Santa Claus is coming to town!
Next week, in fact. On a Sunday, as you might have heard.
With Christmas and New Year’s on the way, this marks the final regular edition of Weekend Plug-in for 2022. As we wrap up three years of this newsletter, I want to thank everyone who reads and supports Plug-in. Please keep sharing it with your friends!
Next week, we’ll do our annual roundup of the best religion journalism of the calendar year. I’m still taking nominations from Godbeat pros for this list.
Keeping in the Christmas spirit, here are seven holly jolly reads:
• Peace on earth in a land of unrest (by Audrey Jackson, Christian Chronicle)
• Bethlehem welcomes Christmas tourists after pandemic lull (by Sam McNeil, Associated Press)
• Five unique variations of Santa Claus around the world (by Deborah Laker, ReligionUnplugged.com)
• Most churches plan to open on Christmas and New Year’s (by Aaron Earls, Lifeway Research)
• After cows escaped its live nativity event, this North Carolina church had a not-so-silent night (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)
• When is Christmas? For church leaders, it's complicated (by Terry Mattingly, Universal Syndicate)
• Unitarians and Episcopalians created American Christmas (by Daniel K. Williams, Christianity Today)
Power Up: The Week’s Best Reads
1. Anti-Semitism is rising at colleges, and Jewish students are facing growing hostility: “College campuses have long hosted heated debates about the Israel-Palestinian conflict,” The Wall Street Journal’s Douglas Belkin explains.
“But now, students say anti-Jewish antagonism is on the rise: Antisemitic incidents have increased, and a growing number of campus groups bar students who support Israel from speaking or joining.”
2. A rape survivor’s careful activism in a place where #MeToo feels taboo: “After helping launch the evangelical offshoot of #MeToo, Megan Lively still does not embrace the label, but she remains committed to helping survivors.”
Veteran religion writer Michelle Boorstein travels to North Carolina to profile Lively for the Washington Post.
3. Dave Ramsey's 'righteous living': Inside the conflict over religion and sexuality at Ramsey Solutions: “For-profit companies are increasingly at the center of a national debate about how their owners can express their views — most notably conservative religious ones — and how those rights translate to their employees and the customers those businesses serve.”
The Tennessean’s Liam Adams spent months studying practices at Ramsey Solutions, including reviewing 1,500 pages of court records.
CONTINUE READING: “7 Holly Jolly Christmas Reads” by Bobby Ross, Jr., at Religion Unplugged