Question: “What is the true meaning of Christmas?”

Answer: The true meaning of Christmas is love. John 3:16-17 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” The true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of this incredible act of love.

The real Christmas story is the story of God’s becoming a human being in the Person of Jesus Christ. Why did God do such a thing? Because He loves us! Why was Christmas necessary? Because we needed a Savior! Why does God love us so much? Because He is love itself (1 John 4:8). Why do we celebrate Christmas each year? Out of gratitude for what God did for us, we remember His birth by giving each other gifts, worshipping Him, and being especially conscious of the poor and less fortunate.

The true meaning of Christmas is love. God loved His own and provided a way—the only Way—for us to spend eternity with Him. He gave His only Son to take our punishment for our sins. He paid the price in full, and we are free from condemnation when we accept that free gift of love. “But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Recommended Resource: The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel.

Was there ever a time when the holidays were not busy? Probably not. I suppose if we went back to the very first Christmas we would find a great deal of hurried busyness: Joseph was out sitting in the garage on the donkey, honking the saddle horn, doing his best to hurry Mary along just a bit.

She was inside packing one more bag for the holiday trip to visit Joseph’s neurotic family inBethlehem. Of course she was moving as fast as she could. A woman better than eight months pregnant, who was planning an excursion over field and fountain, moor and mountain, was moving nowhere very quickly.

But there were places to go, people to see, and history to be made. So Mary and Joseph hurried on their way into the throngs of people who had gathered in the famed City ofDavidfor the census demanded by the Roman authorities.

The story is as familiar as our own children’s names. Upon their arrival there was no room for Mary or Joseph at the local Econolodge. So they checked theFairfield. Strike out. The Motel Six? Nope, not there either. The young couple was forced into being squatters at the local KOA campground. There Jesus was born, ignominiously into a Palestinian backwater. All the while the counting of people, taxes, sheep, and profits went on unhindered. The world was too busy to note his arrival.

Several Christmas seasons ago I was very busy at the hospital where I worked. There was a high census of patients. There were extraordinary cases in the Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Department. The entire staff was attempting to coordinate help for patients who would not have a Christmas for their families.

In our busyness, we were on the verge of overlooking the old “reason for the season.” Then, one of the hospital volunteers, unknown to her, brought us a much needed reprieve and put a smile back on everyone’s face. She came rushing into the Pastoral Care office with the panicked words, “Jesus is missing!”

At first, I thought someone had taken a crucifix out of one of the hospital rooms when they discharged to go home. It happens more times than you might imagine. As a person packs their bags, sometimes Jesus finds himself among a patient’s personal belongings. But no worries; the hospital keeps a whole box of Jesuses in a hidden cabinet to replace the stolen ones. Such theft doesn’t bother me. I figure if a person needs Jesus enough to steal him off the wall of a hospital, then by all means, take him.

But the missing Jesus this volunteer spoke of was the baby Jesus from the Nativity scene. Everyone was there: Mary, Joseph, the magi, shepherds, sheep, donkeys, angels – all the usual suspects. Except for Jesus. The manger was empty. Our volunteer concluded that he had been stolen from his crib while sleeping. The Christmas carol says the shepherds were watching and guarding Jesus – but apparently not in the hospital chapel.

To the volunteer’s relief, it was quickly clarified that Jesus was not missing. He simply hadn’t arrived yet. Baby Jesus was wrapped, not in swaddling clothes, but in shrink wrap and stuck in drawer. He was safe and sound waiting for Christmas Day before making his grand entrance. We, along with all the Nativity scene characters, wait for him until then.

In your own heart Jesus may be locked away, collecting dust in some dark little corner. You may have grown so busy that you have not even thought of him since last year (or at least since Easter). If so, I think he’s do an unwrapping, don’t you?

Break the packaging. Knock off the dust. Get him out of the drawer. Let him take his place at the center of this Advent season, and at the center of your life. We may be busy, but not so busy that we forget to “glorify and praise God for all we have heard and seen” in this child born in Bethlehem.

Europe’s economic and financial crisis is the consequence of an “ethical crisis” and a “crisis of faith,” Pope Benedict XVI said Thursday (Dec. 22), resulting in the triumph of selfishness over social responsibility.

Benedict made his remarks in his annual Christmas speech to the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church’s central administration at the Vatican.

The pope acknowledged that “such values as solidarity, commitment to one’s neighbor and responsibility toward the poor and suffering are largely uncontroversial,” but said the “motivation is often lacking … to make sacrifices.”

While the remedy for selfishness lies in “proclamation of the gospel,” the pope said Europe is now undergoing a crisis of faith evident in the troubles of the Roman Catholic Church.

“Regular churchgoers are growing older all the time and … their number is constantly diminishing,” and “recruitment of priests is stagnating” while “skepticism and unbelief are growing.”

Benedict drew a contrast between Europe’s anemic religious life and Africa’s “joyful passion for faith,” which he experienced last month during a three-day visit to the West African country of Benin.

“None of the faith fatigue that is so prevalent (in Europe), none of the oft-encountered sense of having had enough of Christianity, was detectable there,” the pope said.

Benedict noted the benefits of religious faith to African society, which he said provides the “strength to serve Christ in hard-pressed situations of human suffering, the strength to put oneself at his disposal, without looking round for one’s own advantage.”

A pastor in Iran sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith may have to wait another year for a ruling on whether the sentence will be upheld, according to sources.

Yousef (also spelled Youcef) Nadarkhani, sentenced to death after a court of appeals in Rasht, Iran, found him guilty of leaving Islam in September 2010, has been in prison since October 2009, yet his lawyers said they were told to not expect any movement on his case for another year.

“The news we have about Yousef is not official, but that’s what the lawyers are saying,” a member of the Church of Iran who requested anonymity told Compass. “The lawyers speak to the judges’ secretaries and hear things. Rasht is not a big city, so it is easy to know what is happening.

The head of Iran’s Judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, has reportedly ordered the presiding judge over the trial in Rasht to do nothing for one year.

The court in Rasht, 243 kilometers (151 miles) northwest of Tehran, was expected to pronounce a verdict on Nadarkhani’s appeal in October, and sources said the court’s long silence bodes ill. Instead of pronouncing a verdict, the court sent the Christian’s case to the nation’s Islamic authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, to make a ruling.

Authorities have also continued to pressure Nadarkhani to recant his faith while in prison. In September they gave him Islamic literature aimed at discrediting the Bible, according to sources, and instructed him to read it. The court reportedly has been told to use whatever means necessary to compel Nadarkhani to recant his faith.

The anonymous Christian who spoke to Compass said he didn’t believe that Nadarkhani would be executed soon, but he said authorities were tense about his case, indicating that nothing was certain.

Some Iranian Christians have said that, in the face of international outrage over the case, the government would announce a verdict near the Christmas holidays so that it would receive less notice.

Many Christians in Iran believe Church of Iran doctrine is less than Trinitarian, although the statement of faith on the church’s website (http://www.eglisediran.org/?page_id=8) indicates belief in a triune God-head of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Christian leaders in Iran have called for prayer for their leaders and congregations over the Christmas and New Year period, as there are fears that pressures on churches may intensify in the coming days, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC).

“These fears stem partly from the waves of arrests last Christmas and New Year, and also the previous year, in which several dozen believers were detained,” MEC reported in a press statement. “Two of those arrested in late December 2010, Farshid and Noorallah, remain in prison.

Farshid Fathi, 32, has been in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran since Dec. 26, 2010. He is married and has two young children. Noorollah Qabitizade, a Christian convert and a house church leader held in Ahwaz in southwestern Iran, has been in prison since Christmas Eve of last year.

Between December of last year and February, authorities arrested scores of Christians. All have been released, except for Qabitizade and Fathi.

Authorities arrested Nadarkhani in his home city of Rasht in Oct. 2009 on charges that he questioned obligatory religion classes in Iranian schools. After finding him guilty of apostasy, the court of appeals in Rasht in November 2010 issued a written confirmation of his charges and death sentence.

At an appeal hearing in June, the Supreme Court of Iran upheld Nadarkhani’s sentence but asked the court in Rasht to determine if he was a practicing Muslim before his conversion. The court declared that Nadarkhani was not a practicing Muslim before his conversion, but that he was still guilty of apostasy due to his Muslim ancestry.

The Supreme Court had also determined that his death sentence could be annulled if he recanted his faith. The Rasht court gave Nadarkhani three chances to recant Christianity in accordance with sharia (Islamic law), but Nadarkhani refused to do so. His final appeal hearings ended on Sept. 28, and the court was expected to make its final decision two weeks from the final hearing.

Nadarkhani’s lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, also faces charges for “actions and propaganda against the Islamic regime,” due to his human rights activities.

In addition, this month Iranian authorities sentenced Alireza Seyedian to six years imprisonment for being baptized in Turkey and uploading a video of his baptism to the Internet, according to Mohabat News. Seyedian is another member of the Church of Iran, and Dadkhah is also representing him.

As Christians in Iran are held hostage to the government’s political whims, some Iranian Christians say the key to their freedom is continued pressure from the international community.

Question: “Do some Christmas traditions have pagan origins?”

Answer:There is no doubt that some of what we now refer to as Christmas traditions can be traced back, in some form, to pagan cultures and celebrations.

The ringing of bells, for example, is generally thought to have had its origin in the early pagan winter celebration of ringing of bells to drive out evil spirits.

In later centuries, bells were rung on Christmas Eve to welcome in the spirit of Christmas with joyful noise (Psalm 95:1).

When Christians enjoy the beauty of a glorious bell choir ringing Christmas carols, we are reminded of the coming of Jesus into the world, not the driving out of evil spirits.

Similarly, there was an early pagan tradition of lighting candles to drive away the forces of cold and darkness. However, is it likely that our hearts are drawn to those early pagans rather than rejoicing in our Savior, the Light of the World (John 1:4-9) as we light candles?

Of course not.

Nor is it likely that when I give gifts to my loved ones at Christmas, the gifts will have less significance to either of us because some Druid somewhere in time offered a gift to his goat as part of some pagan ritual.

No, we remember, as we should, the gifts given to the Christ-child by the Magi (Matthew 2:11). Jesus was the greatest gift ever given, and therefore His birth is worthy of celebration.

So obscure are the beginnings of many Christmas traditions that reference books and internet sites contradict one another on the details.

Some of our most popular and beloved Christmas symbols are entirely Christian, and were never part of any pagan religion anywhere.

At the same time, some Christmas traditions undoubtedly do have their origins in the pagan past. What is important is not the origins of traditions, but their significance to us today as believers in the Son of God.

December 25 was not mentioned in the biblical narrative as the day Jesus was born, and, as such, we cannot be dogmatic about it one way or the other.

But even if the date is completely wrong, there is still the opportunity for thousands of people who wouldn’t go to church any other time of the year to go on Christmas day and hear the gospel of Christ.

If you are fully convinced that you cannot, in good conscience, observe a particular Christmas tradition, do not observe it. If you are fully convinced that a particular tradition is too steeped in paganism to honor God in any way, by all means forsake that tradition.

At the same time, if you are fully convinced that you can honor and worship God through a particular tradition, honor and worship God (Romans 14:5)!

For Christians, Christmas traditions can be an important part of the celebration of the birth of our Savior, and they remind us of that momentous event that changed the world forever. More importantly, they bring to mind the miracle of new birth He created in us when He came into our hearts, saved us from our sins, and made us children of God by the shedding of His blood on the Cross (Colossians 1:20).

It is this amazing truth that enables us to say with the angels, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14).

Deck the halls and cue the pageant! Advent has arrived in American churches, which means the lapsed and the curious who seldom darken the door just might drop by for a taste of the season’s spirit.

But if visitors briskly come and go without considering a commitment to join or get involved, then churches will have missed a golden opportunity with huge implications for the future.

Part of what’s at stake, researchers say, is the survival of congregations. Unless they start engaging the types of people who visit only at the holidays, aging mainline churches will have virtually no one in them in 30 years, according to Scott Thumma, a sociologist of religion at Hartford Seminary.

Evangelical congregations, too, are in many cases poised to face a similar fate.

“If you just have the Advent season without also calling people to a more significant, disciplined sense of what the Christian life is, then you run the risk of letting people come in once a year and feel that they’ve done their Christian duty,” said Thumma, author of “The Other 80 Percent: Turning Your Church’s Spectators into Active Participants.”

The Christmas season is when Americans are most open to considering matters of faith, according to data from LifeWay Research, a Southern Baptist research firm. In a 2008 survey, 47 percent said they’ve been more open during the holidays. That’s more than after a national crisis such as 9/11 (38 percent), after a natural disaster (34 percent) or the birth of a child (28 percent).

Attendance tends to increase at worship services for the four weeks of Advent, according to Thumma. But new attendees often don’t see or feel what makes others stay involved year-round.

“When we get caught up in all the celebration and don’t take time to think about communication, we miss a big point of the Christmas season,” said LifeWay Research President Ed Stetzer. “I would grade churches a C or a D on this. A lot of churches just go through the motions and assume people will come.”

This year, new initiatives are courting those who’ve wandered from the flock. Some call them the “Chreasters” — people who rarely show up beyond Christmas and Easter.

The Catholics Come Home project is for the first time running a $3.5 million TV campaign nationwide. CCH is also launching new local campaigns in St. Louis, Tampa and Fort Wayne, Ind. The Episcopal Church is running an online Advent greeting in which a young adult woman waxes nostalgic about holidays spent in church and invites everyone to services.

The challenge for congregations, however, involves breaking old habits and learning new ones during what is already a busy, demanding time of year.

“Special efforts (to engage inactive members and seekers) are not likely to occur during the Christmas season,” said Alan Newton, executive minister for the American Baptist Churches in and around Rochester, N.Y. “It is a busy season with lots of charitable work, extra visiting of shut-ins and the like, (plus) extra services. A lot of the regulars travel on holidays, making extra efforts challenging.”

Despite the difficulties, churches are finding ways to turn holiday activities into forums where people with tenuous or nominal ties to a faith community can explore deeper ones. Approaches vary widely, but all tend to give visitors a taste (or a reminder) of what’s meaningful about church commitments.

Sometimes the focus is on a few individuals. At Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church in New York, ministry associate Jacob Simpson said he struggles to get consistent participation from the six teenagers in his confirmation group.

But at Advent, he could ask a new question: how would you like to help your neediest neighbors? Their answer: with a winter clothing drive and volunteering at a soup kitchen. Based on their excitement for projects of their own design, he expects close to full participation.

“Kids don’t understand why they should be coming to church, and churches often don’t give kids enough to do,” Simpson said. “We can be honest with them that this world is not perfect, and we’re called to do something about it.”

At worship services and special events, churchgoers need to remember the welcoming and non-judgmental father from the parable of the prodigal son, Thumma said. His tip: remind greeters to avoid comments like, “Where have you been? We haven’t seen you in ages!” Stick instead with, “It’s great to see you! How are things going? Come see what’s happening here … “

Another tip: create environments where newcomers and inactive members can see and hear what makes church life meaningful. This might be a rolling video or a brief presentation during a reception. It could be a hallway lined with photos from mission trips, boys and men shoveling out elders after snowstorms, and other highlights of the year.

“It seems like a perfect occasion for the pastor or some religious leader to say, ‘It wasn’t just the shepherds or the wise men back then’” who were giving, Thumma said. “’We have people who’re giving all year round in this community.’”

When the Rev. John McCausland crafted his Christmas Eve sermon at his Episcopal church in Weare, N.H., he always followed a basic formula.

There had to be a brother and a sister in the story. Jesus and the holy family played a prominent role. And there was always an appearance from Santa Claus.

“If we never mention Santa Claus, then you create a parallel universe,” said McCausland, who retired in June. “What I try to do in this story is to tie the two together, but not make Santa Claus primary.”

McCausland kept the Jesus-and-Santa story tradition for 14 years at Holy Cross Episcopal Church. Children would carry the figures to the creche display and sit for McCausland’s story, in which Santa often joins in the adoration of the Christ child.

Just where to place the jolly elf in the original Christmas story can be a perennial dilemma for both parents and pastors. This year, two new products draw on educating kids about the origins of Santa, or inspiring them to become Santas themselves.

Phil Vischer, creator of the popular VeggieTales characters, has launched a DVD that answers the question, “Why Do We Call it Christmas?” The video, hosted by Vischer and featuring puppets and animation, spends 45 minutes detailing the origins of Christmas traditions, including Santa Claus.

One puppet on the DVD credits American TV shows and movies that “mushed up Christmas” by melding stories of St. Nicholas and the Nativity. “How did this guy become such a big part of Jesus’ birthday party?” Vischer asks as the video opens.

In an interview, he said he hopes to diffuse tensions between Christian parents who want nothing to do with Santa and those who think there’s room for both Jesus and Santa.

“We have the ability to get kind of paranoid,” Vischer said. “I think it’s easy for some Christians to say there’s got to be some plot, there’s some evil organization, that is foisting Santa upon us to steal Jesus.”

Vischer’s video trip back through history details the celebrations of Christ’s Mass (which became Christmas) to mark Jesus’ birth, and the Feast of St. Nicholas that recalls the giving saint who helped poor children.

“I think it would be awesome if Christian parents could bring back a more overt celebration of St. Nicholas because, effectively, you can have your Santa and Jesus, too,” Vischer said.

Kelly Moss, author of the new book “The Santa Club,” is doing just that by encouraging children to join “millions of Santa Clauses” around the world in being generous givers modeled after St. Nicholas, who she considers the first Santa as well as a follower of Jesus.

Her book was inspired by the answer her mother-in-law gave to her older son, Jonathan, when she and her husband were flummoxed about how to handle his inquiry about Santa. He stayed up that night with his grandmother and helped place gifts for his younger brother, Jameson, under the Christmas tree.

“The following year, when Jameson asked (about Santa), Jonathan said, ‘I’ll handle this, Mom,’ and he welcomed him into The Santa Club,” Moss recalled of her sons, now 22 and 20.

Others make only one choice, focusing on Jesus rather than Santa.

Michael Chanley, the former parenting minister at Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Ky., said he stuck to the Bible and never intentionally taught about Santa.

“When children have asked, as they always do, I simply ask them what they believe. Regardless of what they say, my response is, basically, the same,” said Chanley, now the executive director of the International Network of Children’s Ministry.

“I tell them Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ. Then, I share with them the story of the real Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, and how his generosity inspired many of our traditions.”

Gerry Bowler, author of the 2005 book, “Santa Claus: A Biography,” said discomfort with Santa has been around for centuries, even as some opposition has waned, with an image of Santa kneeling at the creche that’s become popular in recent years.

“The warming really took place about 150 years ago and there’ve been frequent outbursts of resistance and then a gradual accommodation,” he said.

Still, there are a range of holdouts, from Jehovah’s Witnesses who don’t celebrate any birthdays, to the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., which changed the lyrics of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” to “Santa Claus Will Take You to Hell.”

“You’ll find a rationalist streak that says I must not tell my kid a lie: If this is a lie then when I tell them about Jesus, well, that’s just like Santa,” adds Bowler, who teaches a course on the social history of Christmas at the University of Manitoba in Canada.

But McCausland, the newly retired New Hampshire vicar, doesn’t buy it. The father of two grown daughters and grandfather of two can’t recall a child who concluded Jesus didn’t exist if Santa does not.

“I think literal grown-ups worry about that,” he said.

A church in Florida is using the stories of Dr. Seuss as trigger points for biblical lessons in its Vacation Bible School.

The First United Methodist Church in Deltona  is utilizing works by the celebrated author, including How The Grinch Stole Christmas and Yertle the Turtle as tools for evangelism.

Nancy Siebert, a leader in the church, got inspiration for the theme after reading Dr. Seuss stories to her children, and from the book, Church Programs and Celebrations for All Generations by Rachel Gilmore.

In the case of the Dr. Seuss story, Yertle the Turtle, Siebert saw connections with Mark:10 in the Bible where Jesus said, “Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.”

In the story, Yertle tries to build a tower on the backs of hundreds of turtles so he can be king of all things. However, a small turtle sneezes, the tower collapses and Yertle falls into the mud.

Rev. Sandy Parsons approved Siebert’s concept. He told News-Journal, “It’s invigorating the hearts of everyone. We are trying to inspire love, fellowship and the joy of being alive in a community, and celebrating the spirit of God.”

It is not uncommon to point out the faith lessons in the stories of Theodor Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss, although the author himself was not particularly religious. This is because much of the morality in the stories parallel Christian beliefs.

Green Eggs and Ham could just as easily be seen from the point of view of evangelism as from that of tasting different food. In the story, Sam I am persistently tries to convince an unnamed character to try the food, and when the character finally does, he leaves a sordid world behind for the delicious Green Eggs and Ham and all those people and places who like it and serve it.

The Grinch who stole Christmas

It is however in The Grinch who stole Christmas where one can most easily see Christian parallels. The story is about a mean hermit who steals all the Christmas gifts and Christmas food of the Whoville people, but fails to quench their Christmas spirit.

Gilmore likens the story to Matthew 10 where Jesus says the two greatest commandments are “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind … and the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Gilmore told News-Journal the Grinch story “intrigued [me] by its power to still appeal to multiple generations. That got me looking at other Seuss stories, and the more I re-read some of my childhood favorites, the more I could clearly see theological tie-ins between what I perceive as Seuss’ moral message and what I understand as biblical truths.”

Horton Hears a Who

Another Dr. Seuss story where Christian parallels are often cited is Horton Hears a Who, where Horton, an elephant, hears voices in the dust, and realizes that an entire population live there (Whoville, who resurfaces in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas).

Whoville is in danger, and Horton, who can’t see the Mayor of Who, but who can hear him, tries to protect it. In doing so, he is tormented by Sour Kangaroo, the Wickersham Brothers and Vlad Vladikoff, and is put in a cage by other creatures in the jungle because they can neither see nor hear the Who.

“[The] Mayor of Whoville talks to the elephant in the sky. This elephant, who views Whoville as smaller than a speck of dust, protects that dust with his life. This is a direct parallel to Jesus Christ,” Christian writer Nashanta Robinson wrote in The Examiner.

Horton is also filled with precious quotes, such as “an elephant’s faithful 100 percent,” and perhaps his most loved quote, “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Whether or not Seuss intended the latter phrase to parallel the life of the fetus, it does ring well with the value of the life of the unborn child, who is very, very small as an embryo. Several pro-life advocates have pointed this out.

In an unprecedented ruling, the State Security Court in Egypt sentenced a Muslim man to death for killing six Coptic Christians and one Muslim policeman during a Christmas mass one year ago in Nag Hammadi city.

Mohammed Ahmed Hassanein, who uses the alias Hammam al-Kamouni, wept as he was sentenced to death by hanging by presiding judge Mohammed Fahmy Abdul-Maugod. The decision cannot be appealed, the AP said.

The hearing, which took place in Qena city, is the culmination of an 11-month trial. It took place amid tight security including the closing of hundreds of roads that led to the courthouse by hundreds of riot police, according to the AP.

Hassanein shouted, “I am a victim, I did not do it,” as he was sentenced for first degree murder and charges related to terrorism. Two other defendants in the case will receive their verdicts on Feb. 20, an anonymous source told the AP, and may be handed up to 25 years imprisonment.

Unprecedented

Samir Morcos, a Coptic expert on Muslim-Christian relations told Al-Ahram, “For years we endured abuse and persecution as Copts and the guilty party was not brought to book. We had to wait long…but in the end justice was done.”

Morcos also told Al-Ahram that the ruling “is a reminder that the quest for justice wins overwhelming show of support from fair-minded Muslims and Copts alike.”

Retaliation shooting

Hassanein shot dead seven bystanders outside a church in retaliation for allegations that a Christian man had raped a Muslim girl. His two companions waited for him inside the car, from where they goaded him on, the AP said.  

According to Al-Ahram, the verdict was timed by the judges to deter militants “determined to strike terror in the Coptic Christian community and to sow the seeds of hatred and sectarian strife with the attendant threat to national unity.”

The verdict follows a brutal suicide bombing two weeks before, that took place outside of a church in Alexandria where 21 died and 79 were wounded. (See http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/01/egyptian-coptic-church-bomb-kills-21-wounds-79-14956).

It is also the latest in a string of recent acts by the government designed to quell religious tensions in the country, and allay further destabilization of a nation already beset with government corruption and an ever widening income gap, the AP said.  

Moves to quell tensions

Other recent government moves to quell tensions included freeing dozens of Christians who were picked up from a riot (two Christians were killed) over the closing of the construction of a church in Cairo; the strengthening of security around Churches; and leniency in dealing with Christian protestors, the AP said.

Last week President Hosni Mubarak, in a widely publicized event, awarded Coptic heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub the highest Egyptian decoration, the Greatest Nile Collar for his humanitarian, scientific and medical contributions, Ahram Online reported.

The government has also supported moves by Muslims and civil groups who set up joint demonstrations with Christians to show solidarity and to renounce sectarianism; and the attending by some Muslims of Christmas services in Coptic churches, the AP said.

Morcos told the AP, “Muslims and Christians alike were united in the face of the common danger facing the foundations of their state. What is needed now is to institutionalize this spirit,” the AP reported.

Approval from Copts

Many Copts expressed approval for the ruling. Magda Ibrahim, a 46-year-old school teacher told the AP, “Finally a criminal is punished instead of blaming insane and crazy people.”

Mata Gad, a contractor told the AP, “It’s like pain relief. It is hard for us Christians to trust the government. We place our trust in God only.”

Morcos said the ruling is a good sign for 2011, even as she stressed the need for Egypt’s educational system to revise its syllabi, especially in its portrayal of the Coptic and Byzantine periods, Al-Ahram reported.

Morcos told Al-Ahram the syllabi portray Copts “in a very negative light. Indeed, such views inculcate in students an invalidating perspective of Coptic history. Imagine that such a tyrant as Diocletian the Roman Emperor who persecuted Copts is depicted as a hero…we need to change such attitudes for both Copts and Muslims to have a healthier concept of citizenship rights.”

Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd, former deputy president of the National Council for Human Rights told Al-Ahram that a Higher Council for National Unity must be created. “Muslims and Christians should work together to iron out their differences. We are now paying the price of such past negligence.”