Word: church
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...Wonderful life. But Valentine's Day leaves me cold. It's a holiday that has no idea of what it's really celebrating. Or at least no idea of whom it celebrates: St. Valentine could be any of half a dozen Christian martyrs whom the early church recruited to clean up and bless pagan fertility festivals. Of the top candidates, the best known is a priest named Valentinus, who was beheaded by Emperor Claudius the Cruel on Feb. 14, A.D. 269. Upon slim evidence, whole layers of legend are stacked: that Valentinus performed secret weddings after Claudius banned marriage...
...Throughout much of his prime ministership and public life, Blair had elected to attend Roman Catholic Masses instead of the Anglican services of his own church, the Church of England. He even received Holy Communion at Mass despite not being a Roman Catholic, a practice that was criticized by the Archbishop of Westminster at the time. So why did Blair wait until he left office to officially convert to Catholicism? Quite simply because he was prevented from doing so legally and politically...
...that goodness is absolutely essential to Christianity, both theologically and morally. But Greek-speaking Christians influenced by Plato saw our cosmos as shabby and misshapen and full of lies, and the idea was not to make it right, but to escape it and leave behind our material bodies. The church at its best has always come back toward the Hebrew view, but there have been times when the Greek view was very influential...
...Wright is one of the most formidable figures in the world of Christian thought. As Bishop of Durham, he is the fourth most senior cleric in the Church of England and a major player in the strife-riven global Anglican Communion; as a much-read theologian and Biblical scholar he has taught at Cambridge and is a hero to conservative Christians worldwide for his 2003 book The Resurrection of the Son of God, which argued forcefully for a literal interpretation of that event...
...Reports of a Christian conservative takeover of the GOP have been exaggerated. While the evangelical right is a key part of the Republican coalition, it's not decisive - certainly not in a swing state. Sixty percent of Missouri voters in the Republican exit poll said they attend church least once a week. Even more - 76% - said abortion should be illegal. Yet the winner was not the first choice of evangelical Protestants opposed to abortion. Conservative Christians buoyed Mike Huckabee to a strong second-place, but Huck's inability to reach beyond that base left him an also...