Christmas, Americans and the Virgin Birth

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Patheos : Christmas, Americans and the Virgin Birth

December 20, 2013 By Guest Contributor

 

A guest post from Mark Tooley, President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy:

 

A new poll by Pew Research, just in time for Christmas, shows 73 percent of Americans believe in Jesus’ virgin birth by His mother Mary. Even 32 percent of the self-professed religiously unaffiliated said they believe. White evangelicals were the most believing (97%), followed by black Protestants (94%), white Catholics (88%), Hispanic Catholics (81%) and Mainline Protestants (70%). By comparison, other polls show about one third of the British people profess belief in the Virgin Birth.

 

Popular lore claims America is always growing more secular, like Europe. But attachment to core Christian beliefs remains high and shows no major sign of falling. For example, a 2008 Harris poll found that 61 percent of Americans believed in the Virgin Birth. In 1994 it was 78 percent, in 2000 it was 82 percent, and in 2003 77 percent. Non-Christians who said they believed in the Virgin Birth ranged from 47 to 27 percent during those years. A 2008 Barna Poll found that 75 percent of Americans believe the Virgin Birth, including 15 percent of atheists.

 

The resilience of the Virgin Birth would surprise American clergy and theologians of 50 and 100 years ago,

 

 

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The Days of Our Glory

December 20, 2013 By Thomas L. McDonald

 

Darkness is a fearsome thing: concealing, obscuring, bearing with it an almost tangible sense of oppression. The promise of the savior in Isaiah is nothing less than the promise to banish the darkness: the people who walked in darkness shall see a great light.

 

What does the Psalmist tell us?

 

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
more than those who watch for dawn,
more than those who watch for dawn. (Ps 130)

 

With dawn comes the light, and the end of the darkness, and that is why we wait and watch.

 

These days of Advent lead us, step by step, into that light, because to come into all at once is to be blinded by its brilliance. We are always told that Easter is the most important day on the calendar, because it is the promise of resurrection. Easter is the cause of our hope.

 

But Christmas is the cause of our glory

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godandthemachine/2013/12/the-days-of-our-glory/