{"id":1314,"date":"2008-12-21T18:47:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-21T18:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/angels-we-have-heard-on-high-really.html"},"modified":"2008-12-21T18:47:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-21T18:47:00","slug":"angels-we-have-heard-on-high-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/angels-we-have-heard-on-high-really.html","title":{"rendered":"Angels we have heard on high.  Really."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This morning, while getting ready for mass, I clicked on &#8220;Sunday Morning&#8221; and caught the tail end of a report they did on some of this season&#8217;s most ubiquitous figures: angels. <\/p>\n<p>It turns out, a sizable majority of Americans believe in them.  And they aren&#8217;t unique to Western culture. <\/p>\n<p>Take <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/stories\/2008\/12\/21\/sunday\/main4680299.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories\">a look<\/a>: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SU7W_gweYAI\/AAAAAAAADjY\/V9zNz78wnJQ\/s1600-h\/image4680301.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand;width: 175px;height: 244px\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SU7W_gweYAI\/AAAAAAAADjY\/V9zNz78wnJQ\/s320\/image4680301.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> There&#8217;s no denying we have a long history with these winged creatures &#8211; real or imagined.<\/p>\n<p>For Ines Powell at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan, angels exist in many cultures.<\/p>\n<p>She showed us one angel that came from a palace in what is now Iraq, built around 850 B.C.<\/p>\n<p>The very word &#8220;angel&#8221; comes from the Greek word for messenger.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Eros is also a little person who moves from heaven to earth, who kind of brings down to earth his mother&#8217;s wishes,&#8221; Powell said. &#8220;So this little figure is sometimes very good, brings love between people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There are angels in Judaism and Islam, and winged figures in Buddhism and Hinduism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The idea is that they are the messenger of the gods,&#8221; Powell said.<\/p>\n<p>In pop culture, angels tend to be the &#8220;guardian&#8221; variety. The most famous movie angel is probably Clarence from &#8220;It&#8217;s a Wonderful Life,&#8221; who earned his wings helping out George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart.<\/p>\n<p>On TV the hit show &#8220;Touched By an Angel&#8221; ran from 1994-2003. Martha Williamson was the executive producer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know what people like to hear about angels, because 24 million people watched &#8216;Touched By an Angel&#8217; for nine years,&#8221; she says. &#8220;And what they responded to was the fact that an angel was a messenger from God who brought healing, who brought encouragement, who who sometimes brought some correction. Always brought comfort and truth.&#8221; <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> There&#8217;s much more at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/stories\/2008\/12\/21\/sunday\/main4680299.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories\">CBS News link<\/a> &#8212; including some stories of angelic intervention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This morning, while getting ready for mass, I clicked on &#8220;Sunday Morning&#8221; and caught the tail end of a report they did on some of this season&#8217;s most ubiquitous figures: angels. It turns out, a sizable majority of Americans believe in them. And they aren&#8217;t unique to Western culture. Take a look: There&#8217;s no denying&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-r-us","category-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Angels we have heard on high. Really. - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/angels-we-have-heard-on-high-really.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Angels we have heard on high. Really. - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This morning, while getting ready for mass, I clicked on &#8220;Sunday Morning&#8221; and caught the tail end of a report they did on some of this season&#8217;s most ubiquitous figures: angels. It turns out, a sizable majority of Americans believe in them. And they aren&#8217;t unique to Western culture. Take a look: There&#8217;s no denying&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/angels-we-have-heard-on-high-really.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-21T18:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SU7W_gweYAI\/AAAAAAAADjY\/V9zNz78wnJQ\/s320\/image4680301.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Angels we have heard on high. Really. - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/12\/angels-we-have-heard-on-high-really.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Angels we have heard on high. Really. - The Deacon&#039;s Bench","og_description":"This morning, while getting ready for mass, I clicked on &#8220;Sunday Morning&#8221; and caught the tail end of a report they did on some of this season&#8217;s most ubiquitous figures: angels. It turns out, a sizable majority of Americans believe in them. And they aren&#8217;t unique to Western culture. 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