Tag archive for ‘pop culture’
In Defense of the Christmas Tree
Could it be that something most of us enjoy so much might be actually pagan in origin? Most people are aware that the Christmas tree came to America with immigrants from Germany, but just where did the Christmas tree originate? Are its origins to be found in paganism?
How about some Advent?
Maria von Trapp writes: Who can describe our astonishment, however, when a few days after our first Thanksgiving Day we heard from a loudspeaker in a large department store the unmistakable melody of “Silent Night”! Upon our excited inquiry, someone said, rather surprised: “What is the matter? Nothing is the matter. Time for Christmas shopping!” …
Hallowe’en: An Orthodox approach
Every year, on Hallowe’en, I sit on the front porch of my house with a bowl of candy, a box of beeswax candles, and a large icon for the Feast of All Saints. Every child who comes to the house gets a piece of candy, and may also light a candle and place it before the icon.
Not cut out for religion
I ask you, what’s the answer, and you just ask me questions, and I’m like, “hello, I thought you were God?” Can’t I just download you, pay-as-I-go to decode you – a quick fix listen on my iPod?
Rob Bell and Don Golden on eucharist and the new humanity
A church is not a center for religious goods and services, where people pay a fee and receive a product in return. A church is not an organization that surveys its demographic to find out what the market is demanding at this particular moment and then adjusts its strategy to meet that consumer niche. The way of Jesus is the path of descent.
Under the Heaven Tree
In 1999 a British ad agency produced a black-and-red Easter poster for the Anglican church depicting Jesus in the likeness of Che Guevara. Both method and message were typically ‘ninetyish. People under fifty did not recognize the allusion to the Guevara poster, which had been popular in the 1960’s. Nor did they know who Guevara was. A vintage copy of this poster is now a valuable semi-antique collectible, in the category of “paper ephemera.”…
Star Wars: Another Point of View
Return of the Jedi is positively Dostoevskian in its moral content, and I am convinced that Lucas is familiar with Orthodox teachings and lives of Saints…
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