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I’m sure all of you have your countdown clocks going for the first major event in 2008 — the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses! So much drama, so many television commercials, so many cliches and platitudes. The Los Angeles Times published a story about former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and his roving army of homeschooled children/precinct captains.
Here is one more brief look back into the wave of Christmas and pre-Christmas stories, even as we move into the heart of the actual season of Christmas.
The winter issue of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review features an essay by blogger RJ Eskow (a regular at The Huffington Post) about the challenge of balancing blog-inspired activism with Buddhist disciplines. Both the promise and the limits of Eskow’s vision appear in his lede:
I love finding religion stories in the sports pages and business pages of the newspaper. New York Times‘ reporter Douglas Quenqua had a great one this week about religious values and internet dating.
In a few hours, the fate of the Washington Redskins’ emotionally and spiritually harrowing season will be decided as they take on the Dallas Cowboys at FedEx Field. There are many reasons to look at the Redskins’ season and wonder why they are in contention for a playoff spot — especially the shocking and tragic murder of safety Sean Taylor.
The best way to put a buzzkill on the typical Christmas War story is to focus on who benefits the most from the battles. If every story on Nativity scenes on public land mentioned the amount of money the lawyers were taking in, people might view the whole debate differently.
The Washington Post‘s Jacqueline Salmon and Hamil Harris wrote up their Christmas story about the pressure pastors are under to hit a home run with their Christmas Eve sermons. I love the angle, particularly because I’m the daughter of a pastor and remember how difficult the Advent and Christmas seasons are for clergy.
What a year it has been for religion-in-sports stories. The year started off with Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy leading his team to a Super Bowl victory proclaiming the power of God at every opportunity, followed by a series of religion and baseball-related stories.
It’s not often that you read a newspaper story and think of the afterlife. But The New York Times‘ story on the popularity of decorating gravesites put readers in that unusual, and welcome, frame of mind.
