The Christmas Holiday is upon us. It can be a time of joy and peace, but also a time of soul searching about the true meaning of Christmas. Last year, retail sales by the nation’s department stores tallied 28 billion dollars in December.

Then there are conservative Christians in the U.S. who’ve decided secularists and other religions want to take the religious character out of Christmas and make it a generic Holiday. They call it a “War on Christmas.”

We’ll spend the hour talking about Christmas with Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Retired Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America. He’s Abbott of the New-Ostrog Monastery in British Columbia and also serves as Civil Liaison for the Archdiocese of Canada. Archbishop Lazar is author of many books including The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Orthodox Christianity and Modern Physics published by Synaxis Press. Previously, Archbishop Lazar discussed with us the Eastern Orthodox understanding of the end times.

Aside from the obvious religious meaning, Christmas has become a large part of the ethos and mythology of western culture, as Archbishop Lazar explains…