Christianity needs a church with teeth
What is the church to you? Do you go to church to feel closer to God? Is it your sanctuary in a world that’s hurtling deeper and deeper into hell? Does the church make you feel safe?
What if I told you the church isn’t the church? That it can’t functionally act as the body of Christ. Not anymore, at least.
If the church can’t even keep its holy sacraments in order, then what can it realistically accomplish otherwise?
The church today is nothing more than a pretty ornament on a burning Christmas tree.
It exists as it does today to make people feel good. To provide for them a sense of spirituality they yearn for.
But what is spirituality? It means absolutely nothing. It’s a vague, ambiguous cloud of nothingness. It’s a feeling you feel when you tell yourself Jesus lives in your heart.
You wonder why the moral foundations of the world are crumbling? It’s because the church serves as little more than a refuge from a world falling apart. It’s seen as a place of escape rather than the institution of power and influence.
But the church was never supposed to be a retreat. The church was meant to engage with the real world, to shape it, to transform it. God isn’t some ambiguous feeling of connection or an abstract concept. Jesus was the word made flesh, not a disembodied notion of spirituality. The church was meant to operate in the here and now, not hover above reality in some ethereal sense of well-being.
Historically, the church had teeth. It wielded power — not just spiritual power, but real, tangible authority. Popes used to coronate kings, crowning monarchs as divinely sanctioned rulers. This wasn’t limited to the Roman Catholic Church, either; patriarchs in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches did the same. The state was dependent on the church for its legitimacy, and its doctrines and edicts carried real weight. When the church spoke, it wasn’t a suggestion. It was the voice of authority.
Compare that to today. If a man finds himself served with divorce papers by his wife, what does the church do? It offers prayers, maybe a referral to a good lawyer. But where is its power? Where is its authority to stand against the chaos of the modern world?
As a professor of political theory, Dr. Stephen Baskerville aptly points out in his interview with YouTuber Hannah Pearl Davis that the church today is incapable of providing solutions to the very real crises its members face.
Instead of a priest and his parish showing up to a divorce court and demanding legal standing to object to and prevent a divorce, it merely offers prayers to the soon-to-be separated parties. And if the church can’t even keep its holy sacraments in order, then what can it realistically accomplish otherwise? It’s become toothless.
This decline from authority to ornamentation is at the heart of why our society is crumbling. The church has abdicated its role as the moral and spiritual backbone of civilization. It has retreated into vague notions of spirituality and feel-good sermons, rather than engaging with the world and asserting its rightful place within it.
Until the church reclaims its authority — until it once again becomes the church — it will remain nothing more than a relic of what it was meant to be.
The question isn’t what happened to society. The question is: Why did we separate the church from society?
Think Christmas is over? Rebel against secularism and embrace the full meaning of Christmas
Have you ever considered how secular culture has shaped your experience of Christmas?
For most Americans, Christmas begins and ends on December 25. After the gifts are exchanged, the Christmas meal is consumed, and the family gathering has concluded, Americans purge their homes — and their hearts — of any evidence that Christmas happened.
But Christmas isn't over after December 25.
Traditionally, Christians celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, a season called Christmastide. It begins on December 25 and ends on January 6, culminating with the Feast of Epiphany.
The word "epiphany" comes from a Greek word that means "appearance" or "manifestation," and it commemorates the wise men being led by the star of Bethlehem to visit Jesus, Mary, and Joseph after the birth of the Christ child.
In the incarnation, God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. In epiphany, the world is introduced to Jesus, the Savior of the world.
To celebrate the full 12 days of Christmas, then, is a direct act of rebellion against a secular culture that wants to rob Christmas of its true meaning. Reducing Christmas to a single day centers a consumable, commercialized, and truncated version of Christmas, a mere holiday. But the true meaning of Christmas is not found in material goods, shopping, or holiday music and decorations or other materialistic excess and decadence. It's about the incarnation of God and the manifestation of Christ's light to the world.
Christmastide is a radical invitation to slow down, to spend time with God, and to reflect on the significance of the incarnation — for you and for all of humanity.
Recovering the true meaning of Christmas, then, is not just about resisting woke encroachments on a holy holiday. No, it's about living and experiencing the whole of Christmastide.
Writer Helen Roy said it perfectly:
We don’t recover the true meaning of Christmas by whining about silly liberals, at least not entirely. We recover it by living it. The best way to do this right now is to continue to celebrate, even as friends and neighbors sullenly enter the liminal dark age when all one can do is vegetate in a post-stress, post-food coma, waiting in anticipation of the most overhyped holiday of them all, New Year’s Day.
In a culture that demands consumption and speed, I invite you to resist the current, embrace liturgical living, and celebrate all of Christmastide.
'I'm gonna cry': Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy saves veteran-owned pizza place
It's a Christmas miracle — with all the toppings.
Thanks to Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy's last-minute stop at a struggling Baltimore pizzeria, the veteran-owned shop can stay in business
Portnoy is the founder of the Barstool Sports empire but has branched off into doing his popular "one bite" pizza reviews.
'We received record numbers of sales and donations yesterday and today.'
His "One Bite Pizza Reviews" YouTube account has nearly 1.5 million subscribers and almost a billion views. There is also a popular "One Bite" app with all of his pizza review scores.
One more slice
Earlier this month, Portnoy traveled to Maryland for the Army-Navy football game.
Portnoy and his producer had been driving been in the car for about eight hours and did about 10 pizza reviews. They were ready to call it a day; however, Portnoy wanted to visit a small pizzeria in Baltimore.
One Bite Pizza Reviews producer Austin Jenkins wrote on the X, "As we were driving out of Baltimore to our hotel in D.C., Dave found TinyBrickOven on the One Bite app. He asked if it was on our way, but it wasn’t. He said let’s just do it anyways, looks like it could be good pizza to review. A One Bite Christmas Miracle."
Portnoy visited the TinyBrickOven pizzeria in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore.
TinyBrickOwner owner Will Fagg — a Navy veteran — was working when Portnoy went to pick up a pizza pie.
Fagg explained that the government was preventing him from acquiring a liquor license that could greatly benefit his business.
“We can’t get our liquor license here,” Fagg told Portnoy. “Our politicians gave this market down here their liquor license, but they won’t give us ours. ... It’s really disappointing.”
Christmas closure
He explained that his business had been struggling, which would force him to shutter his pizza joint on Christmas Day.
In a video posted to the TinyBrickOven website, Fagg says: "I must share the most devastating news of my life — TinyBrickOven is scheduled to close permanently on Christmas Day. My heart is shattered, not just for myself, but for all of us. This isn't just an end of a business, it feels like the end of a shared dream."
The TinyBrickOven website states that the company has organized fundraisers for veterans, fed the homeless, raised money for the Maryland Food Bank, and hosted a volunteer event for the staff of the Washington, D.C. Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Before tasting the pizza, Portnoy declared: "We’re gonna have to keep this place open."
Portnoy stepped out of the restaurant to do his review of the pizza. After being impressed with his slice, Portnoy went back inside the TinyBrickOven pizzeria to talk to Fagg.
An offer he couldn't refuse
Portnoy asked the pizzeria owner, "Can I ask you something? How much money do you need to stay open for like a year?"
Fagg said he wasn't sure of the exact amount to save his business.
Portnoy pressed, "Well, if there’s somebody super rich right in front of your face who’s in the pizza business, and by serendipity is like, ‘What do you need to stay open for a year,’ you’ve got to give him some figure, because then he’s going to walk away."
Fagg replied, "I know it. Listen, I think we could probably get our liquor license and continue to stay open if we had $60,000."
Without hesitation, Portnoy fired back: "Done."
'I'm gonna cry'
A gobsmacked Fagg exclaimed, "Oh, my gosh, man, this is unbelievable. Wow! I'm gonna cry."
Portnoy assured Fagg that he'll send him the money "before Christmas."
"We'll keep you open for a year," Portnoy declared.
Portnoy admitted that it cost him $60,000, but stressed: "But whatever, I'm a nice motherf***er."
Portnoy's pizza review went viral, racking up nearly 15 million views on Twitter, almost 400,000 views on YouTube, and notching 70,000 likes on Instagram.
The viral video has caused business to skyrocket for the fledgling pizzeria.
Fagg told CBS News that the TinyBrickOven had a line out the door and phones ringing off the hook on Christmas Eve.
"We've never had a crowd like this," he said.
A GoFundMe campaign for the pizzeria has raised nearly $130,000 at the time of publication.
"The very generous Barstool review basically broke the internet (our email server instantly crashed due to overwhelming email volumes)," the campaign reads. "We received record numbers of sales and donations yesterday and today."
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'It's all about money': Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger slams NFL's busy Christmas schedule for risking player health
Two-time Super Bowl champion Ben Roethlisberger said the NFL is out for money and is willing to risk injuries to its players by scheduling so many games during the Christmas season.
The Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, and Pittsburgh Steelers all played December 21 before suiting up again on December 25 for special Christmas Day games on Netflix.
Roethlisberger is a former Steelers quarterback and wasn't too happy with the schedule his former team was being put through.
"It's miserable," the 42-year-old-began. "It's a shame that the league does this. It just shows that it's all about money, and this is a way that they can, you know, make more money and figure this thing out because it's not fair for the players."
On his podcast "Channel 7," Roethlisberger cited Chiefs star Patrick Mahomes making comments about the rough schedule a couple of weeks before.
"It's not a good feeling," Mahomes said, per the Mirror. "You never want to play this amount of games in this short of time. It's not great for your body. But, at the end of the day, it's your job, your profession. You have to come to work and do it."
Mahomes had a tough 11-day stint, playing in Cleveland on December 15 before returning home to Kansas City to host the Texans on December 21. Then on Christmas Day he played in Pittsburgh. The Chiefs won all three games.
The quarterback said he tried to prepare "all year long" for this particular stretch of games to prevent injury, a factor that Roethlisberger said was obviously being disregarded by the NFL.
'There's no time for your body to get healthy and rest.'
Citing kickoff changes, banned tackles, and concussion protocols, Roethlisberger questioned why the league would make its stars play three games in such a short period of time.
"There's no time for your body to get healthy and rest," Roethlisberger continued. "This time of year nobody's healthy anyway, you're always beat up, you're never 100% ... your body is not recovering fast enough, and now you're asking these guys to go out and play and beat each other up, and it's a shame."
The dejected former quarterback reiterated that the move was "obviously a money thing for the NFL" and, despite knowing this, admitted that he and others were still going to tune in.
"I feel bad for the players and, and then, you know, the holidays, that you want to be at home with your family, too. It's tough."
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LeBron, Steph Curry, and Mickey Mouse deliver NBA's most watched season game since 2019 with Christmas Day matchup
A Christmas Day game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors was watched by more fans than any NBA regular-season game in the last five years.
After putting together the best possible matchup and returning to a traditional Christmas message, the NBA raked in far more viewers than expected. With 4 million sets of eyeballs tuning in on Christmas in 2023, reports estimated the league would be happy with simply beating that mark and would be ecstatic if viewership approached 6 million.
It would seem network executives' letters to Santa were answered, however, as the Lakers-Warriors game averaged 7.76 million viewers (peaking at 8.32 million), making it the most watched NBA regular season game since 2019.
The entire slate of Christmas games was the league's most watched in five years, ESPN reported, with an average viewership of 5.25 million. This total was an 84% increase over 2023.
— (@)
'There goes Goofy, straight to the rack!'
ESPN producers will certainly be on Santa's nice list for 2024 after pulling out all the stops to procure such shocking numbers.
The broadcasts included a focus on saying "merry Christmas" and simultaneously capitalized on Disney's animated characters to pull at viewers' heartstrings. This involved Mickey Mouse making a wish that his friends could play basketball on Christmas, a wish Santa granted in the form of an alternate ESPN broadcast.
On ESPN2, Disney+, and ESPN+, the San Antonio Spurs vs. New York Knicks game was offered as an animated broadcast called "Dunk the Halls."
The animated version had Disney characters overlaid on top of NBA players at times, resulting in offensive maneuvers from Donald Duck and defensive plays by Minnie Mouse, among others. The broadcast also had its own announcer crew, which featured hilarious commentary simply by way of what happened on-screen.
"There goes Goofy, straight to the rack! Oh my gosh!" ESPN's Drew Carter said at one point. "Inside, outside ... Goofy can't be stopped!" he later added.
The broadcast was similar to ESPN's "Monday Night Football" game earlier in the month that saw characters from "The Simpsons" take the place of football stars in an animated version of an NFL game.
Media members pointed out that the NFL's Christmas games ended in the afternoon, leaving the NBA Christmas as the only sports broadcast in the country at 7:30 p.m. ET.
As well, the NBA aired its 2024 Christmas games on ESPN and ABC, as opposed to only ESPN in 2023.
Nevertheless, the league took a gamble and was successful.
Audiences were clearly happy with how much effort was put into the broadcast, with the Christmas messaging providing a welcome break from any sort of activism the NBA has become known for in recent years.
Pushing positive Christmas messages worked well for the NFL on Netflix, as well, resulting in the platform's highest concurrent viewership on Christmas Day in four years.
Also, the Kansas City Chiefs vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers was Netflix's second-most popular live broadcast ever.
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NBA, NFL return to traditional 'merry Christmas' messages as American culture is finally being embraced again
Netflix and Disney's ESPN saw a return to normalcy with simple Christmas messages, as the two sports brands battled for viewer supremacy on the holiday.
While the idea of a war on Christmas has been seen as something of a meme in recent years, bans on Christmas trees and "Christmas-themed items" still happen on occasion.
If football and basketball fans are tired of hearing "happy Holidays" instead of "merry Christmas," both the NBA and NFL seemed keen to focus on "merry Christmas" this year in order to garner fuzzy feelings instead of viewer outrage.
The NFL's first broadcast on Netflix came with focus on Christmas, particularly the message of "merry Christmas."
Stars like Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson even ran around like a lunatic with a Santa coat on, while Kansas City Chiefs players Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce sported theirs in the locker room.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid then appeared as Santa Claus himself to wish all his players a "merry Christmas."
All of this was presented officially by the NFL. Yes, the league wants ratings — and it worked.
For the Chiefs' game versus the Pittsburgh Steelers, Netflix saw its second-most popular live broadcast, with viewers from over 200 different countries.
According to the Mirror, the platform had its highest concurrent viewership on Christmas Day in four years, with one-third of those viewers tuning in to the football game.
'I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day.'
The NBA was clearly looking to compete, and since basketball historically is the go-to sport for Christmas Day in the United States, the league pulled out all the stops. Although the viewership numbers aren't yet known, the NBA had high hopes by pitting LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers against Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
After a thrilling two-point victory, James made it clear that the NBA was in it to win.
"I love the NFL. I love the NFL. But Christmas is our day," James told an ESPN reporter, reciprocating a "merry Christmas" of his own.
Lakers guard Austin Reaves, who scored a historic triple-double, had his own "merry Christmas" message pushed out on official NBA channels after the game.
Disney-owned ESPN took advantage of childhood memories during its broadcast as well, invoking Mickey Mouse and all his friends for what seemed like an awfully unfair pickup basketball game for whoever had Pluto or Chip 'n' Dale on their team.
In the end, Mickey's Christmas wish came true, the tree was lit, and Santa flew away, leaving the Disney characters to ball on their own personal Christmas court.
It goes without saying that major sports leagues know that falling back on wholesome messaging can win back audiences, but only time will tell if the NBA can beat its 4 million viewers from last Christmas. That number was more than 10 million in 2018, per Sports Media Watch, but the likelihood of that number being reached unfortunately seems like a pipe dream for the league.
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Three holiday movies that keep the 'Christ' in Christmas
War on Christmas?
It's strange that anyone would bother. In 2024, it's perfectly easy to celebrate Christmas without any reference to Christ or Christianity.
Charlie Brown's melancholy reflections on the season demonstrate that being 'over' Christmas is not a modern invention.
Most of know about the commercialization of Christmas and Coca-Cola’s mass adoption of a secularized Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) to sell beverages starting in the 1920s and 1930s. But for decades after, pop culture depictions of the holiday still commonly included references to the Virgin Mary and Jesus.
Even a secular film like "It’s a Wonderful Life" famously emphasizes the themes of redemption and hope symbolized by Christmastime.
More recent movies like "National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation" (1989) or "Home Alone" (1990), while less reverent about the season, still manage to present it as an occasion for reconciling with family and finding hope during troubled times.
Cut to the past several decades. Holiday offerings like "The Grinch," "Elf," "Deck the Halls," "Red One," and "The Christmas Chronicles" limit themselves to a vaguely Christmas ambience and mood without any deeper reflection.
Many of these movies are "family" films in that they avoid profanity and sex. But their hollowness and crass commercialism make them arguably harder to sit through than raunchy pics like "Bad Santa." At least the latter is honest about its cynicism.
Of course, there is more nourishing Yuletide fare to be had. Below is a list of some Christmas classics we recommend, some more obscure than others but all worth a viewing.
'A Charlie Brown Christmas' (1965)
The very first of many TV specials based on Charles Schulz's "Peanuts" comic strip, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" made two radical decisions for the time: dispensing with a laugh track and hiring actual children to play the characters. The result is something quieter and more humble than the overstuffed entertainments we take for granted today.
Which is not to say that it is naive or saccharine. Charlie Brown's melancholy reflections on the season demonstrate that being "over" Christmas is not a modern invention and make Linus' reminder of the reason for the season (quoting Scripture on network television!) especially powerful.
'3 Godfathers' (1948)
This lesser-known collaboration between director John Ford and icon John Wayne also quotes Scripture, Luke 2:22's description of the presentation of Jesus at the temple: "And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord."
Three bank robbers have found a Bible while on the lam in the desert; one of them reads this passage aloud. They've also found a newborn — his dying mother has charged them with keeping him safe. A thoughtful and funny retelling of the story of the three wise men.
'Joyeux Noel' (2005)
What we came to call World War I had been raging for a few months when Pope Benedict called for a temporary Christmas truce in December 1914, expressing his wish "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang.” Those in charge rejected his plea, but the men doing the fighting had other plans. On Christmas Eve, British soldiers in their trenches at the Western front heard something strange: the Germans singing "Silent Night."
The British joined in; soon an impromptu celebration formed, with the enemies meeting in no man's land to sing, exchange small gifts, and play soccer. 2005's "Joyeux Noel" (sometimes called "Merry Christmas" in English-language versions) compellingly depicts this event through the eyes of different French, Scottish, and German soliders. Unflinching and unsentimental, it nonetheless manages to convey an authentic Christian hope in the midst of a hellish conflict.
What did Mary and Joseph do after Jesus was born? Here's what the Bible says
The Virgin Mary gave birth to the promised Son of God in the town of Bethlehem — just as the angel and the Scripture had foretold. The buildup to this birth in Luke’s Gospel is eventful. In Luke 1 there are angelic appearances and revelations, a visit between pregnant female relatives, songs of praise and wonder, and a formerly barren woman giving birth to the forerunner of the Messiah.
After many years of waiting for the Messiah, the promised Son was born: “And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger” (Luke 2:7).
But what about after Jesus’ birth? What happened in the hours and days that followed? Are there things we can both see explicitly and deduce implicitly from the biblical data?
1. Shepherds rushed to Bethlehem to see the newborn.
This was the same day as the birth. The angel told them, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The shepherds would find the baby still in the manger (2:12; see 2:7).
So in the hours after the birth of Jesus, Mary and Joseph were receiving shepherds as visitors.
2. Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day.
According to Genesis 17, circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Abraham.
In Luke 2:21 we’re told, “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
Mary and Joseph were obeying the law of Moses.
3. Mary was persevering through her time of ritual uncleanness.
According to Leviticus 12, a woman was ritually unclean for several weeks if she gave birth to a boy. Biblical law prohibited her from going to the sanctuary until her time of uncleanness was complete. Once her uncleanness was over, she was to bring an offering to the temple (Leviticus 12:5-8).
In Luke 2:22-24, Mary kept the regulations of the law, and at the appointed time she brought the appropriate offering to the temple.
4. Mary and Joseph received visiting wise men.
These men from the east brought gifts for the Christ child (Matthew 2:11-12). They arrived at “the house” where Mary and Joseph were staying (2:11).
This house would have been the same relative’s home where the couple first arrived in Luke 2:1-7. (The “guest room” in Luke 2:7 was not the guest room of a motel; it was the guest room of a home.)
The wise men didn’t arrive on the night of Jesus’ birth. Matthew 2 doesn’t report how much time has elapsed since the birth, but Herod’s plan to kill babies who were “two years old or under” suggests that when the wise men came, more than a year had passed since Jesus’ birth.
5. Mary and Joseph went to Egypt.
Still in Bethlehem with Mary and Jesus, Joseph had a dream, in which an angel told him, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (Matthew 2:13). When Joseph awoke, he followed the angel’s instructions and left Bethlehem, taking his little family to Egypt.
While we only have snapshots of things that happened in the hours, days, weeks, and months that followed Jesus’ birth, these snapshots should be studied and treasured.
This essay was originally published at Dr. Mitchell Chase's Substack, "Biblical Theology."
‘The stakes are eternal’: The greatest Christmas gift we've already received
If you’re not feeling the Christmas spirit like you usually do, Glenn Beck has a solution.
“I want to start today by fixing our gaze upon that cradle in Bethlehem, where the greatest gift ever given entered the world,” Glenn begins. “A simple child was born. Definitely not a child of earthly power — no wealth but purpose.”
“And through him, the chains of mankind's bondage were destined to be broken. When he was born, in a nutshell, what the angel said was, ‘Liberty, redemption, hope.’ It’s what our Founders understood. Each of us endowed with certain inalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. Our creator gave these to us,” he continues.
While our creator also gave us free will and the ability to make mistakes — this is a gift in itself.
“We can’t learn without the liberty to fail. We don’t grow, and without the liberty to choose between good and evil, the triumph of virtue over vice means absolutely nothing. We miss this message, or maybe we save this message for Christmas Eve,” Glenn says. “We should be talking about this all year long.”
As a recovering alcoholic himself, Glenn knows this well.
“There are times in your life where you are wrought with guilt. You just can’t move because in your head, you’re playing these tapes over and over again. And they’re all lies. That’s what Christmas is. The freedom to lay down that guilt to heal wounds, old and new, to grasp the hand of grace that lifts us up out of the muck and the mire. This freedom is the most precious,” he explains.
And despite the headlines that constantly warn of war with other nations, the real war being waged on us is a spiritual war that wants us to forget these messages.
“Its battlefield isn’t seen. The stakes are eternal. So as we prepare and we stand on the threshold of this sacred season, let’s not take what we face too lightly, this unseen enemy,” Glenn says.
“Let’s not take what happened at the ballot box as, ‘That was a reprieve, that was God doing what we couldn’t do,’” he continues. “Now, God says, ‘Okay, now what are you going to do with it? Because I’ve done what you can’t do.’ That’s the deal with free will. It’s a partnership. He’ll forgive us, but we’ve got to do the work.”
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