The calendar origins of Orthodox Easter

During catechumen class last fall, my priest told us a joke. “How many Orthodox Christians does it take to change a lightbulb?” The Orthodox immediately respond in a lamenting tone, “Chhhaaaannngggge?!?” Sure, the joke was probably better told in person, with a long-and-bushy-bearded Father Christopher in full cassock dramatically throwing out his hands and gnashing his …

“A different game you should play”

Historian Brion McClanahan uses a sports metaphor to explain the coarsening of dialog pervading our culture. His theory isn’t that we’re playing the same game but with different rules. Rather, it’s that the “left” is playing football – a fast-paced game with frequent rule changes – while the “right” dutifully plods along playing baseball, which (used …