Dr Paul Allen

It’s that time of year when culture warriors take up arms to keep worldly and pagan ideas from encroaching on the spiritual and biblical reason for the season. So  Sarah Palin fired a salvo  against the “war on Christmas” by “revisionists” who’re turning it into a “ winter solstice ” celebration. (This is to prepare us for her new book,  Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas , ostensibly on the same theme). But what if the pagans aren’t the “revisionists” and the late December celebrations are indeed rooted in the winter solstice? That would explain some of the odd accoutrements to celebrations of Jesus’ birth. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been able to make out what evergreen trees, lights, and egg-nog have to do with the little town of Bethlehem. Without being too much of a Grinch, it might be worth asking whether the real “revisionist” is actually Mrs. Palin. Though to her credit, she stands in a long, long line of revising this holiday.   Cele

Image via Wikipedia Author: Ligonier Ministries  Near the close of the 1976 U.S. Presidential campaign,  Newsweek  magazine famously declared 1976 the “Year of the Evangelical.” In subsequent years, Jerry Falwell ’s “ Moral Majority ,” Pat Robertson ’s “Christian Coalition,” and James Dobson’s “Focus on the Family” assumed leading roles on the stage of American political life. Each strongly identified with the Republican party and conservative public policy. In the last decade, however, a new set of actors has appeared on this stage. Leaders such as Rick Warren, Jim Wallis, and Ron Sider – all bearing evangelical credentials – have bristled against evangelicalism’s longstanding identification with the Republican party. Promoting left-of-center public policies, these spokesmen do not appear to be speaking only for themselves. Polls suggest that a growing  Image via Wikipedia number of younger self-identified evangelicals have wearied of the policies and party affiliation of thei