by Sarah Lane
So the City Council of Asheville, North Carolina, wants to keep a man elected to the council, Cecil Bothwell, from being sworn in because he is a nontheist, and the North Carolina Constitution, in direct conflict with the U.S. Constitution, disqualifies for office “First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.” At the same time the Rotary Club of Leesburg, Virginia, has been blocked from doing what it has done for 50 years: set up a Christmas tree on the grounds of the Loudon County …

by Sarah Lane
Giving a seasonal gift, whether for Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, might appropriately be intended for various reasons:

to express love,
to spread joy, and
to share abundance with those in need.

It is often, however, done for the following reasons:

to fulfill an obligation,
to meet an expectation, and
to fill a void.

In a world teeming with excess and yet, at the same time, bursting with want and need, in a world choking on plastic and suffocating from carbon emissions, we need to work toward eliminating those last three reasons and grope our way …