<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/47a63c7e-6c46-48ee-95dd-63b616c0494c/30EF257E-5612-4860-AE3B-F0F5B907FB55/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.telegram.com/article/20071223/COLUMN21/712230408/1020" href="http://www.telegram.com/article/20071223/COLUMN21/712230408/1020" style="font-size: 11px;">www.telegram.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.telegram.com/article/20071223/COLUMN21/712230408/1020"><STRONG>Christmas — pagans, Christians and mammon</STRONG></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.telegram.com/article/20071223/COLUMN21/712230408/1020"><DIV> Christmas is arriving with its usual sleighful of hype, indulgence and greed. And, as usual, people are deploring the consumerist excesses of the holiday and wishing for a return of the good old days and the old-time religion. They know not what they are yearning for. </DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.telegram.com/article/20071223/COLUMN21/712230408/1020">Early on, bishops banned the use of evergreens and deplored the drinking, hoodlumism, fighting and looting that went on in many places in the darkness of deep December all over Europe. But the decrees made little difference.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.telegram.com/article/20071223/COLUMN21/712230408/1020"><DIV>Nobody knows when Jesus was born, but in the 4th century the church decreed it to be Dec. 25, an unlikely time for shepherds to be watching their flocks in the field. </DIV></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.telegram.com/article/20071223/COLUMN21/712230408/1020">And so, over the centuries, Dec. 25 gradually took on some of the trappings of the Christian religion, although much of the old pagan festivities continued.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/30EF257E-5612-4860-AE3B-F0F5B907FB55/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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