A Christmas for crucifixes

Getting tired of same ol’ same ol’? Looking for something unique to decorate your Christmas living room? There you go: A rotated Nagorno-Karabakh flag, morphed into an impromptu Christmas tree.   OK, that’s a stretch. Also… A bit off topic? Perhaps you’d feel more comfortable around the classic iconography, which includes Coke Santas, coniferous trees covered with strings of Chinese LED lights and multicolored balls, the whole shebang drenched in red and green hues…   The Republic of Artsakh, as it is called, is one of those states that don’t exist; more precisely, it doesn’t exist since 1991, when they voted in favor of their independence. The corresponding mountainous region…

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Bethlehem: Christians abused by Islamists, but keep it to yourself…

Adorned altar next to graffiti

Here’s a thought-provoking link. (Notice that my original Italian link was from a different source, but it takes literally 0 seconds to find a different independent report that connects the inevitable dots getting to the same conclusion.) Christians flee from Bethlehem. Media sources will blame Israel again, but they mostly emigrate due to Islamists. Bethlehem! This article strikes a chord with me because I was visiting there in September, and I noticed the puzzling zeal with which the Franciscan Friars of the Custody of the Holy Land jumped at the opportunity to blame the Exodus of Christians on the economic crisis (!) I was appalled at their promptly applying the…

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