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Though it is widely celebrated as a Christian holiday, Saint Patrick’s Day was not a church festival until the seventeenth century. The history surrounding Saint Patrick is sketchy and largely based on legends and conflicting traditions. Like other mainstream Christian “holidays” that have been passed down through Catholic tradition, it is associated with many...
Most of us, if we hearken back far enough to our school days, remember something about the number pi—pronounced “pie” and symbolized by the Greek letter π. Some of us will also remember that the value of that number is approximately 3.14, which is why some math lovers like to celebrate it every year on March 14—that is, 3/14—designating the day as “Pi Day.”
What do Sean Connery, Oprah Winfrey, Yao Ming, and Baby Yoda have in common? Aside from their obvious celebrity, they—along with other sports icons, TV and cinema personalities (whether real or fictional), and political figures—have all featured sometime or another on a series of “READ” posters. Sponsored by the American Library Association, “READ” posters are...
Critics sometimes point to supposed "Bible contradictions" to assert that Christianity is based on a flawed and untrustworthy canon, and that Scripture is not inspired. One such "contradiction" involves the accounts of Judas’ death in Matthew 27:5 and Acts 1:18. Do these passages actually contradict each other? Is the Bible really trustworthy in all points?
Has it been 50 years since that fateful day in the spring of 1965 in Selma, Alabama, when racial tensions boiled over as the Civil Rights movement focused on the hardened segregation culture of the “Old South?” As the decades have passed, much progress has been made in racial relations in the South and throughout the country. The brutality of the opposition back...
Ordination of women in the Anglican and Episcopalian churches has become increasingly common over the last few decades. The Anglican Church has been ordaining women since the 1970s. And in 2006 the U.S. based Episcopalian Church appointed a woman as their 26th Presiding Bishop. Now, the Seventh Day Adventist church may be following suit.
Every year around this time, Jewish people around the world celebrate Purim—a holiday commemorating the time when Persian King Ahasuerus (traditionally identified as Xerxes I), extended to the scattered descendants of Judah’s captivity the right to defend themselves against their enemies. It was a momentous day, when a mighty world ruler—hardly a Jew himself—...
The night was black and stormy and the wind was furious. To my twelve-year-old eyes there was only one hope. I had just discovered I had lost an overvalued $20 bill earlier in the day as I was strolling home from a neighborhood friend’s house. I had worked hard to earn the money, and had a burning desire to get it back. So I prayed to God, asking Him to allow me...
War. Terrorism. Kidnappings and killings. Disease epidemics and even pandemics. Drug epidemics. Increasing atrocities around the world cause more and more people to ask, why suffering? Why would a loving God allow kidnapping, rape, torture, murder, and war? Why would He allow death and damage from earthquakes, tsunamis, and other weather disasters? Why the...
We have all seen or read tragic news stories about a child being killed by this or that means, or dying of a dreaded disease like cancer or leukemia. Somehow death seems worse when it is a child or young person who had all their hopes and dreams ahead of them. But the death of any loved one, no matter whether young or old, is emotionally painful.