{"id":6468,"date":"2010-12-22T17:33:51","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T06:33:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=6468"},"modified":"2010-12-22T17:33:51","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T06:33:51","slug":"a-tough-season-for-believers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2010\/12\/22\/a-tough-season-for-believers\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A Tough Season for Believers’"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Australia, a\u00a0Victorian survey finds Christ’s birthday\u00a0losing meaning<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u00a0One in five sees (Christmas) as a celebration of Christ’s birth … When asked which of three statements summed up Christmas, the Galaxy Research poll of 800 people found 75 per cent said it was about good times with family and friends.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It seems to me that\u00a0a challenging reflection for Christians\u00a0in the USA via SydneyAnglicans News<\/a>, applies to Australian Christians:<\/p>\n

Christmas is hard for everyone. But it\u2019s particularly hard for people who actually believe in it.<\/p>\n

In a sense, of course, there\u2019s no better time to be a Christian than the first 25 days of December. But this is also the season when American Christians can feel most embattled. Their piety is overshadowed by materialist ticky-tack.<\/p>\n

[Following the review of two books] …\u00a0this month\u2019s ubiquitous carols and cr\u00e8ches notwithstanding, believing Christians are no longer what they once were \u2014 an overwhelming majority in a self-consciously Christian nation (USA). The question is whether they can become a creative and attractive minority in a different sort of culture, where they\u2019re competing not only with rival faiths but with a host of pseudo-Christian spiritualities, and where the idea of a single religious truth seems increasingly pass\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Or to put it another way, Christians need to find a way to thrive in a society that looks less and less like any sort of Christendom \u2014 and more and more like the diverse and complicated Roman Empire where their religion had its beginning, 2,000 years ago this week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Article in New York Times, A Tough Season for Believers<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Australia, a\u00a0Victorian survey finds Christ’s birthday\u00a0losing meaning: \u00a0One in five sees (Christmas) as a celebration of Christ’s birth … When asked which of three statements summed up Christmas, the Galaxy Research poll of 800 people found 75 per cent … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6468"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6468"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6504,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6468\/revisions\/6504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}