I write this after Doug Jones has claimed victory in the Alabama Senate race. He'll be the first Democrat to be elected Senator from that state in a quarter century.

Roy Moore, his opponent, is a guy who had twice been removed from his job as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court for defying superior courts. One such offense should have been enough to bar him from any office for life. But it wasn't. In addition, he said that life was better for Black people during slavery, homosexuality should be illegal (as it is in Muslim countries, by the way), and Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress. When asked about Reagan's comment that Russia was "the focus of evil in the world", he commented that it might well refer to the US today. (And they say Liberals hate America!) Plus he likes to play cowboy! (Aww, isn't that precious.)

Given all this, the very credible allegations that he had a creepy interest in underage girls and molested some is almost not relevant. But it was all anyone talked about.

The guy in the Oval Office, who has his own very credible allegations to worry about, put party over country, and politics over morality by endorsing Moore. So did a lot of Alabamians and, to their shame and disgrace, many so-called Christians. We're supposed to believe that worse than a child predator is ... a Democrat? Thankfully enough, Alabamians disagreed. The man in the Oval Office looks like the fool he is.

Moore, as of yet refuses to concede. "God is in control, " he says. This raises a couple questions: 1) If elections register the will of God, why didn't Republicans accept Barack Obama, who (unlike the current occupant) won the popular vote and had a greater Electoral College margin? And, 2) If God is in control of elections, what of Free Will?

Something to mull over while the reviled honorable man Doug Jones serves in the Senate. Look for him not to take away our guns, as warned. Or to be soft on crime, or weak on defense, blah blah blah. Such tired accusations won't work anymore. Not even in Alabama.

Sincerely,

Stephen Van Eck, Rushville, PA

The worst generation, desegregation, and a bakers' blowup over a contested wedding cake. An improbable cast in the unlikely drama that follows.

The mid-60's were the glory days of the sanctimonious generation. They had obtained, at a precocious age, the wisdom that is ordinarily acquired in later years.

These enlightened saw all the social injustices perpetrated since the founding of the Republic, 175 years ago. Nevertheless, they thought themselves to be made of that wiser and sterner stuff to reconstruct society.

Foremost of the injustices was racial segregation. They and their accomplices on the Supreme Court, and progressives in academia and politics would put an end to it. Legislative fiat would criminalize a host of practices based on unjust discrimination.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 would change America, second only to the Civil War. That landmark legislation outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or racial segregation in schools, employment and public accommodations.

Undoubtedly, the '64 legislation addressed some issues with which few would disagree. Namely, forced segregation of tax-payer supported institutions such as universities and public schools.

Predicatively, the federal government addressed this practice in a ham-fisted fashion that made a bad situation worse. It was to be desegregation in universities at the point of the national guard's bayonets and forced busing for public schools. (The irony of forced integration to correct forced segregation whizzed by, unnoticed.)

Unwritten quotas were established to assure that the acceptable number of favored minorities were employed at the expense of unfavored minorities.

For example, white males are a minority at 35 percent. But they are not a government approved minority, so they don't count. Women, on the other hand, constitute 50 percent of the population and are on the approved list. Go figure.

Businesses adopted proactive hiring to avoid lawsuits that would follow any hint of discriminatory practices. In the wake of this was the collateral damage, if not outright obliteration, done to liberties.

Freedom of association was the first fatality.

Go to any campus cafeteria, and you'll find tables where the seating is almost exclusively white, black, or Hispanic. Is this some insidious evil not yet eradicated? Of course not.

People gravitate toward and feel more comfortable with associates that reflect themselves; like attracts like. It's not evil; it's human nature.

Nevertheless, all men's clubs are illegal, as well as clubs that have a membership requirement of race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin.

Next to fall was the right to private property.

If you owned a business, house, or apartment, you had the time established right to do with it as you like. The owner of a home or a landlord could rent or sell to whomever he pleased. A sign commonly posted in business establishments was, We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service.

Try that nowadays.

Well, it turns out someone did.

Four years ago, Aaron and Melissa Klein, co-owners of the now-closed Sweet Cakes By Melissa, were targeted with a sexual discrimination lawsuit by two lesbians who represented the LGBTQIA lobby. (The IA stands for Intersexual and Asexual.)

The Christian couple was punished with a $135,000 fine for refusing to make a wedding cake with an inscription and same-sex figures that the lesbians wanted. Sympathizers across the nation chipped in to pay the teach-them-a-lesson fine.

The case is now being argued before the Supreme Court.

Unfortunately, the issue is falsely framed as one involving religious liberty. But religious liberty is only tangentially related to the real issue: property rights.

Do the Kleins have the right to refuse service based on matters of conscience, or for other reasons, or for no reason whatsoever? Do the Kleins have the right to run their business as they see fit, or must they run their business as the government sees fit?

You can bet that the Imperious Nine will base their decision on the narrower issue of "sincerity of conviction" that will inevitably lead to endless litigation and settle nothing.

So we have the theater of the absurd, featuring the Nine posing oh such intelligent questions to the opposing lawyers. But not a query will be raised about how the government created the problem that it is now trying to solve.

Two parting shots: (1) Since the 1964 Civil Rights Act felonized racial discrimination, are race relations better now or are we the worse for it? And (2) For the past 50 years has the government protected property rights or has it violated them?

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins, New Milford, PA

Of all the gods worshiped by man throughout the ages, none is stranger than the Christian God.

The story of the first Christmas begins two thousand years ago in a small town in Israel, named Nazareth. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" was said of this hamlet.

In that least esteemed settlement, there is a young girl, a teenager, named Mary. She is alone doing her daily chores. Suddenly she is frightened by the sight of what appears to be a man.

He greets her: "Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women." Mary is puzzled by this odd salutation and greatly frightened by the apparition.

"Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God." Instantly her fear is dispelled. The stranger continues, "Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name, Jesus."

Then said Mary, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" The messenger: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

Mary is the espoused wife to Joseph, but they live separately. She understands the shame and contempt she must endure to be with child but not fully married. Her reply is among the most sublime in all of Scripture. She asks for neither sign nor explanation but expresses complete acceptance of God's will: "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

Though not apparent from her outward appearance, Mary is a most extraordinary woman.

When she explains her condition to her family, none believe such a fantastic story, least of all Joseph.

"Then Joseph her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily."

"But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus [which means, Savior]: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Only Mary and Joseph, none else, are informed by angels of the unborn baby's divine paternity.

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city."

"Joseph [and his relatives] also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David); to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child."

The blessed pair begins their 90-mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary astride a donkey and Joseph leading the way. After ten days, they arrive in Bethlehem. Mary knows that it is here that the angel's prophecy will be fulfilled.

Frantically, Joseph seeks shelter in an inn, but it was filled. And Joseph's kinsmen are unwilling to help the disgraced couple. But Joseph finds refuge in a stable. In its dark recesses, the Christ is born.

Flights of angels, overwhelmed with joy, herald the Holy Infant's entrance into the human fold.

Yet not to the mighty of this world do the celestial choruses proclaim the birth of the Savior but to the lowest of the low, "shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night."

Conceived in a village of low repute, His family scandalized, born in a barn, wrapped in rags, and laid in a feed trough; such was the will of His heavenly Father.

As He was born in shame, so He would die in shame.

On a hill, called Golgotha, the Sinless One is condemned to be executed in the manner reserved for the worst of criminals: crucifixion.

Also on this hill overlooking Jerusalem, He is coronated.

No cheers for Him, only jeers. Beatings and spittle are His gifts. In mockery, the soldiers cast upon Him a scarlet mantle, the sign of kingship. For a scepter, He is given a reed. His crown not of gold but of woven, thorny bramble. His throne, a cross on which His naked body is nailed.

Thus was the investiture for the King of Kings. And this, too, was the will of His Father in heaven.

But His death on that accuse cross is not the end but the beginning, a beginning we celebrate on another holiday; Easter, and the glorious triumph of His resurrection.

Sincerely,

Bob Scroggins, New Milford, PA