Bill Cosby as Santa

The Huffington Post released their top 10 religion stories of the year.

In response to Aisha Harris’s piece in Slate, Fox News host Megyn Kelly assured kids everywhere of the whiteness of Santa Claus, New York Magazine reports. Following Kelly’s televised assertion which can be viewed here, a New Mexican high school teacher reportedly told an African-American student, who had dressed up as Santa for a school function, that he could not be Santa, because Santa is indeed white, CNN reports. Andy Borowitz’s report at The New Yorker, has Megyn Kelly’s responses to children’s Christmas wishes.

Pope Francis, after being called a “pure” Marxist by Rush Limbaugh, went on the defensive, telling the Italian newspaper La Stampa that, “Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended…There is nothing in the Exhortation that cannot be found in the social Doctrine of the Church… The only specific quote I used was the one regarding the ‘trickle-down theories’ which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and social inclusiveness in the world. The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefiting the poor. But what happens instead, is that when the glass is full, it magically gets bigger nothing ever comes out for the poor,” the Washington Times reports.

In other papacy- news, Francis– not Miley Cyrus– was named Time’s person of the year. James Carroll recounts Francis’s “radical year” at The New Yorker.

Billy O’Reilly, keeping the “War on Christmas” narrative alive, claimed on his show this week that ‘Secular Progressives’ are attacking the holiday season out of their desires for “unfettered abortion” and “gay marriage.”

Jesus might have performed his miracles with cannabis oil, Vice reports.

Urban Outfitters Socks

Also at Vice, a story exploring queer theology, “a new ‘reading’ of classic scripture” that “recognizes and explores the gendered and sexualized underpinnings of Christianity, as well as the opportunities for examining culture via queer religious thought.”

Clashes between police and Muslim Uighurs continued in China’s Xinjiang region this week, killing at least 14, NPR reports.

Just in time for holiday gift-giving, UrbanOutfitters has released a controversial collection of socks imprinted with religious images ranging from Jesus to Lord Ganesh.

n+1 Magazine has an interesting read on the rise of “Jesus Raves” orchestrated by the NYC-based Christian hipster conglomeration “Liberty Church.” Their website is worth a visit.

Archaeologists have discovered remnants of what some experts are calling some sort of ancient tree shine, and others the earliest example of a Buddhist pilgramage shrine, National Geographic reports.

The Telegraph has a piece on a newly-formed Buddhist organization calling themselves “Monks Without Borders.”

Elizabeth Segran, at The Nation, writes on the “rise of Islamic feminists.”

See you in 2014!

– Christopher Smith, Student Assistant, The Revealer

Monks Without Borders