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Watch video... http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week817/feature.html DEBORAH POTTER, guest anchor: This week marks an observance for a belief system much older than Christianity -- the anniversary of the death of the prophet Zarathustra, also known as Zoroaster. Zoroastrianism began in ancient Iran or Persia and may be little known today, but it left its historical imprint on Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Estimates vary widely, but some claim that as few as 115,000 Zoroastrians remain, a few in Europe, North America and Iran; the vast majority in India, where they are called Parsis. From Bombay, now officially known as Mombai, Fred DeSam Lazaro reports....

WELLINGTON — In this village, Jesus has returned with the help of modern-day technology.Last year, the baby Jesus figure disappeared twice from the Nativity scene in front of the Wellington Community Center, never to be seen again. This year, the new blond, blue-eyed statue was outfitted with a GPS tracking device that monitored its every movement.The evening after Jesus' birth, the baby moved.At 6:45 a.m. Thursday, a village employee noticed that the statue was missing. Building maintenance supervisor Gus Arnold logged on to the monitoring system and saw that it was taken from the manger at 10 p.m. Wednesday.Arnold homed...

Seven people were injured on Thursday when Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests came to blows in a dispute over how to clean the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Following the Christmas celebrations, Greek Orthodox priests set up ladders to clean the walls and ceilings of their part of the church, which is built over the site where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born. But the ladders encroached on space controlled by Armenian priests, according to photographers who said angry words ensued and blows quickly followed. For a quarter of an hour bearded and robed priests laid into...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Two separate Eugene families whose Nativity scenes were desecrated last week when a vandal replaced the baby Jesus figures with severed pigs' heads say they were targeted because of their religious faith. The culprits left other, more secular decorations untouched and focused only on the families' religious displays. "To me, they definitely wanted to make a religious statement," said David Stahl of Eugene, who discovered a pig head in his front yard Thursday. "This takes definite thought and too much anger." Eugene police are investigating the cases as possible bias crimes, a classification that could lead to...

Father Christmas does exist -- Russian governmentAgence France-Presse First Posted 05:43pm (Mla time) 12/27/2007 MOSCOW -- Russia's government has ridden to the rescue of children by banning a television ad that declares Father Christmas does not exist, the daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta announced Thursday. The Federal Anti-monopoly Service ruled that the advertisement run by a network of electronics stores called Eto breaks a law against discrediting parents, the government-run newspaper said. The advertisement declares bluntly "that Father Frost does not exist," according to the report, referring to Russia's version of the gift-bearing, red-coated old man. "It means that parents are not...

•The twenty-fifth day of December. •In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth; •the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood; •the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham; •the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt; •the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king; •in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel; •in the...

The Christmas Story <"He will save his people from their sins." This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be...

Police investigate vandalism of west Eugene nativity scenes By Greg Bolt The Register-Guard Published: December 21, 2007 05:02AM Vandals stole baby Jesus figures from two west Eugene nativity scenes early Thursday and left severed pigs’ heads in their places. Police are calling it a possible bias crime. Both incidents occurred sometime during the night at residences within a few doors of each other on Elmira Street. The homeowners discovered the vandalism later Thursday and reported it to city police. David Stahl, one of the two home­owners, said he’s had various lawn ornaments stolen or vandalized in the past few years...

The Origin of Nativity Scenes “... Mary gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the place where travelers lodged.” According to St Luke the Evangelist (2,7) Jesus was born in a stable or at least in a place where animals were kept. In fact the word presepio (Nativity Scene) comes from the Latin verb praesepire (to enclose, to hedge, to fence) and today it means manger or crib. The term is thought to have been used for the first time with...

A recent survey revealed that one in three young adults had no idea that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Other religious blank spots included the role of the Archangel Gabriel, with more than a quarter having no idea that Gabriel brought God's message to Mary at her home in Nazareth to say that she would give birth to a son. So what do Britain's youngsters really know about Christmas? Femail quizzed four to nine-year-olds at four primary schools in Britain to find out. What gifts did the three wise men bring? Rashneet, six, from Broad Oak Primary School, Manchester: "The...

A proposed Kwanzaa celebration at the County Commission chambers caused an e-mail war among Shelby County employees earlier this week. Now it has also prompted a lawsuit. Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas filed a complaint in Chancery Court Friday to block the Kwanzaa celebration set to be hosted by County Commissioner Henri Brooks on Dec. 26. “The reason I filed the lawsuit is because of the discrimination against Christians, Jews and other faiths by allowing the Kwanzaa celebration to happen and by not allowing us to have a ceremony,” Thomas said. “I’ve asked Mayor (A C) Wharton to stop it...

Dr Williams argued that the traditional Christmas story was nothing but a 'legend' He said the only reference to the wise men from the East was in Matthew's gospel and the details were very vague. Dr Williams said: "Matthew's gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that's all we're really told. It works quite well as legend." The Archbishop went on to dispel other details of the Christmas story, adding that there were probably no asses or oxen in the stable. He argued that Christmas cards which showed the Virgin Mary cradling the...

FORT WORTH (CBS 11 News) ― The Star of Bethlehem has befuddled scholars throughout the ages. Now, a Texas law professor claims to have scientific proof that the Star was real, and not purely biblical myth. He has another major discovery as well, which resulted from his study of the Star. Texas A&M adjunct law professor Frederick Larson began researching the Star after putting up a nativity scene for his daughter. The lawyer in him, Larson said, required him to investigate what it was that he was putting up in his front yard. Beginning with the book of Matthew, he...

ANN ARBOR, MI — Persistence paid off for Frances Burke, a senior resident of Bayside, New York. For many years, the Bayside Hills Civic Association refused Burke’s request to include a nativity display in its annual holiday celebration which included a menorah and tree lighting ceremony at the public park. This year, however, Burke teamed up with the Thomas More Law Center, a national Christian public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which seeks to restore public acknowledgment of the religious significance of Christmas. As a result, for the first time in its history, the Bayside Hills...

(CNSNews.com) - With Dec. 25 only days away, a central image in the celebration of Christmas - the manger scene featuring replicas of Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus - has become the focus of attacks by vandals and leaders of "the secular Left," Christian groups charged on Wednesday. While the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights was erecting a nativity scene in New York City's Central Park, the group issued a news release condemning three dozen instances in which manger scenes were vandalized or stolen from Antioch, Calif., to Leesburg, Va., this Christmas season. "In perhaps the sickest...

THE leader of the world's Anglicans has described the Christmas story of the three wise men as nothing but a "legend" and has said not all followers must believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams has picked apart elements of the Christmas story, including how a star rose high in the sky and stood still to guide the wise men to Jesus's birth place. Stars simply don't behave like that, he told the BBC during an interview. Dr Williams said there was little evidence that the three wise men had existed at all....

The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men was nothing but a 'legend'. Dr Rowan Williams has claimed there was little evidence that the Magi even existed and there was certainly nothing to prove there were three of them or that they were kings. Dr Williams argued that the traditional Christmas story was nothing but a 'legend' He said the only reference to the wise men from the East was in Matthew's gospel and the details were very vague. Dr Williams said: "Matthew's gospel says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere...

Ontario, CA has not succumbed to the pressure felt in other cities across the country. The city of approximately 180,000 has large grass-covered median in the center of town with three lanes on each side. Many years ago, long before I was a member of Ontario Parkway Kiwanis, the group acquired very heavy statues of the Nativity scene and other scenes in the life of Christ. After four years, OPK donated them to the Chamber of Commerce. Every year, we get them out of storage and put up the scenes that can be seen on both sides of Euclid Avenue....

Pembroke Pines - The Pembroke Lakes Mall appears to have the standard holiday decorations. There's a photo booth with a Rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer theme by the food court; presents are wedged between palm trees; poinsettias rise from flower pots and combine into the shape of a Christmas tree. And next to a pair of benches in front of Dillard's, on a white-and-blue pedestal, stands a 5-foot-tall menorah. But for Len Torres, 79, of Plantation, who campaigns every holiday season to get Broward malls to include nativity scenes, that Jewish religious symbol makes Pembroke Lakes' refusal to set up a creche feel like...

GREEN BAY, Wis. -- A Wiccan pentacle has joined a controversial nativity scene at Green Bay's City Hall. The manger scene was put up by City Council President Chad Fradette, who wanted to defy an anti-religious group that was protesting another nativity scene in a nearby town. However, the Wiccans said that was an abuse of power and requested that the Wiccan symbol go up next to the nativity. "I want to see all those other faiths that we don't get an opportunity to see in Green Bay, Wis., because we are sometimes relegated to that," said Wiccan Kelly Winters....

GREEN BAY, Wis. — The putting up of a nativity scene at Green Bay's City Hall has prompted a tongue-in-cheek request from a suburban man for permission to display a Festivus pole on the overhang of the building's northwest entrance.

This is the time of year, as Hillary Clinton once put it, when Christians celebrate “the birth of a homeless child” — or, in Al Gore’s words, “a homeless woman gave birth to a homeless child.” Just for the record, Jesus wasn’t “homeless.” He had a perfectly nice home back in Nazareth. But he happened to be born in Bethlehem. It was census time and Joseph was obliged to schlep halfway across the country to register in the town of his birth. Which is such an absurdly bureaucratic over-regulatory cockamamie Big Government nightmare it’s surely only a matter of time...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Sheltered under a tree and concealed by burlap and scaffolding, the Nativity scene in St. Peter's Square -- still under construction -- was planned to put the Holy Family in Joseph's carpentry workshop. The Vatican office in charge of the creche's construction took its inspiration from Matthew's Gospel account of the birth of Jesus: "When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. He had no relations with her until she bore a son and he named him Jesus." The central scene was designed...

The Christmas season is upon us, which means it's that special time of year for the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State to make sure no wayward city council will allow a whiff of frankincense on government property. They must send out direct-mail fundraising letters asking “Help Us Crush a Creche at Christmas.” The Christmas season is also that time of year when the business world implores us to consider the material as more important than the spiritual, all in the spirit of “the holidays.” So we celebrate the arrival on Christmas...

GREENSBORO — Greensboro College staff will meet today to decide how to mark the Christmas season without the life-sized nativity scene that has been a holiday tradition for more than 70 years. "It is very, very sad when people strike out against sacred symbols," said Craven Williams, president of the college. "It's a bigger issue than striking out at these life-size figures." Williams said the 71-year-old nativity scene, which has been displayed on the college's lawn at 815 W. Market St. since 1990, is a total loss. "It is clearly beyond repair," he said. The nativity had artfully rendered fiberglass...

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while...

NAPLES, Italy (Reuters Life!) - If you are looking for something different for your nativity scene this year, head to Italy's city of Naples where you can buy miniature replicas of U.S. presidential candidates to place next to your baby Jesus. The production of handmade nativity scene figurines is big business in Naples and has been since the eighteenth century. Thousands of angels, sheep and Marys and Josephs fill market stalls at this time of the year as shoppers choose their personal way to tell the Christmas story. Tradition requires that the nativity scene be built up over time until...

An angry Italian priest has persuaded soft drinks company Red Bull to withdraw an advertisement setting its product in a nativity scene on the grounds it is disrespectful to Christianity. Father Marco Damanti, from Sicily, wrote to the makers of the caffeinated energy drink denouncing their commercial as "a blasphemous act" and said on Monday he had received a prompt reply promising to remove it from Italian television.The advert depicted four wise men, instead of three, visiting Mary and the Baby Jesus in Bethlehem. The fourth wise man bore a can of the soft drink."The image of the sacred family...

Shepherds dressed in old sheets, Christmas carols and the competition to see who will play Mary and Joseph… nativity plays have been a feature of British primary-school life for generations. But a survey has revealed that headteachers are watering down or ditching the centuries-old Christmas story in favour of secular tales to avoid upsetting pupils of other faiths. Only one in five schools are ­planning to perform a traditional nativity play this year. They are now outnumbered by schools that say they will be either putting on a non-religious play, such as Scrooge or Snow White, or giving no performance...

A small town in West Central Florida during the Christmas season of 06-07. A small community located between Clearwater and Tampa boasting roughly 17,000 residents within City limits. Safety Harbor is best known for the Spa which is almost a City within a City where celebrities play. Outside of the Spa, Main Street is decorated with lights, larger than life foil candles on the light posts, a Huge Christmas tree near the gazebo at the center of town as well as a Menorah both in the door of City Hall and the park land surrounding the gazebo. All was most...

Every time I publish a column on the issues of race or race politics, I invariably get a slew of emails from white people who shower me with kudos for saying what’s been on their minds “forever” but which they have come to believe they cannot verbalize out of concern for being labeled racists. Many have employed phrases such as “I’ve given up” apropos expressing themselves due to the climate of Political Correctness, a hypersensitive minority subculture and opportunistic parasites commonly known as “civil rights activists.” Last week, a similar scenario played out very close to home, geographically-speaking, when FOX...

Michigan Voters to Decide Whether Nativity Scene Belongs on Public PropertyTuesday, November 06, 2007 By Catherine Donaldson-Evans Does Baby Jesus have a place on public property? That's what voters in Berkley, Mich., were deciding Tuesday as they went to the polls to consider a measure that would return a nativity scene to the lawn outside their City Hall. Some residents of the town of more than 15,000 were outraged that the city and a local clergy association cut a deal with the American Civil Liberties Union to move a crèche, which had been displayed on public property for about 25...

CHATTANOOGA - A live Nativity scene that has been part of Chattanooga's annual Grand Illumination has been scrapped. Chattanooga Downtown Partnership executive director Carla Pritchard says the representation of the birth of Jesus Christ was eliminated after several people complained. The Partnership receives funding from the city. The illumination event takes place the day after Thanksgiving and begins the holiday shopping season and the downtown Winter Days & Lights event. The Nativity had been performed since the 1980s by First Baptist Church of Soddy-Daisy. Church pastor Dr. Seton Tomyn says the decision is disappointing, but understands diverse cultures are part...

Citizens in the City of Berkley, MI are fighting back against the ACLU and City Council members that capitulated to their demands last year and removed the Nativity Scene from City Hall. Berkley Citizens Vote Yes for Christmas Holiday Display is a ballot question committee that obtained enough petition signatures to have the issue placed on the November 6th ballot. I've read several messages in a post from last year regarding the Berkley nativity that said someone should fight back. Well, we are! Check out the website for more details: www.berkleyvoteyes.com. We need all the support we can get.

Yesterday, New York City Council Member Tony Avella introduced his Department of Education Holiday Display Resolution (Reso. 930/2007).  Avella’s bill calls for a nativity scene to appear alongside the menorah and crescent and star in New York City schools.  Currently, the schools allow only a Christmas tree, a secular symbol of the Christian holiday, to stand in its winter holiday displays.  On Sunday, Avella held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to discuss this resolution.  He was joined by Catholic League president Bill Donohue, Brian Rooney of the Thomas More Law Center, representatives from the Ladies Ancient...

Fr. Paul Grankauskas  Other Articles by Fr. Paul GrankauskasPrinter Friendly Version   Vocation of St. John the Baptist June 22, 2007 We might notice something different about this Sunday's Mass. Instead of the 12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, we have yet another solemnity. Instead of remembering the anniversary of a saint's death, we are celebrating his birth.During the liturgical year, we celebrate only three birthdays: Our Lord's, Our Lady's and St. John the Baptist's. We might readily understand why we remember the birth of Jesus and Mary, but why do we give attention to the birth of John the...

RICHMOND, Calif. (AP) -- A man walked into a church, doused a nativity scene with a flammable liquid and set it ablaze in front of a practicing choir, police said. Robert Mills, 40, of San Pablo, was arrested Friday night while hiding in a park minutes after police said he walked into St. Cornelius Parish and announced he was going to set the church on fire. Mills told everyone to leave but blocked the doorway until he began showering the sanctuary with the liquid, giving choir members a chance to escape, said Richmond Police Lt. Enos Johnson. The fire destroyed...

A man set fire to a Richmond church early Friday evening in full view of a practicing choir. The man walked into St. Cornelius Parish at roughly 7:45 p.m. and poured a flammable liquid on a nativity scene and then set fire to it, said Richmond Fire Department Battalion Chief Byron Berhel. Berhel didn't know the man's motive or his name but said police in Richmond arrested someone later that evening. Police did not immediately return calls. When firefighters arrived, the church at 225 28th Street was suffused with smoke, but they were able to quickly extinguish the flames and...

Below are all the biblical references to Mary, the mother of Jesus that I could locate. Anything beyond Scriptural references is conjecture, the philosophies of men and not God. Would anyone care to construct a Scripturally accurate portrait of Mary, leaving behind extra-biblical sources? Please include your Scriptural references in support of your description. Isaiah 7:13-14 Matthew 1:13-25; 2:11, 14, 20-21; 12: 46-50; 13:54-56 Mark 3:31-35; 6:3 Luke 1:26-56; 2:1-7, 16-19, 27, 33-35, 39, 41-51; 8:19-21 John 2:1-12; 6:41-42; 19:25-26 Acts 1:14

Mary, 'Palestinian refugee' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: December 30, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Joseph Farah -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com When it comes to the politicization of the Christmas story, I thought I had seen it all. But the London Independent's shameless mischaracterization of Mary, the mother of Jesus, as "a Palestinian refugee" takes the proverbial cake. The story by Johann Hari published Dec. 23 begins: "In two days, a third of humanity will gather to celebrate the birth pains of a Palestinian refugee in Bethlehem – but two millennia later, another mother in another glorified stable in this rubble-strewn, locked down...

And she brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them at the inn. -Luke 2:7 Yeah, sure, I remember 'em. How could an innkeeper forget? Even without you reporters coming by years later and asking all kinds of questions. There was just something about 'em. Like they was always standing in a light or something. I don't know. All I know is that they needed a place to stay, the house was full, so I did the best I could. I sure didn't turn...

The twenty-fifth day of December. In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth; the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood; the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham; the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt; the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king; in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel; in the...

Gaudete! Gaudete! Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natusEx Maria virgine, gaudete! Tempus adest gratiaeHoc quod optibamus,Carmina laetitiaeDevote redamus. Deus homo factus estNatura mirante,Mundus renovatus estA Christo regnante. Ezechielis portaClausa pertransitur,Unde lux est ortaSalus invenitur. Ergo nostra cantio,Psallat iam in lustro;Benedicat Domino:Salus Regi nostro. Translating as : Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is bornOf the Virgin Mary, rejoice! It is now the time of graceThat we have desired;Let us devoutly returnSongs of rejoicing. God has become man,And nature marvels;The world has been renewedBy Christ who is King. The closed gate of EzechielHas been passed through;Hence the light risesSalvation is found. Therefore let our assemblyNow sing...

SOUTHINGTON -- Staff and parishioners at two local churches woke up Thursday to find vandals had put stuffed monkeys in the place of baby Jesus in the mangers of the Nativity scenes they had put outside. At St. Dominic Church on Flanders Road, the baby Jesus was also stolen, said police spokesman Sgt. Lowell DePalma. At St. Aloysius, the manger had been empty because the church waits until just before Christmas to put out the baby Jesus, he said. But someone stole the statue of the Virgin Mary from the Nativity scene sometime Thursday night, DePalma said. It was not...

n 1223, St. Francis of Assisi inaugurated a pious practice that in places today has become so common that many think that it always existed. This great saint, as he was traversing the rolling hills of central Italy one December to proclaim the Gospel, noticed that few of his countrymen were taking the mysteries of the faith seriously. Many were not preparing for Christmas at all. Of those who were getting ready to celebrate the Lord’s birth, they looked at it as an event tied exclusively to the past. The mysteries of the faith had become sterile. The central persons...

WASHINGTON, December 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic League is reporting vandalism to nativity scenes across the United States. Figures from nativity scenes were stolen or vandalized in Tucson, AZ ; Millbrae, CA; Mission Viejo, CA; Moorpark, CA; San Francisco, CA; Naugatuck, CT; Waterbury, CT (Jesus was taken, but one of the arms was left behind); Fort Walton Beach, FL; Des Moines, IA; Sioux City, IA; Ammon, ID; Chicago, IL (32 figures of baby Jesus were nabbed-they were later dumped on the lawn of a Catholic church); Jackson County, IL (two incidents); Tinley Park, IL; Floyd County, IN; Fort Wayne,...

Do you agree that state officials should not put up nativity scenes in case they offend non-Christians? Yes No

'Not a pretty sight' A Virgin Mary statue was found hanging at Stewartstown Presbyterian Church. By BRENT BURKEY Daily Record/Sunday News Article Launched: 12/19/2006 06:04:14 AM rd/Sunday News Article Launched: 12/19/2006 06:04:14 AM EST Dec 19, 2006 — Lori Adams went to work early Monday morning and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. But someone else did and told the church secretary that a Virgin Mary lawn ornament was hanging by the neck in the parking lot of Stewartstown Presbyterian Church. "It was not a pretty sight when I came into work this morning," said Adams, who added that...

Nativity captivity: Baby Jesus thefts a prank or an affront? By John Wilkens UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER December 16, 2006 As sure as Charlie Brown will pick out a scrawny Christmas tree, as sure as Nat King Cole will sing on the radio about roasting chestnuts, somebody somewhere will steal a baby Jesus from a Nativity scene. It's become something of a holiday tradition – and more culturally charged now than ever. Thieves have already struck this year in Des Moines, Iowa; Youngsville, La.; Sioux Falls, S.D.; Santa Fe, Texas; Dover, Ohio; Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Naugatuck, Conn. The Naugatuck Nativity...