Auld Lang Syne by Sissel (Live).wmv
Have A Blessed And Happy New Year!
Dec 18, 2011
Dec 11, 2011
Ragbag Headliners
New Jersey Nurses Charge Religious Discrimination Over Hospital Abortion Policy
A dozen nurses in New Jersey have rekindled the contentious debate over when health-care workers can refuse to play a role in caring for women getting abortions.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Oct. 31, 12 nurses charge that the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey violated state and federal laws by abruptly announcing in September that nurses would have to help with abortion patients before and after the procedure, reversing a long-standing policy exempting employees who refuse based on religious or moral objections.
“I’m a nurse so I can help people, not help kill, and it just doesn’t seem right to me,” said Beryl Otieno-Negoje, one of the nurses. “No health professional should be forced to choose between assisting abortion or being penalized at work.”
The University Hospital issued a statement that “no nurse is compelled to have direct involvement in, and/or attendance in the room at the time of, a procedure to which she or he objects based on his/her cultural values, ethics and/or religious beliefs.”
“The university is in full compliance with all applicable state and federal laws and is confident its position will be vindicated when the court gives this matter a full hearing,” according to the statement.
For decades, most states, including New Jersey, have had laws protecting nurses and other health-care workers who have moral objections to participating in abortions. In addition, federal laws, such as the Church Amendment, require health-care facilities that receive taxpayer money to permit workers to refuse on ethical grounds.
On Nov. 3, U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares granted a request for a temporary restraining order barring the hospital from requiring the nurses to undergo training to care for abortion patients, pending a Dec. 5 hearing on the case, which involves 12 of the 16 nurses who work in the hospital’s same-day surgery unit.
Matt Bowman, an attorney representing the nurses, said he had received an e-mail from a lawyer for the hospital arguing that no laws had been broken, because the nurses are required to care for abortion patients only before and after the procedure.
“The pre- and post-operative care provided to these patients is the same nature as that provided to patients who have undergone other surgical procedures,” Edward B. Deutsch of McElry, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter of Morristown, N.J., wrote in the e-mail.
Bowman argued that requiring the nurses to get involved before and after an abortion violated their right to refuse based on their conscientious objections.
“Federal and state law explicitly prohibits requiring nurses to assist in abortion against their moral and religious convictions,” Bowman said. “All these nurses are asking is that they not have to assist in any part of an abortion case.”
One of the nurses, Fe Esperanza R. Vinoya, said a manager told her: “‘You just have to catch the baby’s head. Don’t worry, it’s already dead.’ ”
“Nursing is a healing profession, and the law protects our right not to provide any services related to abortion,” Vinoya said at a news conference this month. –Washington Post
A dozen nurses in New Jersey have rekindled the contentious debate over when health-care workers can refuse to play a role in caring for women getting abortions.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Oct. 31, 12 nurses charge that the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey violated state and federal laws by abruptly announcing in September that nurses would have to help with abortion patients before and after the procedure, reversing a long-standing policy exempting employees who refuse based on religious or moral objections.
“I’m a nurse so I can help people, not help kill, and it just doesn’t seem right to me,” said Beryl Otieno-Negoje, one of the nurses. “No health professional should be forced to choose between assisting abortion or being penalized at work.”
The University Hospital issued a statement that “no nurse is compelled to have direct involvement in, and/or attendance in the room at the time of, a procedure to which she or he objects based on his/her cultural values, ethics and/or religious beliefs.”
“The university is in full compliance with all applicable state and federal laws and is confident its position will be vindicated when the court gives this matter a full hearing,” according to the statement.
For decades, most states, including New Jersey, have had laws protecting nurses and other health-care workers who have moral objections to participating in abortions. In addition, federal laws, such as the Church Amendment, require health-care facilities that receive taxpayer money to permit workers to refuse on ethical grounds.
On Nov. 3, U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares granted a request for a temporary restraining order barring the hospital from requiring the nurses to undergo training to care for abortion patients, pending a Dec. 5 hearing on the case, which involves 12 of the 16 nurses who work in the hospital’s same-day surgery unit.
Matt Bowman, an attorney representing the nurses, said he had received an e-mail from a lawyer for the hospital arguing that no laws had been broken, because the nurses are required to care for abortion patients only before and after the procedure.
“The pre- and post-operative care provided to these patients is the same nature as that provided to patients who have undergone other surgical procedures,” Edward B. Deutsch of McElry, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter of Morristown, N.J., wrote in the e-mail.
Bowman argued that requiring the nurses to get involved before and after an abortion violated their right to refuse based on their conscientious objections.
“Federal and state law explicitly prohibits requiring nurses to assist in abortion against their moral and religious convictions,” Bowman said. “All these nurses are asking is that they not have to assist in any part of an abortion case.”
One of the nurses, Fe Esperanza R. Vinoya, said a manager told her: “‘You just have to catch the baby’s head. Don’t worry, it’s already dead.’ ”
“Nursing is a healing profession, and the law protects our right not to provide any services related to abortion,” Vinoya said at a news conference this month. –Washington Post
<><><>*<><><>
Separating Church And Graduation
With a federal appeals court ruling that a Wisconsin school district can hold its graduation ceremonies in a church, Americans United for Separation of Church and State is demanding that the case be re-tried.
The organization is appealing the decision concerning the Elmbrook School District to the full Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, hoping for a different answer. And according to Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, some justices on the court would like to see the ruling reversed.
"I think it's very clear, however, from a constitutional standpoint that a public school looking at all of the criteria -- ease, comfort, cost, and location -- can easily pick a church over a secular venue if that is the better facility," he contends. "And it does not raise a First Amendment Establishment Clause case."
Americans United wants the judges to rule that because ceremonies are held in a church, it represents an endorsement of religion. The organization's appeal to the full court means the lower court decision will be wiped out as if it had never been heard.
"So now it's going back to the court of appeals, brand new," Staver explains. "Ten judges will hear it, and obviously, you're going to need six of the judges to rule in your favor to get a majority at this stage."
Meanwhile, a new field house has been built at Brookfield East High School, and the school district has moved graduation ceremonies back to the high school. –One News Now
With a federal appeals court ruling that a Wisconsin school district can hold its graduation ceremonies in a church, Americans United for Separation of Church and State is demanding that the case be re-tried.
The organization is appealing the decision concerning the Elmbrook School District to the full Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, hoping for a different answer. And according to Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver, some justices on the court would like to see the ruling reversed.
"I think it's very clear, however, from a constitutional standpoint that a public school looking at all of the criteria -- ease, comfort, cost, and location -- can easily pick a church over a secular venue if that is the better facility," he contends. "And it does not raise a First Amendment Establishment Clause case."
Americans United wants the judges to rule that because ceremonies are held in a church, it represents an endorsement of religion. The organization's appeal to the full court means the lower court decision will be wiped out as if it had never been heard.
"So now it's going back to the court of appeals, brand new," Staver explains. "Ten judges will hear it, and obviously, you're going to need six of the judges to rule in your favor to get a majority at this stage."
Meanwhile, a new field house has been built at Brookfield East High School, and the school district has moved graduation ceremonies back to the high school. –One News Now
<><><>*<><><>
Prop. 8 Supporter: Marriage Definition Up To States
A pro-family leader says that California's marriage battle should have never been taken to a federal court, and he does not expect a favorable outcome in the Proposition 8 case.
The issue now heads back to the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, following a ruling by the state Supreme Court that allows initiative proponents the right to defend their measure in court. But Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, suggests the Ninth Circuit judges will not side with supporters of traditional marriage.
"It doesn't look very good there," he warns. "Stephen Reinhardt, he's heading up this three-judge panel, he's the ultimate judicial activist." And Thomasson is not sure about how Justices Michael Daly Hawkins and Norman Randy Smith will vote on the merits of the case.
The pro-family leader goes on to explain that if the case goes to the United States Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy would be the deciding vote in the "very closely divided court."
However, Thomasson argues that this is an issue that should have never been taken to a federal court "because marriage is a state jurisdiction."
Ultimately, he says the court must decide whether the definition of marriage is something that should be decided at the state level.
"The federal Supreme Court should say, 'Yes, states can decide,' because historically, states have been the deciders of marriage and have had different types of marriage laws," Thomasson concludes. –One News Now
A pro-family leader says that California's marriage battle should have never been taken to a federal court, and he does not expect a favorable outcome in the Proposition 8 case.
The issue now heads back to the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, following a ruling by the state Supreme Court that allows initiative proponents the right to defend their measure in court. But Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, suggests the Ninth Circuit judges will not side with supporters of traditional marriage.
"It doesn't look very good there," he warns. "Stephen Reinhardt, he's heading up this three-judge panel, he's the ultimate judicial activist." And Thomasson is not sure about how Justices Michael Daly Hawkins and Norman Randy Smith will vote on the merits of the case.
The pro-family leader goes on to explain that if the case goes to the United States Supreme Court, Justice Anthony Kennedy would be the deciding vote in the "very closely divided court."
However, Thomasson argues that this is an issue that should have never been taken to a federal court "because marriage is a state jurisdiction."
Ultimately, he says the court must decide whether the definition of marriage is something that should be decided at the state level.
"The federal Supreme Court should say, 'Yes, states can decide,' because historically, states have been the deciders of marriage and have had different types of marriage laws," Thomasson concludes. –One News Now
<><><>*<><><>
The End Of Illinois Catholic Charities
After 90 years of assisting in providing foster care for children, Catholic Charities of Illinois has been forced to cease services.
The problem began with passage of the Illinois civil unions law for same-gender pairs, which led the state to force Christian foster care and adoption organizations to consider homosexual couples, even though that is contrary to basic Christian doctrine. Catholic Charities filed suit, but the state has already begun transferring the children out.
"Unfortunately, the clock has run out on the Catholic Charities case because the state has begun the transition process for the children under the care of Catholic Charities in the foster care," reports Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society. "And so we are going to move to dismiss the appeal, unfortunately. But again, due to the action of the state of Illinois, we have now come to a point with this case where it's become moot."
He notes that any relief ordered by the appellate court would have come too late to save the foster-care ministry. "Based on the typical timetable of an appeal, even if we were to win the case, there would be no impact as the children would be gone [and] all of our staff members would have been gone," the attorney explains. "So really, any victory that we would obtain in court would be without effect." (Listen to separate audio report)
According to Breen, another form of pressure was placed on the organization. "The state delayed the payments substantially -- and so from that perspective, there was also a financial squeeze being put on the Catholic Charities," he says.
Breen laments that state officials refused to abide by the protections for religious social service agencies assured by the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act. He offers this warning: "The situation in Illinois is a call to all Christians across the country: same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions may not be consistent with religious freedom, even though the laws may claim to protect religious freedom, that doesn't mean the government officials have to respect those laws."
Now the state will only be dealing with organizations that are willing to hand children over to homosexuals.
Meanwhile, an organization once known as Catholic Social Services of South Illinois has severed its ties with the diocese in order to comply with the state law. Gary Huelsmann, executive director of the agency, recently told LifeSiteNews that it "boiled down to the Catholic Church needing to stay true to its core beliefs and the agency needing to take care for all of the abused, neglected children." -One News Now
After 90 years of assisting in providing foster care for children, Catholic Charities of Illinois has been forced to cease services.
The problem began with passage of the Illinois civil unions law for same-gender pairs, which led the state to force Christian foster care and adoption organizations to consider homosexual couples, even though that is contrary to basic Christian doctrine. Catholic Charities filed suit, but the state has already begun transferring the children out.
"Unfortunately, the clock has run out on the Catholic Charities case because the state has begun the transition process for the children under the care of Catholic Charities in the foster care," reports Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society. "And so we are going to move to dismiss the appeal, unfortunately. But again, due to the action of the state of Illinois, we have now come to a point with this case where it's become moot."
He notes that any relief ordered by the appellate court would have come too late to save the foster-care ministry. "Based on the typical timetable of an appeal, even if we were to win the case, there would be no impact as the children would be gone [and] all of our staff members would have been gone," the attorney explains. "So really, any victory that we would obtain in court would be without effect." (Listen to separate audio report)
According to Breen, another form of pressure was placed on the organization. "The state delayed the payments substantially -- and so from that perspective, there was also a financial squeeze being put on the Catholic Charities," he says.
Breen laments that state officials refused to abide by the protections for religious social service agencies assured by the Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act. He offers this warning: "The situation in Illinois is a call to all Christians across the country: same-sex marriage and same-sex civil unions may not be consistent with religious freedom, even though the laws may claim to protect religious freedom, that doesn't mean the government officials have to respect those laws."
Now the state will only be dealing with organizations that are willing to hand children over to homosexuals.
Meanwhile, an organization once known as Catholic Social Services of South Illinois has severed its ties with the diocese in order to comply with the state law. Gary Huelsmann, executive director of the agency, recently told LifeSiteNews that it "boiled down to the Catholic Church needing to stay true to its core beliefs and the agency needing to take care for all of the abused, neglected children." -One News Now
Absolutely True!
"Jesus answered, "'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" -John 14:6
Who is Jesus? It is no mystery. We don't have to guess. We know who He is because He told us who He is. He used metaphors to reveal His true identity. Jesus is the absolute truth. He made the claim when He said:
I AM the light - absolutely true knowledge!
I Am the door/good shepherd - absolutely true pathway to life abundant.I AM the bread of life - absolutely true life over death.
I AM the true vine - absolutely true fruit!
Absolute truth is absolutely true! Unlike some may think - that there is no such things as an absolute truth - Jesus IS the absolute truth. I was taught when I earned my doctorate that research that the search for knowledge required empirical evidence - evidence that you can see, smell, taste, hear, and/or touch. And if you didn't have that kind of evidence, it must be questioned as to the truth of the claims.
There are people who do not believe in absolute truth, and so they do not believe in God, Jesus, and/or the Holy Spirit because they can't verify the claims with empirical evidence. But I ask you, when you come to the end of your life and you breathe your last and you discover that there is life after death and everything in the Bible is absolutely true - wouldn't you rather believe and find out you are right than not believe and find out you were wrong?
True knowledge can be found in Jesus as He is the light and leads us to the absolute truth. The true pathway to a life abundant is found in Jesus, for He is the "door" and the "good shepherd." The true life-over-death is found in Jesus, as He is the "bread of life" - His body broken for you and me. The true fruit - leaving an eternal legacy - is found in Jesus when we live for Him. And that's the truth - the whole truth - and the absolute truth!
Written by Sheila Schuller Coleman
I AM the light - absolutely true knowledge!
I Am the door/good shepherd - absolutely true pathway to life abundant.I AM the bread of life - absolutely true life over death.
I AM the true vine - absolutely true fruit!
Absolute truth is absolutely true! Unlike some may think - that there is no such things as an absolute truth - Jesus IS the absolute truth. I was taught when I earned my doctorate that research that the search for knowledge required empirical evidence - evidence that you can see, smell, taste, hear, and/or touch. And if you didn't have that kind of evidence, it must be questioned as to the truth of the claims.
There are people who do not believe in absolute truth, and so they do not believe in God, Jesus, and/or the Holy Spirit because they can't verify the claims with empirical evidence. But I ask you, when you come to the end of your life and you breathe your last and you discover that there is life after death and everything in the Bible is absolutely true - wouldn't you rather believe and find out you are right than not believe and find out you were wrong?
True knowledge can be found in Jesus as He is the light and leads us to the absolute truth. The true pathway to a life abundant is found in Jesus, for He is the "door" and the "good shepherd." The true life-over-death is found in Jesus, as He is the "bread of life" - His body broken for you and me. The true fruit - leaving an eternal legacy - is found in Jesus when we live for Him. And that's the truth - the whole truth - and the absolute truth!
Written by Sheila Schuller Coleman
* * *
PRAYER:
Lord Jesus Christ, I am eternally grateful that You came to earth so we don't have to be lost, we don't have to lose our lives, we don't have to wander in the darkness. You came to show us absolute truth and a life that is abundantly rich. Thank You, Lord. Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, I am eternally grateful that You came to earth so we don't have to be lost, we don't have to lose our lives, we don't have to wander in the darkness. You came to show us absolute truth and a life that is abundantly rich. Thank You, Lord. Amen.
* * *
How has Jesus revealed Himself to you today through His Word?
Holiday Traditions: Creating Memories For Your Family
Holiday traditions we hold close to our hearts. They are things that we can count on and bring to mind memories, reminding us of both times and people that have passed. Some traditions may be fun, some may be tedious, some may be bits of distant past that you hold onto wistfully, hoping some day to recreate. The first holiday season with a new baby – whatever holiday, in whichever time of year that may be – is a good time to establish what traditions you are going to pass on, which you are going to leave behind and which you are going to adopt from your spouse or partner.
Dividing the holidays
If you haven’t run into holiday battles yet, requiring a dividing of holidays between sides of the family, now that the baby has arrived, you can bet that they will begin. There are ways to avoid big fights over who goes where and when.
First, you should assess what is realistic for your family. Consider cost, in terms of both money and time. You may not be able to afford to be jetting across the country – and with and infant or young child, you may not want to – or you may have limited guest space for visiting parents, in-laws, and siblings. Then again, maybe you live around the corner from your sister and next door to your mother.
Then decide if there are certain holidays that hold priority for you or your spouse. Is there a giant family reunion-style dinner every year for a specific holiday that you want your children to be experience? Does your long lost uncle fly back to the country once a year and only for a particular occasion? Are both families equally invested in the ritual and protocol of the holiday season, thus requiring an alternating of years?
Once you have determined which family have priority for which holidays, establish ground rules. Decide which holidays you are visiting relatives and which you are staying home. Let your family know that you’ll be alternating years, or which holidays to expect you every year. Communicating this up front helps prevent hurt feelings when you turn down an invitation and manages expectations.
A great alternative, if you have the space to accommodate, is to shift the center of holiday celebration. If you are able to host the celebration, then there is no need to decide which family to go to; you can have both come to you.
It also allows you to blend the traditions from both families’ celebrations into one event, and expose your child to the favorite traditions of both parents.
Adapting traditions
Some traditions you can take from one time into another. Others are things that you enjoyed, but are no longer practical or realistic. Maybe you enjoyed going ice skating on the frozen pond near your house the day after Christmas.
If you don’t live in a climate that permits this, or if the lake is no longer freezing over, consider going to an ice rink instead. Did you have a New Year’s tradition where your drove to all your relations’ houses to wish them a prosperous new year? How about a video chat via Skype instead, allowing you to reach those family members in other cities. Enjoy a large Christmas tree, but live in a small apartment that can’t accommodate it? Try a smaller potted evergreen that you can dress in a short strand of lights and a few smaller ornaments.
Then take your favorite ornaments that are too large and hang them in the windows using fishing line.
Another aspect to adapting traditions is age appropriateness. Your child will get too old to sit on Santa’s lap at some point, and a toddler will inevitably drop and break delicate tree ornaments. Make sure that you adjust and tweak traditions as your family changes. This also helps reduce the eye rolling when your children reach their teenage years.
For every tradition that you loved, there is a way to adapt them. You just have to get creative, and maybe you’ll find you like the new version better.
Create new traditions
While an important part of traditions is passing them down and continuing the practice, part of what makes those family rituals important to pass on is that they are enjoyable and meaningful to those involved. Everyone has seen the horrible holiday movies where everyone in the film, except for one person, finds the rituals of the season tedious or annoying.
Avoid this situation by banishing those that you don’t enjoy and inventing something new.
New traditions can be something small and specific to your family unit, like making table centerpieces for Thanksgiving, or making paper snowflakes to hang in the windows as winter decorations. Creating a tradition for your household gives your children something special, just for them. These traditions generally help create a sense of excitement and anticipation for children as the holiday approaches.
Your tradition creations can also extend to larger family practices. Change the menu at the holiday dinner. Don’t like cranberries? Serve a chutney instead. Don’t like pumpkin pie? Bake a new treat. Like the idea of exchanging gifts, but not the sense of monetary obligation? Instigate a handmade only rule. Like to sing, but hate the idea of caroling? Start an after dinner karaoke tradition in your living room. Want to have a New Year’s party, but no one wants to pay for a sitter? Invite the kids too and make it a slumber party for them.
Traditions are an important part of any holiday. Whether it’s going to a park to watch 4th of July fireworks, a poolside bar-b-ques on Labor Day, or a very particular stuffing in the Thanksgiving turkey, traditions create memories and a shared past with those involved. Without traditions, holidays become just another day in the year.
So celebrate!
What are your favorite traditions? Have you created any new ones? -The Washington Times
Dividing the holidays
If you haven’t run into holiday battles yet, requiring a dividing of holidays between sides of the family, now that the baby has arrived, you can bet that they will begin. There are ways to avoid big fights over who goes where and when.
First, you should assess what is realistic for your family. Consider cost, in terms of both money and time. You may not be able to afford to be jetting across the country – and with and infant or young child, you may not want to – or you may have limited guest space for visiting parents, in-laws, and siblings. Then again, maybe you live around the corner from your sister and next door to your mother.
Then decide if there are certain holidays that hold priority for you or your spouse. Is there a giant family reunion-style dinner every year for a specific holiday that you want your children to be experience? Does your long lost uncle fly back to the country once a year and only for a particular occasion? Are both families equally invested in the ritual and protocol of the holiday season, thus requiring an alternating of years?
Once you have determined which family have priority for which holidays, establish ground rules. Decide which holidays you are visiting relatives and which you are staying home. Let your family know that you’ll be alternating years, or which holidays to expect you every year. Communicating this up front helps prevent hurt feelings when you turn down an invitation and manages expectations.
A great alternative, if you have the space to accommodate, is to shift the center of holiday celebration. If you are able to host the celebration, then there is no need to decide which family to go to; you can have both come to you.
It also allows you to blend the traditions from both families’ celebrations into one event, and expose your child to the favorite traditions of both parents.
Adapting traditions
Some traditions you can take from one time into another. Others are things that you enjoyed, but are no longer practical or realistic. Maybe you enjoyed going ice skating on the frozen pond near your house the day after Christmas.
If you don’t live in a climate that permits this, or if the lake is no longer freezing over, consider going to an ice rink instead. Did you have a New Year’s tradition where your drove to all your relations’ houses to wish them a prosperous new year? How about a video chat via Skype instead, allowing you to reach those family members in other cities. Enjoy a large Christmas tree, but live in a small apartment that can’t accommodate it? Try a smaller potted evergreen that you can dress in a short strand of lights and a few smaller ornaments.
Then take your favorite ornaments that are too large and hang them in the windows using fishing line.
Another aspect to adapting traditions is age appropriateness. Your child will get too old to sit on Santa’s lap at some point, and a toddler will inevitably drop and break delicate tree ornaments. Make sure that you adjust and tweak traditions as your family changes. This also helps reduce the eye rolling when your children reach their teenage years.
For every tradition that you loved, there is a way to adapt them. You just have to get creative, and maybe you’ll find you like the new version better.
Create new traditions
While an important part of traditions is passing them down and continuing the practice, part of what makes those family rituals important to pass on is that they are enjoyable and meaningful to those involved. Everyone has seen the horrible holiday movies where everyone in the film, except for one person, finds the rituals of the season tedious or annoying.
Avoid this situation by banishing those that you don’t enjoy and inventing something new.
New traditions can be something small and specific to your family unit, like making table centerpieces for Thanksgiving, or making paper snowflakes to hang in the windows as winter decorations. Creating a tradition for your household gives your children something special, just for them. These traditions generally help create a sense of excitement and anticipation for children as the holiday approaches.
Your tradition creations can also extend to larger family practices. Change the menu at the holiday dinner. Don’t like cranberries? Serve a chutney instead. Don’t like pumpkin pie? Bake a new treat. Like the idea of exchanging gifts, but not the sense of monetary obligation? Instigate a handmade only rule. Like to sing, but hate the idea of caroling? Start an after dinner karaoke tradition in your living room. Want to have a New Year’s party, but no one wants to pay for a sitter? Invite the kids too and make it a slumber party for them.
Traditions are an important part of any holiday. Whether it’s going to a park to watch 4th of July fireworks, a poolside bar-b-ques on Labor Day, or a very particular stuffing in the Thanksgiving turkey, traditions create memories and a shared past with those involved. Without traditions, holidays become just another day in the year.
So celebrate!
What are your favorite traditions? Have you created any new ones? -The Washington Times
Black Friday’s Gray Area: Loss Of Thanksgiving
Claudine Brown wasn’t thrilled about spending Thanksgiving Day camped out on the sidewalk in front of the Best Buy store in Columbia Heights.
“I just made a promise, and I just wanted to keep it,” said Ms. Brown, 23, as she counted down the hours until the store opened at midnight.
The promise? A laptop computer as a Christmas gift for her 10-year-old sister.
By noon, Ms. Brown was one of five people in line who traded a traditional Thanksgiving for the hopes of saving a couple hundred dollars through “doorbuster sales” advertised at the “big box” store.
The decision this year by more retail stores to bump up opening times for their traditional Black Friday sales has critics asking whether the so-called “holiday creep” is at the expense of the meaning behind the American holiday. Some stores opened Thanksgiving Day while others moved opening times up to midnight instead of the typical 5 a.m. Friday opening.
“Thanksgiving is the one day where there isn’t the stress of presents and carting things around, and we’re really sitting around the table and being grateful as a nation,” said the Rev. William Byrne, pastor at Saint Peter’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill. “Businesses seem nervous and want to maximize, but at the expense of luring people away from the one peaceful day on the entire calendar is a great tragedy.”
For Aida Ocana, a 43-year-old medical assistant from Silver Spring, shopping with her aunt at a Hyattsville Kmart on Thanksgiving morning was far more peaceful than the alternative of hitting the mall on Black Friday.
“You can walk around today,” Mrs. Ocana remarked as she glanced down an electronics aisle where a few customers picked through discounted items. “It’s a crazy day tomorrow.”
In 2010, about 10 percent of the 212 million people who went shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend were in stores by midnight Friday, said Kathy Grannis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.
“We expect to see that number grow,” she said this week.
As the Black Friday to Black Thursday shift grows more pervasive, Focus on Family spokeswoman Carrie Gordon Earllwarns that families should remain mindful of the role consumerism plays in their holiday celebrations.
She suggested family members ask themselves: “How are you going to spend that time? Is this nurturing or good connection time, or are we going to the mall and is everyone dispersing?”
While the popularity of having stores open Thanksgiving might be growing among consumers, there has been a pushback among employees.
At two major retailers, Target and Best Buy, employees have launched petitions asking the stores to move their opening times back to 5 a.m. Friday to give them the whole day to spend with their families.
As of Thursday, the online Target petition had gathered close to 200,000 signatures, while the Best Buy petition had collected close to 16,000.
“I’m so happy that there are some stores open,” said 18-year-old Celine Sprague as she perused stacks of clothing at the Georgetown Gap store Thursday afternoon with family. “But it must be hard on the workers.”
Extra pay tempts many workers to volunteer for holiday shifts, said Gap manager Benz Marston-Duglio. And employees who work the leisurely Thanksgiving Day shifts are often spared from clocking in during the much more hectic Black Friday, he said.
Mr. Marston-Duglio and the other five employees who closed the Gap store at 5 p.m. say they will still have time to make it home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Ms. Brown, on the other hand, is relying on her family to deliver leftovers to her midway though her wait outside the Best Buy in Columbia Heights. Killing time on her iPad while she sat slumped on the cold sidewalk, Ms. Brown couldn’t help but think about her family as they gathered at her Northeast home to prepare dinner.
“I miss hanging out and the festivities of having your family around,” said Ms. Brown, a nonprofit case worker . “I would probably never do this again.” -The Washington Times
“I just made a promise, and I just wanted to keep it,” said Ms. Brown, 23, as she counted down the hours until the store opened at midnight.
The promise? A laptop computer as a Christmas gift for her 10-year-old sister.
By noon, Ms. Brown was one of five people in line who traded a traditional Thanksgiving for the hopes of saving a couple hundred dollars through “doorbuster sales” advertised at the “big box” store.
The decision this year by more retail stores to bump up opening times for their traditional Black Friday sales has critics asking whether the so-called “holiday creep” is at the expense of the meaning behind the American holiday. Some stores opened Thanksgiving Day while others moved opening times up to midnight instead of the typical 5 a.m. Friday opening.
“Thanksgiving is the one day where there isn’t the stress of presents and carting things around, and we’re really sitting around the table and being grateful as a nation,” said the Rev. William Byrne, pastor at Saint Peter’s Catholic Church on Capitol Hill. “Businesses seem nervous and want to maximize, but at the expense of luring people away from the one peaceful day on the entire calendar is a great tragedy.”
For Aida Ocana, a 43-year-old medical assistant from Silver Spring, shopping with her aunt at a Hyattsville Kmart on Thanksgiving morning was far more peaceful than the alternative of hitting the mall on Black Friday.
“You can walk around today,” Mrs. Ocana remarked as she glanced down an electronics aisle where a few customers picked through discounted items. “It’s a crazy day tomorrow.”
In 2010, about 10 percent of the 212 million people who went shopping over the Thanksgiving weekend were in stores by midnight Friday, said Kathy Grannis, spokeswoman for the National Retail Federation.
“We expect to see that number grow,” she said this week.
As the Black Friday to Black Thursday shift grows more pervasive, Focus on Family spokeswoman Carrie Gordon Earllwarns that families should remain mindful of the role consumerism plays in their holiday celebrations.
She suggested family members ask themselves: “How are you going to spend that time? Is this nurturing or good connection time, or are we going to the mall and is everyone dispersing?”
While the popularity of having stores open Thanksgiving might be growing among consumers, there has been a pushback among employees.
At two major retailers, Target and Best Buy, employees have launched petitions asking the stores to move their opening times back to 5 a.m. Friday to give them the whole day to spend with their families.
As of Thursday, the online Target petition had gathered close to 200,000 signatures, while the Best Buy petition had collected close to 16,000.
“I’m so happy that there are some stores open,” said 18-year-old Celine Sprague as she perused stacks of clothing at the Georgetown Gap store Thursday afternoon with family. “But it must be hard on the workers.”
Extra pay tempts many workers to volunteer for holiday shifts, said Gap manager Benz Marston-Duglio. And employees who work the leisurely Thanksgiving Day shifts are often spared from clocking in during the much more hectic Black Friday, he said.
Mr. Marston-Duglio and the other five employees who closed the Gap store at 5 p.m. say they will still have time to make it home for Thanksgiving dinner.
Ms. Brown, on the other hand, is relying on her family to deliver leftovers to her midway though her wait outside the Best Buy in Columbia Heights. Killing time on her iPad while she sat slumped on the cold sidewalk, Ms. Brown couldn’t help but think about her family as they gathered at her Northeast home to prepare dinner.
“I miss hanging out and the festivities of having your family around,” said Ms. Brown, a nonprofit case worker . “I would probably never do this again.” -The Washington Times
Mystery Of Dead Sea Scroll Authors Possibly Solved
The Dead Sea Scrolls may have been written, at least in part, by a sectarian group called the Essenes, according to nearly 200 textiles discovered in caves at Qumran, in the West Bank, where the religious texts had been stored.
Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran, and so the new finding could help clear up this long-standing mystery.
The research reveals that all the textiles were made of linen, rather than wool, which was the preferred textile used in ancient Israel. Also they lack decoration, some actually being bleached white, even though fabrics from the period often have vivid colours. Altogether, researchers say these finds suggest that the Essenes, an ancient Jewish sect, "penned" some of the scrolls.
Not everyone agrees with this interpretation. An archaeologist who has excavated at Qumran told LiveScience that the linen could have come from people fleeing the Roman army after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that they are in fact responsible for putting the scrolls into caves.
Iconic scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of nearly 900 texts, the first batch of which were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. They date from before A.D. 70, and some may go back to as early as the third century B.C. The scrolls contain a wide variety of writings including early copies of the Hebrew Bible, along with hymns, calendars and psalms, among other works. [Gallery of Dead Sea Scrolls]
Nearly 200 textiles were found in the same caves, along with a few examples from Qumran, the archaeological site close to the caves where the scrolls were hidden.
Orit Shamir, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Naama Sukenik, a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, compared the white-linen textiles found in the 11 caves to examples found elsewhere in ancient Israel, publishing their results in the most recent issue of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries.
A breakthrough in studying these remains was made in 2007 when a team of archaeologists was able to ascertain that colorful wool textiles found at a site to the south of Qumran, known as the Christmas Cave, were not related to the inhabitants of the site. This meant that Shamir and Sukenik were able to focus on the 200 textiles found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves and at Qumran itself, knowing that these are the only surviving textiles related to the scrolls.
They discovered that every single one of these textiles was made of linen, even though wool was the most popular fabric at the time in Israel. They also found that most of the textiles would have originally been used as clothing, later being cut apart and re-used for other purposes such as bandages and for packing the scrolls into jars. [Photos of Dead Sea textiles]
Some of the textiles were bleached white and most of them lacked decoration, even though decoration is commonly seen in textiles from other sites in ancient Israel.
According to the researchers the finds suggest that the residents of Qumran dressed simply.
"They wanted to be different than the Roman world," Shamir told LiveScience in a telephone interview. "They were very humble, they didn't want to wear colorful textiles, they wanted to use very simple textiles."
The owners of the clothing likely were not poor, as only one of the textiles had a patch on it."This is very, very, important," Shamir said. "Patching is connected with [the] economic situation of the site."
Shamir pointed out that textiles found at sites where people were under stress, such as at the Cave of Letters, which was used in a revolt against the Romans, were often patched. On the other hand "if the site is in a very good economic situation, if it is a very rich site, the textiles will not be patched," she said. With Qumran, "I think [economically] they were in the middle, but I'm sure they were not poor."
Robert Cargill, a professor at the University of Iowa, has written extensively about Qumran and has developed a virtual model of it. He said that archaeological evidence from the site, including coins and glassware, also suggests the inhabitants were not poor.
"Far from being poor monastics, I think there was wealth at Qumran, at least some form of wealth," Cargill said, arguing that trade was important at the site. "I think they made their own pottery and sold some of it, I think they bred animals and sold them, I think they made honey and sold it."
Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran. Some argue that the scrolls were written at the site itself while others say they were written in Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel.
Qumran itself was first excavated by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s. He came to the conclusion that the site was inhabited by a religious sect called the Essenes who wrote the scrolls and stored them in caves. Among the finds he made were water pools, which he believed were used for ritual bathing, and multiple inkwells found in a room that became known as the "scriptorium." Based on his excavations, scholars have estimated the population of the site at as high as 200.
More recent archaeological work, conducted by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, suggests that the site could not have supported more than a few dozen people and had nothing to do with the scrolls themselves. They believe that the scrolls were deposited in the caves by refugees fleeing the Roman army after Jerusalem was conquered in A.D. 70.
Magen and Peleg found that the site came into existence around 100 B.C. as a military outpost used by the Hasmoneans, a Jewish kingdom that flourished in the area. After the Romans took over Judaea in 63 B.C. the site was abandoned and eventually was taken over by civilians who used it for pottery production. They found that the pools de Vaux discovered include a fine layer of potters' clay.
There are other ideas as well. Cargill argues that while Qumran started out as a fort it was later occupied by a sectarian group whose members were deeply concerned with ritual purity. "Whether or not they are the Essenes, that's a different question," he said. This group, much smaller than earlier estimates of 200 people, would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others, he argues.
Other groups, not part of the Qumran community, may also have been putting scrolls into the caves, Cargill said.
Can clothing solve the mystery?
The new clothing research may help to identify the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Shamir told LiveScience that it is unlikely the scrolls were deposited in the caves by Roman refugees. If that were the case, the more-popular textile in ancient Israel, wool, would have been found in the caves along with other garments.
"If people run away from Jerusalem they would take all sorts of textiles with them, not only linen textiles," she said. "The people who ran away to the Cave of Letters, they took wool textiles with them."
Peleg, the archaeologist who co-led the recent archaeological work at Qumran, told LiveScience he disagrees with that assessment. He said he stands by the idea that there is no connection between Qumran and the scrolls stored in the caves.
"We must remember that almost all the textiles were found in the caves andnot at the site. The main question is the connection between the site and the scrolls," Peleg wrote in an email. "I can find alternative explanations for the fact that scrolls were found with linen."
For instance, linen could have been chosen as scroll wrapping for religious reasons or perhaps priests were responsible for storing the scrolls and they wore linen clothing. "The clothes of the priests were made from linen," Peleg wrote.
In their paper, Shamir and Sukenik say that the clothing found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves is similar to historical descriptions of the clothing of the Essenes, suggesting that they in fact lived at Qumran. They point to an ancient Jewish writer, Flavius Josephus, who wrote that the Essenes "make a point of keeping a dry skin and always being dressed in white." (However, Josephus never said anything about the clothing being made of linen, Peleg points out.)
Josephusalso wrote that the Essenes were very frugal when it came to clothing and shared goods with each other.
"In their dress and deportment they resemble children under rigorous discipline. They do not change their garments or shoes until they are torn to shreds or worn threadbare with age. There is no buying or selling among themselves, but each gives what he has to any in need and receives from him in exchange something useful to himself ..."
(Translation from "Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings," Louis Feldman and Meyer Reinhold, 1996.)
In their paper, Shamir and Sukenikalso point to another ancient writer, Philo of Alexandria, who wrote that the Essenes wore a common style of simple dress.
"And not only is their table in common but their clothes also. For in winter they have a stock of stout coats ready and in summer cheap vests, so that he who wishes may easily take any garment he likes, since what one has is held to belong to all and conversely what all have one has."
(Translation from the "Selected Writing of Philo of Alexandria," edited by Hans Lewy, 1965.)
Cargill said that the clothing is further evidence that there was a Jewish sectarian group living at Qumran.
"You do have evidence of a group that raised its own animals, pressed its own date honey, that appears to have worn distinctive clothes and made its own pottery, and followed its own calendar, at least a calendar different from the temple priesthood," he said. "Those are all signs of a sectarian group."
He also noted the presence of mikveh (ritual baths) at the site and the fact that the residents could make pottery that was ritually pure.
This group appears to have wanted to separate itself from the priests based at the temple in Jerusalem. "There is a congruency within many of the sectarian documents that appears to be consistent with a sectarian group that has separated itself from the temple priesthood in Jerusalem," Cargill said.
According to Cargill's theory, the people of Qumran would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others. "Obviously they didn't write all of the scrolls," Cargill said. Dating indicates some of the scrolls were written before Qumran even existed. One unusual scroll, made of copper, may have been deposited after Qumran was abandoned in A.D. 70.
Cargill says it's possible that some of the scrolls may have been put in caves from people outside the community. If that's true, some of the textiles could also be from people outside of Qumran.
"[If] not all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are the responsibility of sectarians at Qumran then it would follow that not all of the textiles that are discovered in the caves are [the] product of a sect at Qumran," Cargill said.
Were there women at Qumran?
The new research may alsoshed light on who created the textiles.
The textiles are of high quality and, based on the archaeological finds at Qumran itself, where there is little evidence of spindle whorls or loom weights, the team thinks it's unlikely they would have been made at the site.
"This is very, very important, because this is connected to gender," Shamir said, "spinning is connected with women."
She explained that the textiles were likely created at another site in Israel, with women playing a key role in their production. This suggests that there were few women living at Qumran itself. "Weaving is connected with men and women, but spinning was only a production of women, [and] we don't find this item at Qumran." -Yahoo News
Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran, and so the new finding could help clear up this long-standing mystery.
The research reveals that all the textiles were made of linen, rather than wool, which was the preferred textile used in ancient Israel. Also they lack decoration, some actually being bleached white, even though fabrics from the period often have vivid colours. Altogether, researchers say these finds suggest that the Essenes, an ancient Jewish sect, "penned" some of the scrolls.
Not everyone agrees with this interpretation. An archaeologist who has excavated at Qumran told LiveScience that the linen could have come from people fleeing the Roman army after the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and that they are in fact responsible for putting the scrolls into caves.
Iconic scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of nearly 900 texts, the first batch of which were discovered by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947. They date from before A.D. 70, and some may go back to as early as the third century B.C. The scrolls contain a wide variety of writings including early copies of the Hebrew Bible, along with hymns, calendars and psalms, among other works. [Gallery of Dead Sea Scrolls]
Nearly 200 textiles were found in the same caves, along with a few examples from Qumran, the archaeological site close to the caves where the scrolls were hidden.
Orit Shamir, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Naama Sukenik, a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University, compared the white-linen textiles found in the 11 caves to examples found elsewhere in ancient Israel, publishing their results in the most recent issue of the journal Dead Sea Discoveries.
A breakthrough in studying these remains was made in 2007 when a team of archaeologists was able to ascertain that colorful wool textiles found at a site to the south of Qumran, known as the Christmas Cave, were not related to the inhabitants of the site. This meant that Shamir and Sukenik were able to focus on the 200 textiles found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves and at Qumran itself, knowing that these are the only surviving textiles related to the scrolls.
They discovered that every single one of these textiles was made of linen, even though wool was the most popular fabric at the time in Israel. They also found that most of the textiles would have originally been used as clothing, later being cut apart and re-used for other purposes such as bandages and for packing the scrolls into jars. [Photos of Dead Sea textiles]
Some of the textiles were bleached white and most of them lacked decoration, even though decoration is commonly seen in textiles from other sites in ancient Israel.
According to the researchers the finds suggest that the residents of Qumran dressed simply.
"They wanted to be different than the Roman world," Shamir told LiveScience in a telephone interview. "They were very humble, they didn't want to wear colorful textiles, they wanted to use very simple textiles."
The owners of the clothing likely were not poor, as only one of the textiles had a patch on it."This is very, very, important," Shamir said. "Patching is connected with [the] economic situation of the site."
Shamir pointed out that textiles found at sites where people were under stress, such as at the Cave of Letters, which was used in a revolt against the Romans, were often patched. On the other hand "if the site is in a very good economic situation, if it is a very rich site, the textiles will not be patched," she said. With Qumran, "I think [economically] they were in the middle, but I'm sure they were not poor."
Robert Cargill, a professor at the University of Iowa, has written extensively about Qumran and has developed a virtual model of it. He said that archaeological evidence from the site, including coins and glassware, also suggests the inhabitants were not poor.
"Far from being poor monastics, I think there was wealth at Qumran, at least some form of wealth," Cargill said, arguing that trade was important at the site. "I think they made their own pottery and sold some of it, I think they bred animals and sold them, I think they made honey and sold it."
Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Scholars are divided about who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and how the texts got to Qumran. Some argue that the scrolls were written at the site itself while others say they were written in Jerusalem or elsewhere in Israel.
Qumran itself was first excavated by Roland de Vaux in the 1950s. He came to the conclusion that the site was inhabited by a religious sect called the Essenes who wrote the scrolls and stored them in caves. Among the finds he made were water pools, which he believed were used for ritual bathing, and multiple inkwells found in a room that became known as the "scriptorium." Based on his excavations, scholars have estimated the population of the site at as high as 200.
More recent archaeological work, conducted by Yitzhak Magen and Yuval Peleg of the Israel Antiquities Authority, suggests that the site could not have supported more than a few dozen people and had nothing to do with the scrolls themselves. They believe that the scrolls were deposited in the caves by refugees fleeing the Roman army after Jerusalem was conquered in A.D. 70.
Magen and Peleg found that the site came into existence around 100 B.C. as a military outpost used by the Hasmoneans, a Jewish kingdom that flourished in the area. After the Romans took over Judaea in 63 B.C. the site was abandoned and eventually was taken over by civilians who used it for pottery production. They found that the pools de Vaux discovered include a fine layer of potters' clay.
There are other ideas as well. Cargill argues that while Qumran started out as a fort it was later occupied by a sectarian group whose members were deeply concerned with ritual purity. "Whether or not they are the Essenes, that's a different question," he said. This group, much smaller than earlier estimates of 200 people, would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others, he argues.
Other groups, not part of the Qumran community, may also have been putting scrolls into the caves, Cargill said.
Can clothing solve the mystery?
The new clothing research may help to identify the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Shamir told LiveScience that it is unlikely the scrolls were deposited in the caves by Roman refugees. If that were the case, the more-popular textile in ancient Israel, wool, would have been found in the caves along with other garments.
"If people run away from Jerusalem they would take all sorts of textiles with them, not only linen textiles," she said. "The people who ran away to the Cave of Letters, they took wool textiles with them."
Peleg, the archaeologist who co-led the recent archaeological work at Qumran, told LiveScience he disagrees with that assessment. He said he stands by the idea that there is no connection between Qumran and the scrolls stored in the caves.
"We must remember that almost all the textiles were found in the caves andnot at the site. The main question is the connection between the site and the scrolls," Peleg wrote in an email. "I can find alternative explanations for the fact that scrolls were found with linen."
For instance, linen could have been chosen as scroll wrapping for religious reasons or perhaps priests were responsible for storing the scrolls and they wore linen clothing. "The clothes of the priests were made from linen," Peleg wrote.
In their paper, Shamir and Sukenik say that the clothing found in the Dead Sea Scroll caves is similar to historical descriptions of the clothing of the Essenes, suggesting that they in fact lived at Qumran. They point to an ancient Jewish writer, Flavius Josephus, who wrote that the Essenes "make a point of keeping a dry skin and always being dressed in white." (However, Josephus never said anything about the clothing being made of linen, Peleg points out.)
Josephusalso wrote that the Essenes were very frugal when it came to clothing and shared goods with each other.
"In their dress and deportment they resemble children under rigorous discipline. They do not change their garments or shoes until they are torn to shreds or worn threadbare with age. There is no buying or selling among themselves, but each gives what he has to any in need and receives from him in exchange something useful to himself ..."
(Translation from "Jewish Life and Thought Among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings," Louis Feldman and Meyer Reinhold, 1996.)
In their paper, Shamir and Sukenikalso point to another ancient writer, Philo of Alexandria, who wrote that the Essenes wore a common style of simple dress.
"And not only is their table in common but their clothes also. For in winter they have a stock of stout coats ready and in summer cheap vests, so that he who wishes may easily take any garment he likes, since what one has is held to belong to all and conversely what all have one has."
(Translation from the "Selected Writing of Philo of Alexandria," edited by Hans Lewy, 1965.)
Cargill said that the clothing is further evidence that there was a Jewish sectarian group living at Qumran.
"You do have evidence of a group that raised its own animals, pressed its own date honey, that appears to have worn distinctive clothes and made its own pottery, and followed its own calendar, at least a calendar different from the temple priesthood," he said. "Those are all signs of a sectarian group."
He also noted the presence of mikveh (ritual baths) at the site and the fact that the residents could make pottery that was ritually pure.
This group appears to have wanted to separate itself from the priests based at the temple in Jerusalem. "There is a congruency within many of the sectarian documents that appears to be consistent with a sectarian group that has separated itself from the temple priesthood in Jerusalem," Cargill said.
According to Cargill's theory, the people of Qumran would have written some of the scrolls, while collecting others. "Obviously they didn't write all of the scrolls," Cargill said. Dating indicates some of the scrolls were written before Qumran even existed. One unusual scroll, made of copper, may have been deposited after Qumran was abandoned in A.D. 70.
Cargill says it's possible that some of the scrolls may have been put in caves from people outside the community. If that's true, some of the textiles could also be from people outside of Qumran.
"[If] not all of the Dead Sea Scrolls are the responsibility of sectarians at Qumran then it would follow that not all of the textiles that are discovered in the caves are [the] product of a sect at Qumran," Cargill said.
Were there women at Qumran?
The new research may alsoshed light on who created the textiles.
The textiles are of high quality and, based on the archaeological finds at Qumran itself, where there is little evidence of spindle whorls or loom weights, the team thinks it's unlikely they would have been made at the site.
"This is very, very important, because this is connected to gender," Shamir said, "spinning is connected with women."
She explained that the textiles were likely created at another site in Israel, with women playing a key role in their production. This suggests that there were few women living at Qumran itself. "Weaving is connected with men and women, but spinning was only a production of women, [and] we don't find this item at Qumran." -Yahoo News
Dec 4, 2011
Ragbag Headliners
ACLU Pro-Religious Symbols?
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas is taking an unusual stance and defending students' rights to wear religious symbols at school.
The liberal legal firm is looking into whether the Brownsville Independent School District policy that prohibits students from wearing rosaries and crosses is a violation of the First Amendment. Though this action is not standard for the ACLU, Jeff Mateer of the Liberty Institute says it is not unheard of.
"I would note that this is the Texas ACLU, versus the national ACLU," Mateer mentions. "The Texas ACLU has joined with us here in Texas on a few cases, so they seem to be a little more intellectually honest."
And in this case, he believes they are on the right track. The school district claims that some students are wearing handmade rosaries around their heads and waists, indicating an affiliation with prison gangs. But even so, the Liberty Institute attorney says the prohibition is out of bounds.
"The only way that they could do it is if the wearing of these items causes a material and substantial interference with school activities," he explains.
According to a district spokesperson, high school principals were following the advice of law enforcement by telling students to tuck the religious symbols inside their clothing, but the ACLU is defending the pupils' right to openly display religious materials. –One News Now
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Texas is taking an unusual stance and defending students' rights to wear religious symbols at school.
The liberal legal firm is looking into whether the Brownsville Independent School District policy that prohibits students from wearing rosaries and crosses is a violation of the First Amendment. Though this action is not standard for the ACLU, Jeff Mateer of the Liberty Institute says it is not unheard of.
"I would note that this is the Texas ACLU, versus the national ACLU," Mateer mentions. "The Texas ACLU has joined with us here in Texas on a few cases, so they seem to be a little more intellectually honest."
And in this case, he believes they are on the right track. The school district claims that some students are wearing handmade rosaries around their heads and waists, indicating an affiliation with prison gangs. But even so, the Liberty Institute attorney says the prohibition is out of bounds.
"The only way that they could do it is if the wearing of these items causes a material and substantial interference with school activities," he explains.
According to a district spokesperson, high school principals were following the advice of law enforcement by telling students to tuck the religious symbols inside their clothing, but the ACLU is defending the pupils' right to openly display religious materials. –One News Now
<><><>*<><><>
Ga. Counseling Student In Court Over View On 'Gays'
A graduate school counseling student is asking a federal appeals court to block Augusta State University from expelling her because she believes homosexual behavior is an immoral choice.
Jennifer Keeton, who said she's a devout Christian "committed to the truth of the Bible," enrolled in the Georgia school's counselor education program in fall 2009 and soon began discussing her views.
Faculty members were alarmed after she wrote in a term paper that it would be hard for her to work with homosexual clients (see earlier story). The school told her that's unethical, and she was put on probation and warned she could be expelled. Keeton refused when the school asked her to attend sensitivity training and mix with homosexual men and women at events like the city's "gay pride" parade.
Cristina Correia of the Georgia Attorney General's office said university faculty were concerned that Keeton was scheduled to practice counseling in middle and high schools as part of her degree program and could possibly harm young students with her views. –One News Now
A graduate school counseling student is asking a federal appeals court to block Augusta State University from expelling her because she believes homosexual behavior is an immoral choice.
Jennifer Keeton, who said she's a devout Christian "committed to the truth of the Bible," enrolled in the Georgia school's counselor education program in fall 2009 and soon began discussing her views.
Faculty members were alarmed after she wrote in a term paper that it would be hard for her to work with homosexual clients (see earlier story). The school told her that's unethical, and she was put on probation and warned she could be expelled. Keeton refused when the school asked her to attend sensitivity training and mix with homosexual men and women at events like the city's "gay pride" parade.
Cristina Correia of the Georgia Attorney General's office said university faculty were concerned that Keeton was scheduled to practice counseling in middle and high schools as part of her degree program and could possibly harm young students with her views. –One News Now
<><><>*<><><>
AIDS -- 'The Only Politically Protected Disease'
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says AIDS has been the only "politically protected disease" -- and that, he says, is why Barack Obama and others support World AIDS Day.
President Obama is setting a new goal of getting AIDS drugs to two million more people living with HIV around the world by the end of 2013. At a Washington event marking World AIDS Day, the president announced Thursday that he is directing a $50 million increase in spending on HIV and AIDS treatment in the U.S. The White House says there are 1.2 million Americans living with HIV, and 50,000 new infections each year.
LaBarbera is calling Obama to task for announcing a deeper U.S. commitment to combating AIDS -- instead of taking practical measures to curb its spread.
"AIDS has always been the only politically protected disease. The elephant in the room is homosexual -- especially male -- sexual behavior," he argues. "We have these amazing statistics which show this huge, disproportional disease rate for men who have sex with men.
"So because it's attached to homosexuality, there are things like World AIDS Day," he continues. "It becomes a political thing rather than just taking practical public health measures necessary to stop or slow down this disease."
For example, LaBarbera says instead of spending millions on AIDS research, the government should shut down the notorious "gay bath houses" in major cities that facilitate the spread of HIV.
"They're like perversion centers. These are places where men go for anonymous, homosexual sex," he states. "It's the highest risk sex around -- and there's these clubs [where] basically men just go to have anonymous sex.
"So I want to know: Why isn't the government working to shut down these perversion centers that facilitate the very behavior that is helping to spread HIV?"
The pro-family activist points out that while the government is going out of its way to discourage people from unhealthy lifestyle choices like smoking and obesity, it is doing nothing to discourage those who practice the lifestyle that leads to AIDS.
LaBarbera has called on the government to acknowledge "gay" sex as high risk, teach school children the lifestyle's real risks, "re-stigmatize" dangerous behaviors among homosexual males, work toward equalizing federal spending on other serious, life-threatening diseases, and stop what he describes as "bigoted 'homophobia' propaganda." -One News Now
Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says AIDS has been the only "politically protected disease" -- and that, he says, is why Barack Obama and others support World AIDS Day.
President Obama is setting a new goal of getting AIDS drugs to two million more people living with HIV around the world by the end of 2013. At a Washington event marking World AIDS Day, the president announced Thursday that he is directing a $50 million increase in spending on HIV and AIDS treatment in the U.S. The White House says there are 1.2 million Americans living with HIV, and 50,000 new infections each year.
LaBarbera is calling Obama to task for announcing a deeper U.S. commitment to combating AIDS -- instead of taking practical measures to curb its spread.
"AIDS has always been the only politically protected disease. The elephant in the room is homosexual -- especially male -- sexual behavior," he argues. "We have these amazing statistics which show this huge, disproportional disease rate for men who have sex with men.
"So because it's attached to homosexuality, there are things like World AIDS Day," he continues. "It becomes a political thing rather than just taking practical public health measures necessary to stop or slow down this disease."
For example, LaBarbera says instead of spending millions on AIDS research, the government should shut down the notorious "gay bath houses" in major cities that facilitate the spread of HIV.
"They're like perversion centers. These are places where men go for anonymous, homosexual sex," he states. "It's the highest risk sex around -- and there's these clubs [where] basically men just go to have anonymous sex.
"So I want to know: Why isn't the government working to shut down these perversion centers that facilitate the very behavior that is helping to spread HIV?"
The pro-family activist points out that while the government is going out of its way to discourage people from unhealthy lifestyle choices like smoking and obesity, it is doing nothing to discourage those who practice the lifestyle that leads to AIDS.
LaBarbera has called on the government to acknowledge "gay" sex as high risk, teach school children the lifestyle's real risks, "re-stigmatize" dangerous behaviors among homosexual males, work toward equalizing federal spending on other serious, life-threatening diseases, and stop what he describes as "bigoted 'homophobia' propaganda." -One News Now
‘Would The World Be Better Off Without Religion?’
Atheists and non-atheists are going to debate the topic ‘Would the World Be Better off Without Religion?’ this evening at New York University’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts. The debate will start at 6:45 p.m. and last until 8:30 p.m., November 15, 2011. Here are the debate participants:
British philosopher and professor A.C. Grayling, who has written more than 20 books on philosophy, religion and reason, will team up with Matthew Chapman, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, to argue against religion. David Wolpe, Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, and Dinesh D’Souza, president of the King’s College in NYC, are set to oppose.
I have to say that I never would have agreed to the debate topic. First, it implies that atheism is not a religion. Atheism is a belief system. An atheist believes things about the origin of the universe and the meaning or non-meaning of life. All an atheist can say is what he believes. He does not know everything, so he can not say what that he knows enough to be dogmatic about his atheism.
Second, an evolutionist cannot know if something or someone is ever “better off.” Better off implies a standard. “Better” assumes that something can be “worse.” There was a time in evolution’s past that the strong overpowered, killed, and many times ate the weaker competitor. It happens every day in the wild, as the saying goes, “Nature, red in tooth and claw.” Homo sapiens are the result of long ago superior animal ancestors forcing their will on inferior animals. We got here, say the evolutionists, because of millions of years of bloody struggle. Maybe someone like Adolf Hitler was ahead of his time, one of evolution’s “hopeful monsters” who was born out of evolutionary time. He did what he did because he believed in evolutionary necessity. How can an atheist say otherwise? How does he know the world is worse off because of what the Nazi’s did?
Third, and related to the second point, how does the evolutionist account for good and evil in a universe that had a material beginning? At best, good and evil are what the majority of people at a given time say good and evil are. There is no fixed ultimate standard. There is no one standing outside ourselves judging us. There are no cosmic rules or cosmic sanctions. All judging of what’s “good” and “evil” is socially determined. But one generation’s definition of good and evil is another generation’s evil and good. Who’s to say otherwise? The high priest of atheistic evolution Richard Dawkins says as much:
In the universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. As that unhappy poet A. E. Houseman put it:
For nature, heartless, witless Nature
Will neither know nor care.
DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.[1]
One has to wonder why Dawkins would ever write such nonsense even if he believes it. But he does believe it. He has to believe it. It’s his religion.
Fourth, for the two atheists, tonight’s debate hinges on Christianity being true. The two atheist-evolutionists will continually borrow from the worldview they deny to criticize that same worldview. Again, Dawkins makes the case for us: “Natural selection is a deeply nasty process. . . . Human super niceness is a perversion of Darwinism because, in a wild population, it would be removed by natural selection. . . . From a rational choice point of view, or from a Darwinian point of view, human super niceness is just plain dumb.” ((http://richarddawkins.net/article,20,Atheists-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins)) Even so, Dawkins’ life depends on the reality of “human super niceness.” The problem is, he and his fellow atheists can’t account for it given the operating assumptions of their materialistic worldview.
I hope those from the religion side understand and use these points. They are irrefutable. Even the reason the two atheists will use to debate this evening can’t be accounted for given the process of “something from nothing” evolutionary beginnings.
By Richard Dawkins-Godfather Politics
British philosopher and professor A.C. Grayling, who has written more than 20 books on philosophy, religion and reason, will team up with Matthew Chapman, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, to argue against religion. David Wolpe, Rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, and Dinesh D’Souza, president of the King’s College in NYC, are set to oppose.
I have to say that I never would have agreed to the debate topic. First, it implies that atheism is not a religion. Atheism is a belief system. An atheist believes things about the origin of the universe and the meaning or non-meaning of life. All an atheist can say is what he believes. He does not know everything, so he can not say what that he knows enough to be dogmatic about his atheism.
Second, an evolutionist cannot know if something or someone is ever “better off.” Better off implies a standard. “Better” assumes that something can be “worse.” There was a time in evolution’s past that the strong overpowered, killed, and many times ate the weaker competitor. It happens every day in the wild, as the saying goes, “Nature, red in tooth and claw.” Homo sapiens are the result of long ago superior animal ancestors forcing their will on inferior animals. We got here, say the evolutionists, because of millions of years of bloody struggle. Maybe someone like Adolf Hitler was ahead of his time, one of evolution’s “hopeful monsters” who was born out of evolutionary time. He did what he did because he believed in evolutionary necessity. How can an atheist say otherwise? How does he know the world is worse off because of what the Nazi’s did?
Third, and related to the second point, how does the evolutionist account for good and evil in a universe that had a material beginning? At best, good and evil are what the majority of people at a given time say good and evil are. There is no fixed ultimate standard. There is no one standing outside ourselves judging us. There are no cosmic rules or cosmic sanctions. All judging of what’s “good” and “evil” is socially determined. But one generation’s definition of good and evil is another generation’s evil and good. Who’s to say otherwise? The high priest of atheistic evolution Richard Dawkins says as much:
In the universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, and other people are going to get lucky; and you won’t find any rhyme or reason to it, nor any justice. The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is at the bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Nothing but blind pitiless indifference. As that unhappy poet A. E. Houseman put it:
For nature, heartless, witless Nature
Will neither know nor care.
DNA neither knows nor cares. DNA just is, and we dance to its music.[1]
One has to wonder why Dawkins would ever write such nonsense even if he believes it. But he does believe it. He has to believe it. It’s his religion.
Fourth, for the two atheists, tonight’s debate hinges on Christianity being true. The two atheist-evolutionists will continually borrow from the worldview they deny to criticize that same worldview. Again, Dawkins makes the case for us: “Natural selection is a deeply nasty process. . . . Human super niceness is a perversion of Darwinism because, in a wild population, it would be removed by natural selection. . . . From a rational choice point of view, or from a Darwinian point of view, human super niceness is just plain dumb.” ((http://richarddawkins.net/article,20,Atheists-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins)) Even so, Dawkins’ life depends on the reality of “human super niceness.” The problem is, he and his fellow atheists can’t account for it given the operating assumptions of their materialistic worldview.
I hope those from the religion side understand and use these points. They are irrefutable. Even the reason the two atheists will use to debate this evening can’t be accounted for given the process of “something from nothing” evolutionary beginnings.
By Richard Dawkins-Godfather Politics
Notes: Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (New York: Basic Books, 1996), 133.
Adoption Issues To Be Aware Of
You may have heard the news story not long ago – an adoptive family in Tennessee put their 7-year-old Russian-born boy on an unaccompanied one-way flight back to Russia, explaining that he had terrorized their family since coming to live with them. Now, the world is in an uproar over their seemingly heartless and careless act.
This family’s decision to abandon their child is totally unacceptable, I know. But I also know that adoptions can go haywire. Adopted kids may or may not have any more problems than any other group of kids, but I think they often present a different “mix” of problems. And those problems can often be more severe, with behavior escalating to the point where a child is out of control and dangerous to himself and others around him or her.
There’s no question that typical adolescent issues like belonging, fitting-in, rejection, connection, acceptance, and peer-relationships can become particularly prominent for some adopted kids. But there are other factors that can cause just as many problems for the child and the adoptive parents.
Issues to beware of
If the adopted child was born out of a high-risk pregnancy, there is higher probability that they were prenatally exposed to alcohol, tobacco and other harmful drugs. These impediments aren’t always unmanageable, nor are they untreatable. But just knowing that there might be issues down the road as a result of that exposure might prepare you for dealing with it later on. Many kids given up for adoption have come from high-risk pregnancies, exposing them to potential for developmental delays, impulsive choices, poor choices, attention deficit, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, and emotional disorders. There may be a higher risk as well for issues such as Reactive Attachment Disorder, other attachment issues, learning disabilities, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), logic sequence problems, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder.
Adoptive parents may also have to deal with anger and rages in their adopted child, just as the Tennessee parents have claimed. As a result, adopted kids might have to attend a special school, have special teachers, or need tutoring. All of this can be expensive and may go on for years. To make matters worse, an adopted child may not hug you or express love or appreciation the way you want.
But there’s hope in every adoption
Am I an expert on adoption? No, not me. But I enter the world of adoption “from the other side” because I know and have helped more than 700 adopted teens who have come to live in our Heartlight residential counseling program, and I have listened to the 10,000 questions they brought with them. My search for answers to those 10,000 questions has led me to my own conclusions about problems that can come up with adopted kids. Sometimes their struggles may be the result of prenatal issues, but mostly it’s because we’re all people who carry some personal baggage, and we bring our wounded hearts into our relationships. We all are sinners in need of a Savior … and in need of help. I am convinced that no problem is too great for God to resolve, and no relationship too damaged for Him to repair.
I believe that God in His sovereignty places orphaned or abandoned children with families on purpose. And what I have discovered is that conflicts that arise from adoption issues, whether on the side of parents or of the adopted child, can be overcome. God has a way of taking conflict and using it for our own good, and for deepening the relationship between parent and child. God doesn’t give up on us, nor does He send us back to where we came from. There are times that I believe that working through the conflict helps everyone involved move toward wholeness, and to deeper relationships.
It is good to understand the issues that surround adoption, for understanding brings a family to a different response, a calmer approach to handling conflict, and a platform to learn new ways for engaging with a child.
So ... why adopt?
I want people to adopt. In fact, I sit on the board of an international adoption agency. But I want adoptive parents to know full well the issues that might come up, invade, or enter the relationship with their child. Perhaps if the parents in Tennessee had known more about the potential pitfalls, perhaps they would have been better prepared for the potential for struggle.
If you plan to adopt, just remember this; there is more to the portrait of your adopted child’s life than you will be able to see. You’ll play a very important role in that portrait, and the presence of conflict, disillusionment, or hardship won’t negate the purpose of the portrait. I believe that most change in a person’s life come through conflict, difficulty, and hardship. I also believe it is worth the struggle so that kids can live in families.
God bless those who choose to give a child a new home and a new family. If you are an adoptive family, may your home be a haven of hope for a child who needs you; may God’s beautiful provision for orphans reach down to you as well, and may He give you the strength to work through any future struggles or difficulties. And, as always, if I can help, please don’t hesitate to call. -Mark Gregston - Guest Columnis for One News Now
This family’s decision to abandon their child is totally unacceptable, I know. But I also know that adoptions can go haywire. Adopted kids may or may not have any more problems than any other group of kids, but I think they often present a different “mix” of problems. And those problems can often be more severe, with behavior escalating to the point where a child is out of control and dangerous to himself and others around him or her.
There’s no question that typical adolescent issues like belonging, fitting-in, rejection, connection, acceptance, and peer-relationships can become particularly prominent for some adopted kids. But there are other factors that can cause just as many problems for the child and the adoptive parents.
Issues to beware of
If the adopted child was born out of a high-risk pregnancy, there is higher probability that they were prenatally exposed to alcohol, tobacco and other harmful drugs. These impediments aren’t always unmanageable, nor are they untreatable. But just knowing that there might be issues down the road as a result of that exposure might prepare you for dealing with it later on. Many kids given up for adoption have come from high-risk pregnancies, exposing them to potential for developmental delays, impulsive choices, poor choices, attention deficit, hyperactivity, learning disabilities, and emotional disorders. There may be a higher risk as well for issues such as Reactive Attachment Disorder, other attachment issues, learning disabilities, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), logic sequence problems, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder.
Adoptive parents may also have to deal with anger and rages in their adopted child, just as the Tennessee parents have claimed. As a result, adopted kids might have to attend a special school, have special teachers, or need tutoring. All of this can be expensive and may go on for years. To make matters worse, an adopted child may not hug you or express love or appreciation the way you want.
But there’s hope in every adoption
Am I an expert on adoption? No, not me. But I enter the world of adoption “from the other side” because I know and have helped more than 700 adopted teens who have come to live in our Heartlight residential counseling program, and I have listened to the 10,000 questions they brought with them. My search for answers to those 10,000 questions has led me to my own conclusions about problems that can come up with adopted kids. Sometimes their struggles may be the result of prenatal issues, but mostly it’s because we’re all people who carry some personal baggage, and we bring our wounded hearts into our relationships. We all are sinners in need of a Savior … and in need of help. I am convinced that no problem is too great for God to resolve, and no relationship too damaged for Him to repair.
I believe that God in His sovereignty places orphaned or abandoned children with families on purpose. And what I have discovered is that conflicts that arise from adoption issues, whether on the side of parents or of the adopted child, can be overcome. God has a way of taking conflict and using it for our own good, and for deepening the relationship between parent and child. God doesn’t give up on us, nor does He send us back to where we came from. There are times that I believe that working through the conflict helps everyone involved move toward wholeness, and to deeper relationships.
It is good to understand the issues that surround adoption, for understanding brings a family to a different response, a calmer approach to handling conflict, and a platform to learn new ways for engaging with a child.
So ... why adopt?
I want people to adopt. In fact, I sit on the board of an international adoption agency. But I want adoptive parents to know full well the issues that might come up, invade, or enter the relationship with their child. Perhaps if the parents in Tennessee had known more about the potential pitfalls, perhaps they would have been better prepared for the potential for struggle.
If you plan to adopt, just remember this; there is more to the portrait of your adopted child’s life than you will be able to see. You’ll play a very important role in that portrait, and the presence of conflict, disillusionment, or hardship won’t negate the purpose of the portrait. I believe that most change in a person’s life come through conflict, difficulty, and hardship. I also believe it is worth the struggle so that kids can live in families.
God bless those who choose to give a child a new home and a new family. If you are an adoptive family, may your home be a haven of hope for a child who needs you; may God’s beautiful provision for orphans reach down to you as well, and may He give you the strength to work through any future struggles or difficulties. And, as always, if I can help, please don’t hesitate to call. -Mark Gregston - Guest Columnis for One News Now
The Real Story of Christmas
I. When was Jesus born?
A. Popular myth puts his birth on December 25th in the year 1 C.E.
B. The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth. The earliest gospel – St. Mark’s, written about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus. This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked interest in or knowledge of Jesus’ birthdate.
C. The year of Jesus birth was determined by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, “abbot of a Roman monastery. His calculation went as follows:
a. In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita (“the founding of the City” [Rome]). Thus 1 AUC signifies the year Rome was founded, 5 AUC signifies the 5th year of Rome’s reign, etc.
b. Dionysius received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years, and was followed by the emperor Tiberius.
c. Luke 3:1,23 indicates that when Jesus turned 30 years old, it was the 15th year of Tiberius reign.
d. If Jesus was 30 years old in Tiberius’ reign, then he lived 15 years under Augustus (placing Jesus birth in Augustus’ 28th year of reign).
e. Augustus took power in 727 AUC. Therefore, Dionysius put Jesus birth in 754 AUC.
f. However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus’ birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC – four years before the year in which Dionysius places Jesus birth.
D. Joseph A. Fitzmyer – Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and former president of the Catholic Biblical Association – writing in the Catholic Church’s official commentary on the New Testament[1], writes about the date of Jesus’ birth, “Though the year [of Jesus birth is not reckoned with certainty, the birth did not occur in AD 1. The Christian era, supposed to have its starting point in the year of Jesus birth, is based on a miscalculation introduced ca. 533 by Dionysius Exiguus.”
E. The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed to have been written in North Africa around 243 CE, placed Jesus birth on March 28. Clement, a bishop of Alexandria (d. ca. 215 CE), thought Jesus was born on November 18. Based on historical records, Fitzmyer guesses that Jesus birth occurred on September 11, 3 BCE.
II. How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on December 25?
A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose “an enemy of the Roman people” to represent the “Lord of Misrule.” Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival’s conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman.
B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season).
C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians.[2]
D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus’ birthday.
E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, “In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior’s birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been.” The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc.
F. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that “the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens’ Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones.”[3] Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681.[4] However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians.
G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, “Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome’s taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily.”[5]
H. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, “It is not opportune to make any innovation.”[6] On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles worth of property was destroyed.
III. The Origins of Christmas Customs
A. The Origin of Christmas Tree
Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas Trees”.[7] Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.
B. The Origin of Mistletoe
Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim.[8] The Christian custom of “kissing under the mistletoe” is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.[9]
C. The Origin of Christmas Presents
In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas (see below).[10]
D. The Origin of Santa Claus
a. Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th century.
b. Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament. The text they produced portrayed Jews as “the children of the devil”[11] who sentenced Jesus to death.
c. In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy. There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called The Grandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania, who used to fill the children's stockings with her gifts. The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6.
d. The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.
e. In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should) distribute gifts on December 25th instead of December 6th.
f. In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.
g. Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary, read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a poem based on the character Santa Claus: “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in the hope that Saint Nicholas soon would be there…” Moore innovated by portraying a Santa with eight reindeer who descended through chimneys.
h. The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed the modern picture of Santa Claus. From 1862 through 1886, based on Moore’s poem, Nast drew more than 2,200 cartoon images of Santa for Harper’s Weekly. Before Nast, Saint Nicholas had been pictured as everything from a stern looking bishop to a gnome-like figure in a frock. Nast also gave Santa a home at the North Pole, his workshop filled with elves, and his list of the good and bad children of the world. All Santa was missing was his red outfit.
i. In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted the Swedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a coke-drinking Santa. Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice, chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation insisted that Santa’s fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca Cola red. And Santa was born – a blend of Christian crusader, pagan god, and commercial idol.
IV. The Christmas Challenge
· Christmas has always been a holiday celebrated carelessly. For millennia, pagans, Christians, and even Jews have been swept away in the season’s festivities, and very few people ever pause to consider the celebration’s intrinsic meaning, history, or origins.
· Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian god who came to rescue mankind from the “curse of the Torah.” It is a 24-hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid.
· Christmas is a lie. There is no Christian church with a tradition that Jesus was really born on December 25th.
· December 25 is a day on which Jews have been shamed, tortured, and murdered.
· Many of the most popular Christmas customs – including Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas presents, and Santa Claus – are modern incarnations of the most depraved pagan rituals ever practiced on earth.
Many who are excitedly preparing for their Christmas celebrations would prefer not knowing about the holiday’s real significance. If they do know the history, they often object that their celebration has nothing to do with the holiday’s monstrous history and meaning. “We are just having fun.”
Imagine that between 1933-45, the Nazi regime celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday – April 20 – as a holiday. Imagine that they named the day, “Hitlerday,” and observed the day with feasting, drunkenness, gift-giving, and various pagan practices. Imagine that on that day, Jews were historically subject to perverse tortures and abuse, and that this continued for centuries.
Now, imagine that your great-great-great-grandchildren were about to celebrate Hitlerday. April 20th arrived. They had long forgotten about Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. They had never heard of gas chambers or death marches. They had purchased champagne and caviar, and were about to begin the party, when someone reminded them of the day’s real history and their ancestors’ agony. Imagine that they initially objected, “We aren’t celebrating the Holocaust; we’re just having a little Hitlerday party.” If you could travel forward in time and meet them; if you could say a few words to them, what would you advise them to do on Hitlerday?
On December 25, 1941, Julius Streicher, one of the most vicious of Hitler’s assistants, celebrated Christmas by penning the following editorial in his rabidly Antisemitic newspaper, Der Stuermer:
If one really wants to put an end to the continued prospering of this curse from heaven that is the Jewish blood, there is only one way to do it: to eradicate this people, this Satan’s son, root and branch.
It was an appropriate thought for the day. This Christmas, how will we celebrate?
Simple To Remember
Judaism Online
Note: The information above is solely based on the author’s research and interpretation and does not reflect the beliefs of most Christian’s. Christmas is considered the holiest of holy celebrations and is celebrated worldwide.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)