The Invention of Santa Claus

Louise Mirrer

New-York Historical Society president

Posted: December 16, 2009 10:12 AM

It's recently been reported that an atheists' group has planned an advertising campaign for this Christmas, featuring a photograph of smiling people wearing Santa Claus hats. The caption: "No God? . . . No problem! Be good for goodness sake." Whatever you might think of this message, the ad does contain a grain of historical truth: the modern image of Santa Claus was invented in the 19th century by New Yorkers, as a secular myth meant to unite the city's diverse and growing population.

No common observance of Christmas existed in New York at that time, other than a holiday from work. Many Protestant churches frowned on elaborate Christmas celebrations, which they associated with Anglo-Catholicism and the aristocracy. The city's free laborers, who often suffered from unemployment in the dark days of winter when shipping and industry slowed down, were only too willing to gather in the streets at Christmas, turning the holiday into an excuse for drunken caroling. As for the laborers in the city's large enslaved population, they used this rare time off for celebrations that often included customs with roots in Africa.

There's little wonder that some leading citizens would have welcomed a symbol that encouraged peaceful, domestic celebrations, of the sort that most New Yorkers might share. They found that symbol in Santa Claus, starting around 1810.

That year, on St. Nicholas Day (December 6), the members of the New-York Historical Society convened in Federal Hall for their annual meeting. Among those present were Washington Irving, author of the recently published Knickerbocker's History of New York, with its delightful (and imaginary) tales of by-gone times in New Amsterdam--including stories of old Dutch beliefs and customs regarding a jolly, pipe-smoking, gift-giving St. Nicholas. Also present at Federal Hall for the meeting was Clement Clarke Moore, a young scholar who was later to become (according to most accounts) the author of the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas.

For this gathering at Federal Hall, the New-York Historical Society commissioned Dr. Alexander Anderson to print a St. Nicholas Day broadside, with an engraving that showed a traditional Dutch hearth with teakettle, stack of waffles and household cat. Stockings were filled with gifts for the good girl perched above the hearth, while--on the right--birch rods stood waiting to punish the naughty boy sitting next to her. From this time on, the date of the Historical Society's annual meeting was to be the Feast of St. Nicholas--and St. Nicholas himself was to become Santa Claus, a comforting figure associated with hearth and home.

An exhibition currently on view at the New-York Historical Society shows how the image of Santa Claus evolved over the next years. During the Civil War, for example, Santa's image evoked powerful feelings on the home front, as in Thomas Nast's 1863 cartoon of him distributing gifts to Union soldiers. At the end of the war, Nast again turned to the image of Santa, showing him helping Americans to celebrate the return of peace. It seemed not to matter that Lee had surrendered to Grant on Palm Sunday 1865, not on Christmas. By this point, Santa Claus was a symbol whose meaning was no longer limited to a religious observance, or even a season, but encompassed everything that is kindly, cheerful, generous and peaceful. In the words of an 1866 poem by George Webster:

He is large round the waist, but what care we for that-- 'Tis the good-natured people who always get fat.

So it seems that the atheists have history on their side with their new advertising campaign. The modern image of Santa Claus was never meant to divide people according to religious--or cultural--beliefs. Just the opposite: Santa and the secular celebration associated with him were invented for all people, to encourage everyone to be good.

Tony Alamo, Evangelist, Sentenced To 175 Years For Sex Crimes

JON GAMBRELL | 11/13/09 08:35 PM | AP

TEXARKANA, Ark. — Evangelist Tony Alamo used his stature as a self-proclaimed prophet to force underage girls into sham marriages with him, controlling his followers with their fears of eternal suffering.

But the judge who sentenced Alamo on Friday to 175 years in prison for child sexual abuse warned of another kind of justice awaiting the aging evangelist.

"Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher and a greater judge than me," U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes told the preacher. "May he have mercy on your soul."

Barnes leveled the maximum sentence against the 75-year-old, who preyed on followers' young daughters and took child "brides" as young as age 8. A jury convicted Alamo in July on a 10-count indictment accusing him of taking the girls across state lines for sex.

Alamo, who has made millions through his ministry, also must pay $250,000 in fines. He will return to court for a Jan. 13 hearing at which Barnes will determine if the five women who testified about their sexual abuse will be paid restitution. Federal prosecutors say an expert believes each one should get $2.7 million for the physical and mental abuse they endured.

Barnes said Alamo used his influence as both a father figure and a pastor to force himself upon impressionable girls who feared "the loss of their salvation."

"You are described by others who testified as a prophet of God, a person of trust, a person of supreme authority in the church," Barnes said, staring the pale preacher. "It's hard to imagine the scenario and the damage that occurred to these five young girls."

Alamo, who had muttered and cursed through his two-week trial, stood silently during the sentencing, dressed in a yellow prison uniform and a blue windbreaker. Before Barnes' ruling, Alamo told the judge: "I lean on the lord Jesus Christ."
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"I'm glad I'm me and not the deceived people in the world," the evangelist said.

Alamo's defense team, which had asked for leniency due to the preacher's age and poor health, promised to appeal Barnes' ruling.

FBI agents and Arkansas State Police troopers raided Alamo's compound in nearby Fouke in September 2008. The FBI arrested Alamo five days later in Flagstaff, Ariz., charging him with violating the Mann Act, a century-old morality law originally aimed at stopping women from being sold into prostitution.

Five women, age 17 to 33, testified in July that Alamo "married" them in private ceremonies while they were minors, sometimes giving them rings. Each detailed trips beyond Arkansas' borders for Alamo's sexual gratification.

With little physical evidence, prosecutors relied on the women's stories to paint an emotional portrait of a charismatic religious leader who controlled every aspect of his subjects' lives. The women said Alamo ordered beatings or punitive fasts for minor infractions or at the whim of his paranoia.

Defense lawyers said the government targeted Alamo because it disapproves of his apocalyptic brand of Christianity. Alamo never testified at trial, but spoke to Barnes twice during the hearing Friday. He first told the judge he thought his defense team provided him adequate legal help, though he wanted them to harshly cross-examine the women to show "that the people who were testifying against me were lying."

My lawyers "did prove that I never took girls out of state to have sex with them," Alamo said.

Three of the five victims spoke in court Friday about how Alamo stole their childhoods and tore apart their families to satisfy his sexual perversions. One woman Alamo took as a child "bride" at age 8 described how she shook uncontrollably when he first molested her.

"You have the audacity to ask for mercy," the woman said, looking up from her handwritten notes to stare at Alamo. "What mercy did you show us?"

The evangelist's lawyers pleaded for a lower sentence because of his age and infirmities. They called as witnesses two followers and a doctor, who discussed how Alamo suffered from hypertension, diabetes, obesity and glaucoma. However, Dr. Samuel Berkman acknowledged under cross-examination that he examined Alamo only once in 2004, as the preacher sought an eye lift to look younger.

"There's no question he's done a lot of good," said Don Ervin, a Houston lawyer who led Alamo's defense, outlining the church's efforts to reach the poor. "He's an unusual man and an unusually great man."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner said after the hearing that prosecutors would work with the federal prison system to ensure Alamo can't control his ministry and its many businesses from behind bars. At trial, one of the victims described how Alamo "married" and groped her during a prison visit.

How long Alamo remains an influence depends on whether police or former followers dismantle the ministry through lawsuits and criminal cases. The FBI declined to say Friday whether it had ongoing investigations involving the ministry.

As Alamo left the courthouse, he said he would leave to his church's future in other hands.

"The Lord is in charge," the preacher said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/13/tony-alamo-evangelist-sen_n_357709.html

Rabia Sarwar Tried To Slit Husband Sheikh Naseem's Throat For Making Her Eat Pork, Wear Short Skirts

COLLEEN LONG | 10/30/09 03:38 PM | AP
NEW YORK — A devout Muslim woman told police she slashed her husband's neck with a kitchen knife as he slept because he forced her to eat pork, wear short skirts and drink alcohol in violation of her religious beliefs.

Rabia Sarwar, 37, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and was freed on $25,000 bail. She told police in a written statement that she was emotionally abused by her husband, Seikh Naseem.

"He made me do so many things that are against Islam," she wrote in a statement to police.

"I did all that just to make him happy but inside me there was a war," she continued.

Naseem suffered cuts to his neck, cheek and hand early Wednesday before fighting Sarwar off and dialing 911 from his Staten Island home, authorities said.

"I did my best to cut his throat," Rabia Sarwar wrote. "But the next moment he jumped on me and grabbed me."

Sarwar's attorney, Joe Licitra, said she had previously been treated for depression. Her husband told the New York Post that Sarwar, a native of Pakistan, was having a hard time adjusting to American culture.

"There was no gun pointed to her head to do these things," Naseem told the Post.
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Calls to Naseem by The Associated Press went unanswered.

Sarwar's statement to police paints a picture of a frustrated, confused woman angry that her husband of five months was not what he appeared to be during their brief courtship. Naseem went to her family to ask for a bride and she agreed to marry him, she said in her statement.

But after they were wed, she discovered he had previously dated mostly "white" women, had been married before and liked to go out to drink, she wrote. He said he was Pakistani and a devout Muslim, but in New York he claimed he was half-Pakistani and half-Norwegian, as well as a Unitarian Christian, she said.

He often yelled and cursed her family, she said, and one of his favorite writers was Salman Rushdie, author of "The Satanic Verses," which caused violent protests by Muslims in several countries because the book was perceived as an irreverent depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.

"He hates Pakistan and he hates Pakistanis then why did he marry a Pakistani girl?" she wrote.

They fought about her leaving, and he threatened to hurt her family, saying they would have to pay him $30,000 or he would sue them and leave them penniless and homeless, she wrote. Her family is in Pakistan.

She lay in bed that evening thinking her only way out was to kill him, she wrote.

Police said they had never visited the house on any domestic dispute calls.

Sarwar also pleaded not guilty Thursday to second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon.

According to Sarwar's statement, Naseem was working on getting her green card, but her parents had apparently started the citizenship process for her a few years before. She is not a U.S. citizen and could face deportation, depending on the outcome of the case.

Her next court date is Monday.


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/30/rabia-sarwar-tried-to-sli_n_340392.html

Saudi king scraps flogging for female journalist

Saudi king scraps flogging for female journalist
She was charged with working on TV show where a man talked about sex

updated 10:18 a.m. ET, Mon., Oct . 26, 2009

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - The Saudi king has waived a 60 lashes punishment for a female journalist charged with involvement in a TV show in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, a government official said Monday.

King Abdullah's decision followed intense media attention sparked by Saturday's sentencing of journalist Rozanna al-Yami, who was ordered flogged by a judge in the western city of Jiddah.

Al-Yami had been charged with involvement in the preparation of a sex talk show and public talk about sex is taboo in this ultraconservative country, where the sexes are segregated.

Al-Yami — believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to get a flogging punishment — said Saturday that although the charges against her were dropped, the judge sentenced her "as a deterrence."

On Monday, Information Ministry spokesman Abdul-Rahman al-Hazza told The Associated Press that the king waived the sentence and ordered al-Yami's case and that of another journalist — a pregnant woman also accused of involvement in the program — be referred to an Information Ministry committee.

Al-Yami, 22, worked as a coordinator for the program but has denied involvement in the sex talk episode.

During a hearing Monday also connected to the sex show, the judge told the second female journalist, Iman Rajab, that her case was also being referred to the Information Ministry committee.

The committee, which usually has a Justice Ministry representative but no judges sitting on it, deals with media-related violations, al-Hazza said.

'Bold Red Line'
The case started in July, when the Lebanese LBC satellite channel aired the sex talk episode as part of its program entitled "Bold Red Line."

In the episode, a divorced Saudi father of four who works for the national airline, Mazen Abdul-Jawad, appears to describe an active sex life and shows sex toys that were blurred by the station in the footage shown on TV.

'Sex braggart' gets 5 years for TV talk
Female journalist sentenced to 60 lashes

The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad.

The same judge at the Jiddah court also sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes.

The man's lawyer, Sulaiman al-Jumeii, maintains his client was duped by the TV station and was unaware in many cases he was being recorded.

Three other men who appeared on the show were also convicted of discussing sex publicly and sentenced to two years imprisonment and 300 lashes each.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33478876/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Child porn charges filed against priest

October 21, 2009 Posted: 05:19 PM ET

________________________________________________________

Father Robert M. Timchak was charged on Monday with 17 counts of sexual child abuse for allegedly having files of naked, underage boys on his computer.

Gabriel Falcon
AC360° Writer

A Roman Catholic priest in Pennsylvania has been charged with more than a dozen counts connected to child pornography, authorities said. “I would believe that our community would be distressed upon hearing these allegations,” Pike County District Attorney Raymond J. Tonkin told CNN.

Tonkin said Father Robert M. Timchak surrendered on Monday and is now free on bail. Timchak, who was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Scranton in 1992, was charged with 17 counts of sexual abuse of children, one count of criminal use of a communications facility, and one count of tampering with or fabricating evidence.

“There are no allegations at this time related to the actual touching of any children,” Tonkin said. “The allegations at this time are related to the possession of child pornography on his computer.”

The case against Timchak began, authorities said, with an anonymous letter sent to the Diocese of Scranton last December.

The affidavit of probable cause alleges “the letter contained explicit photographs and comments of young males, possibly children, that reportedly had been recovered during a search of the email address 'booker1441.'”

The Diocese gave the letter to the District Attorney’s Office. According to the affidavit, in a police interview in April, Timchak acknowledged that he had an email account under booker1441.

After seizing his desktop and laptop computers, investigators said they found “graphic files containing young males in sexually explicit poses and/or acts. The graphic files contained nude or partially clothed males exposing their genitals. The males appeared to be under the age of 18.”

In a statement, the Diocese of Scranton said it “is saddened by the situation regarding Father Robert M. Timchak. These charges are distressing and would be very unfortunate if proven true.”

Timchak was pastor and assistant pastor at several parishes in recent years. He has also served as the director of religion formation at two Catholic high schools.

He has been on a leave of absence from the Dioceses since April.

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/10/21/child-porn-charges-filed-against-priest/

Police: Man ran down 'too Westernized' daughter

(CNN) -- Arizona police are looking for a man who they allege ran down his daughter and her friend because he believed his daughter had become "too Westernized."

Police say they're looking for Faleh Hassan Almaleki, who they say struck two people with a vehicle Tuesday.

Peoria, Arizona, police said Wednesday that Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, struck his 20-year-old daughter, Noor Faleh Almaleki, and her friend Amal Edan Khalaf with a vehicle he was driving in a parking lot Tuesday afternoon.

Faleh Hassan Almaleki was angry with his daughter "as she had become too 'Westernized' and was not living according to [the family's] traditional Iraq[i] values," Peoria police said in a statement released Wednesday.

Noor Faleh Almaleki is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, according to the statement. Khalaf, 43, received injuries that are not life-threatening but is still in the hospital, police said.

Noor Faleh Almaleki lives with Khalaf, police said.

Faleh Hassan Almaleki was last seen in a gray or silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, police said.

No further details were immediately available.

Peoria is about 13 miles northwest of Phoenix.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/21/arizona.iraqi.daughter.struck/index.html

The Stupid Things People Say

I recently started working in a rehab hospital, and I'll start by saying that I love my work, but the stupid things that people say keep surprising me--especially when I think that I'm living in one of the least religious states in the country. I had a patient who was going to be transferred to a different facility where he would get less intensive rehab, but be closer to his wife and children when a flu epidemic hit the facility he was supposed to transfer to, preventing him from leaving. Now, we all enjoyed working with this man quite a bit. He was eager to attend therapy and always gave it his all. So my co-worker, on the day we find out he wasn't able to transfer said, "well I guess god wanted him to be here." How incredibly idiotic. Yes, god wanted him to be here--I guess that's why this relatively young man (40's) had a series of strokes, respiratory failure, DVT, UTI, etc. because god wanted him to be here. I guess that's why god took him from being a normal working father of 3 to being a vegetable for 2 months and slowly recovering to be both physically and cognitively impaired. God clearly wanted him to stay with us, that's why he sent a flu epidemic to a whole series of skilled nursing and rehab facilities, which likely caused several deaths among these medically compromised patients. But god wanted him here, so those people just had to give their lives so that he could lay in our hospital just a little longer. what a great god. Maybe god shouldn't have given him the strokes in the first place. But then again, god wanted him to be at our hospital. I'm sure his wife and kids understand.