White evangelical voters just aren’t as predictable as they used to be. That’s the news out of Iowa – and it’s bound to be reflected in Republican primary results all over the country. The most interesting poll data from the Iowa caucuses are these: Mitt Romney won in the cities. Rick Santorum won in the rural areas. In Iowa, where the vast majority of voters qualify as “white evangelicals,” these results can only mean one thing. Conservative Christians who reside in urban areas may have been taught in Sunday school that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a heretical sect, but they’re willing to look beyond those teachings and cast a vote for a Mormon who was once pro-choice. Their brothers and sisters who reside in the country are not. Because nearly 80 percent of Americans live in or near cities, that’s very good news for Romney. Read full article > >

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The new evangelical vote

For poll asking whether they killed Jesus.

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Fox Apologizes to Jews

Thousands flock to Bethlehem for Christmas celebrations, culminating in Midnight Mass at the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.

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Christmas Mass held in Bethlehem

Baby Jesus is keeping strange company. For the better part of 50 years, a creche and a Christmas tree were the only holiday displays on the Loudoun County Courthouse grounds. Then came the mannequin Luke Skywalker and signs celebrating the winter solstice. This month, a skeleton Santa Claus was mounted on a cross, intended by its creator to portray society’s obsession with consumerism. A pine stands adorned with tinsel — and atheist testimonials. (“I can be moral without religion,” one declares.) Read full article > >

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In Leesburg, holiday displays bring controversy and change

Baby Jesus is keeping strange company. For the better part of 50 years, a creche and a Christmas tree were the only holiday displays on the Loudoun County Courthouse grounds. Then came the mannequin Luke Skywalker and signs celebrating the winter solstice. This month, a skeleton Santa Claus was mounted on a cross, intended by its creator to portray society’s obsession with consumerism. A pine stands adorned with tinsel — and atheist testimonials. (“I can be moral without religion,” one declares.) Read full article > >

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In Leesburg, holiday displays bring controversy and change

1 . Christmas is the most important Christian holiday. For all the cards sent and trees decorated — to say nothing of all the Nativity scenes displayed — Christmas is not the most important date on the Christian calendar. Easter, the day on which Christians believe Christ rose from the dead, has more religious significance than does Dec. 25. Christ’s resurrection means not just that one man conquered death, nor was it simply proof of Jesus’s divinity to his followers; it holds out the promise of eternal life for all who believe in him. If Christmas is the season opener, Easter is the Super Bowl. Read full article > >

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Five myths about Christmas

1 . Christmas is the most important Christian holiday. For all the cards sent and trees decorated — to say nothing of all the Nativity scenes displayed — Christmas is not the most important date on the Christian calendar. Easter, the day on which Christians believe Christ rose from the dead, has more religious significance than does Dec. 25. Christ’s resurrection means not just that one man conquered death, nor was it simply proof of Jesus’s divinity to his followers; it holds out the promise of eternal life for all who believe in him. If Christmas is the season opener, Easter is the Super Bowl. Read full article > >

Read more:
Five myths about Christmas

1 . Christmas is the most important Christian holiday. For all the cards sent and trees decorated — to say nothing of all the Nativity scenes displayed — Christmas is not the most important date on the Christian calendar. Easter, the day on which Christians believe Christ rose from the dead, has more religious significance than does Dec. 25. Christ’s resurrection means not just that one man conquered death, nor was it simply proof of Jesus’s divinity to his followers; it holds out the promise of eternal life for all who believe in him. If Christmas is the season opener, Easter is the Super Bowl. Read full article > >

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Five myths about Christmas

A top aide to Newt Gingrich is out of a job after he made disparaging comments about the Mormon faith. Craig Bergman, Gingrich’s political director for Iowa, said in a focus group last week that many Christian conservatives were uncomfortable with Mormonism — GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. are both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Read full article > >

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Gingrich aide out after Mormon comments

A top aide to Newt Gingrich is out of a job after he made disparaging comments about the Mormon faith. Craig Bergman, Gingrich’s political director for Iowa, said in a focus group last week that many Christian conservatives were uncomfortable with Mormonism — GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. are both members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Read full article > >

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Gingrich aide out after Mormon comments

At Monday night’s deadline to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players, the Washington Nationals cut ties with left-handed reliever Doug Slaten and tendered their other six players slated for arbitration — Michael Morse , John Lannan , Tyler Clippard , Tom Gorzelanny , Jesus Flores and Jordan Zimmermann . Read full article > >

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Nationals tender contracts to six players, non-tender Doug Slaten

Kate Krader ( @kkrader on Twitter ) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up. The gifts you give at Christmas say a lot about you. They can say, I Love You. They can say, I Didn’t Think About You Until the Last Minute Which Is Why I’m Blatantly Regifting This Gift to You. Or they can say, I Think You’re Pretty Weird and This Gift Reflects That. So, be on the lookout for the gifts below. They say a lot. Bacon Wallet . It’s not like bacon is hard to find: you’ve probably already had a bacon doughnut, bacon cupcake and bacon-tini cocktail today. But the folks at Accoutrements seem to have thought long and hard about the last remaining non-bacon frontiers and gone for it. Hence their bacon air freshener, bacon (shaped) adhesive bandages and Mr. Bacon Bendable Action Figure. And, yes, the bacon wallet. Says one satisfied customer on Amazon: “If you’re rakin’ in the bacon, takin’ a bacon wallet is the best move you be makin’.” Mustache Egg Fryer Mold . If you got that bacon wallet as a gift and felt like something was still missing, voila: A mold that shapes your fried eggs into a handle-bar mustache. As an added bonus for the holidays, it works the same magic on cookie dough. Island Dogs, the group that distributes this inimitable piece, also offers gifts like the Three Wise Men Flask Set (those three wise men being Jack, Johnnie and Jim) and a ring that doubles as a beer can opener. Cricket LickIt Lollipops . Here’s what you need to know about these lollipops. They’re priced at around $60 for a box of 36. They come in blueberry, grape, strawberry and orange. And each one has a real, presumably not live, cricket inside. If you get sick of them, the same company makes scorpion apple suckers. The Grilled Cheesus . Maybe you saw that Glee episode where Finn thinks he sees Jesus’s face in a grilled cheese sandwich. Now that experience is yours to savor (no pun intended) every day. The Grilled Cheesus (a now trademarked name) is an electronic sandwich press that toasts Jesus’s face onto sandwiches. “Your prayers have been answered,” says the press release. More from Food & Wine : Best Gifts Under $20 Easy Food Gifts Best Pizza Places in the U.S. Christmas Cookies Best Burgers in the U.S.

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Wacky gifts for food freaks

An atheist group argues that a statue of Jesus at the Whitefish Mountain Resort violates the separation of church and state because it is on federal land.

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In Montana, Jesus Statue Is Focus of Legal Battle

Two months before Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez allegedly fired shots on the White House , he asked an Idaho University student to videotape him as the second coming of Christ. “It’s not just a coincidence that I look like Jesus. I am the modern-day Jesus Christ that you all have been waiting for,” Ortega-Hernandez says in the 20-minute video. Read full article > >

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Alleged White House shooter believed he is ‘modern-day Jesus Christ’ (VIDEO)

“What would Jesus think of Occupy Wall Street ?” I asked myself this week as I wandered the makeshift, blue-tarp village in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park . Born with little means into a first-century world, the historical Jesus might feel right at home with the very aspects of the occupation that so many 21st-century observers consider gross: the tents, the damp sleeping bags, the communal kitchen. Jesus would have sympathy, I think, with the campers’ efforts to keep a small space sanitary in the absence of modern plumbing. Read full article > >

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Jesus at Occupy Wall Street: ‘I feel like I’ve been here before’