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Dec 27, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Jonathan Mcgregor |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas |Melissa Kuipers
It’s hard to imagine a more straightforward case. In November, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Rahimi. A man convicted of domestic violence, along with multiple other gun-related crimes, wants his guns back, and the justices seemed to agree that he was too dangerous to have them. The court appears likely to uphold the 1994 law prohibiting dangerous individuals involved in domestic abuse cases from obtaining and possessing guns.
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Dec 25, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Jonathan Mcgregor |Katie Kirk |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas
Luke’s Christmas story not only features babies and parents, it also focuses on the elderly. When I was a student at Trinity Lutheran Seminary, one of my fellow students asked me to help with his preaching on the encounter with Simeon and Anna in the temple. We sang “Old Friends,” by Simon and Garfunkel, and then he preached on this passage from Luke. Read our latest issue or browse back issues. Old friends rejoiced at God’s saving presence along with younger ones.
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Dec 23, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Paul Anderson |Jonathan Mcgregor |Katie Kirk |Rachel Mann
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century. While Matthew presents royal Magi from the East, bringing gifts to the Christ child, Luke features angels appearing to shepherds in the field, calling them to attend the Holy Family in Bethlehem. Note the complementarity of the presentations.
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Dec 22, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Jonathan Mcgregor |Katie Kirk |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas
Deep speaks to deep. Womb greets womb & blessed are you who wriggled & writhed, who left behind the warmth of the uterus & crawled through mucus & blood.
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Dec 22, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Jonathan Mcgregor |Katie Kirk |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas
In 2016, a McDonald’s franchise opened in the Borgo Pio neighborhood of Rome, just outside Vatican City. St. Peter’s Square is seen in the background. (Tiziana Fabi / AFP via Getty Images) Early in the morning, when Pope Francis has just finished preparing his homily for the daily mass and the great doors of St. Peter’s Basilica are poised to groan and be hauled open, the first congregants gather in the McDonald’s just outside Vatican City.
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Dec 22, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Katie Kirk |Jonathan Mcgregor |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas
To receive these posts by email each Monday, sign up. For more commentary on this week's readings, see the Reflections on the Lectionary page. For full-text access to all articles, subscribe to the Century. Sometimes my Greek Orthodox fiancé tells me stories I‘ve never heard before. Now, any time I think of the annunciation in Luke 1, I remember the ninth-century hymnodist Kassiani and her suitor’s terrible pickup line.
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Dec 21, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Elizabeth Losh |Jonathan Mcgregor |Katie Kirk |Rachel Mann
It is no secret that politics have gone digital. Most of us get at least some of our news about politics online, and many of us follow politicians on social media platforms. We may express our views by commenting on public officials’ social media posts or tagging them in our own posts. Political activists circulate online petitions and organize rallies and protests through hashtags.
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Dec 21, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Jonathan Mcgregor |Katie Kirk |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas
“Is she bad?” my 13-year-old asked as he wandered into the living room while I was watching May December (directed by Todd Haynes, streaming on Netflix). On the screen Natalie Portman was sitting silently in a stairwell, lost in private ecstasy. But the score conveyed danger: minor chords on the piano hammering over swelling strings.
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Dec 20, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Jonathan Mcgregor |Katie Kirk |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas
Welcome to Madang. Madang is the outdoor living room of the world. Here, we invite you to sit and tune into unreserved, remarkable conversations with renowned authors, leaders, public figures, and scholars on religion, culture, and everything in between.
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Dec 20, 2023 | 
christiancentury.org | Jonathan Mcgregor |Rachel Mann |Isaac S. Villegas |Melissa Kuipers
Think of it as the English-speaking world’s most popular day-after-Christmas carol. “Good King Wenceslas,” the British carol about a generous ruler trudging out in the snow to help a man on December 26—the Feast of Stephen—first appeared in a Victorian-era collection of children’s stories, with the intent of encouraging Christian charity. But the inspiration for this fanciful tale was a very real Christian martyr who lived in the 10th century. The historical Wenceslas wasn’t English.
