27T15:10:25-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Why My Governor’s a Goat

Last updated on: December 27, 2023 at 3:10 pm By Matt Schur

My governor is a goat. Not the G.O.A.T. as in how we’ve started to abbreviate the title “Greatest of All Time,” but a goat. As in a Matthew 25 goat. The background Let me explain—Nebraska is my home state. Last week, our governor announced that Nebraska would not be applying for eighteen million dollars of federal summer grocery aid for families who qualify for free or reduced school lunch programs. This would have given each child an EBT card with $120 on it... Read more

General Christian

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Politics and Religion

2023-12-26T01:38:57-05:00

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Unto Us a Child Is Born—But First, Contractions

Last updated on: December 26, 2023 at 1:38 am By Matt Schur

With all the religious significance around Jesus’s birth (and rightfully so), it’s easy to forget that Mary was a very real teen mother who endured a very real labor, with everything a natural childbirth normally involves. While this is a longer piece than what will normally be here, my hope is that it might enrich your Christmas experience as together we marvel at both the divine wonder and at the sheer humanity of the night. (If you prefer to listen... Read more

General Christian

Women in Religion

Religious Events

2023-12-22T17:43:43-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

7 AI Images That Will Make You Rethink Christmas

Last updated on: December 22, 2023 at 5:43 pm By Matt Schur

We all have our own mental images of what that first Christmas may have looked and felt like, don’t we? As kids, we probably thought it was very similar to the Christmas pageants many of us were in (or at least had seen). Fluffy sheep, an adorable angel chorus that mumbled their way through the verses of Go Tell It On the Mountain but almost shouted the chorus each time through, Mary, Joseph and the shepherds wearing bathrobes, and a white... Read more

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2023-12-20T15:16:30-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Ave Maria—An Advent Poem For Divine Revolution

Last updated on: December 20, 2023 at 3:16 pm By Matt Schur

Ave Maria is a selection from Cross Sections, a book of progressive poetry I wrote in 2021. It asks what I think are some interesting questions: when Mary was pregnant and sang the revolutionary words of the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55, was Jesus listening in the womb? Did he echo his mother when in Luke 4:14-30 he read from the Isaiah scroll at the synagogue in Nazareth? Did Mary’s revolutionary voice resonate throughout his earthly teaching and ministry? Ave Maria... Read more

General Christian

Women in Religion

Religious Art

2023-12-20T00:38:21-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Why I’m a Pagan for a Day

Last updated on: December 20, 2023 at 12:38 am By Matt Schur

Each year on December 21st, I become a pagan. Before you clutch your pearls, don’t worry—I’m back into full Christian mode by Christmas Eve. But Winter Solstice is one of my personal High Holy Days. Hello darkness, my old friend By the time Solstice rolls around, we’ve survived half a year of steadily increasing darkness. About a month and a half before, that steady increase became a gigantic leap into the evening shadows when Daylight Saving Time ended—hello, five... Read more

Contemplative

Home and Religion

2023-12-15T09:39:17-05:00

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Where is the Real War on Christmas?

Last updated on: December 15, 2023 at 9:39 am By Matt Schur

It’s begun again. Every year, we hear whining from the Christian Right complaining that there is a “war on Christmas.” How the godless liberals hate the baby Jesus and are trying to sneakily act the part of the big bad wolf dressed up like grandma, ready to gobble up the holiday. Like the woodcutter in the story, the Christian Right sees themselves as the ones tasked with bursting through the door and literally saving the day—Christmas—from the ravenous liberal wolf.... Read more

General Christian

Politics and Religion

Current Events

2023-12-13T16:29:01-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How the American Church Keeps Getting It Wrong

Last updated on: December 13, 2023 at 4:29 pm By Matt Schur

The word “Christian” carries an entire Samsonite luggage set’s worth of baggage, doesn’t it? I know I’m not the only non-conservative, non-evangelical Christian who has felt the need to explain themselves when a conversation wanders into matters of faith. Hence the title of this column. Not that kind of Christian My goal for this little corner of the internet is to serve as an alternative to what we have allowed to become the primary voice of Christianity over the last... Read more