2 of 2

A guide to Bush and Gore's religious speech
"The two speeches that closed the presidential campaign on Wednesday nightﾗVice President Al Gore's concession and President-elect George W. Bush's acceptanceﾗprovided fresh evidence that expressions of personal piety have become embedded in political discourse," writes Gustav Niebuhr in Saturday's New York Times. Gore's speech, he writes, "ventured onto theologically more intriguing terrain."

Michael Medved: Stop beating up Santa!
"Religious believers of nearly every stripe have begun to question our national obsession with Santa Claus," writes film critic Michael Medved, darling of conservative culture warriors across America, in yesterday's USA Today. "Many thoughtful Christians worry that the message of the Christmas holiday suffers serious damage when Santa, rather than Jesus, becomes the center of the celebration." Medved acknowledges that his "own observant Jewish home remains a Santa-free environment, but we teach our three children to respect the old guy as a kindly symbol of the benign Christian culture that surrounds us." Why? "In an increasingly chaotic world, Santa signifies an ordered, moral universe." Even more importantly, he says, "Santa Claus remains a steadfast guardian of what remains of childhood, reminding this increasingly jaded society of the importance of allowing our offspring to flourish for a few blissful years in a separate, sheltered corner of existence." And what could be more Christian than that? Oh yeah. Jesus.

Jesus is about to come back! I heard it on the news!
In this Advent season, it seems appropriate to note that the state-run television station in Equatorial Guinea is reporting that Jesus' return is imminent. Unfortunately, it takes as its reason for the report the discovery of the imprint of human foot in a tree. While we at Christianity Today eagerly await Christ's return (especially at this time of year), we don't see footprints in trees listed as one of the signs of Christ's return.

See our past Weblog updates:

December 18

December 15 | 14 | 13 | 12

December 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4

December 1 | November 30 | 29 | 28 | 27

November 22 | 21 | 20

November 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13

November 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6

November | 3 | 2 | 1 October 31 | 30

first page |  2 of 2

share this page

December (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44