{"id":536,"date":"2008-11-30T14:25:48","date_gmt":"2008-11-30T14:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html"},"modified":"2008-11-30T14:25:48","modified_gmt":"2008-11-30T14:25:48","slug":"there-are-much-worse-things-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello offer a new Christmas Carol, hailing &#8220;a redeemer, and a savior, an obese giving toys for good behavior&#8221; and arguing that there are &#8220;much worse things to believe in.&#8221;<em>&#8220;&#8230;Believe in the judgment, believe in jihad, believe in a thousand variations on a dark and spiteful God&#8230;&#8221; <\/em><\/p>\n<style type='text\/css'>.cc_box a:hover .cc_home{background:url('http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com\/comedycentral\/video\/assets\/syndicated-logo-over.png') !important;}.cc_links a{color:#b9b9b9;text-decoration:none;}.cc_show a{color:#707070;text-decoration:none;}.cc_title a{color:#868686;text-decoration:none;}.cc_links a:hover{color:#67bee2;text-decoration:underline;}<\/style>\n<div class='cc_box' style='position:relative'><a href='http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com' target='_blank' style='display:inline; float:left; width:60px; height:31px;'><\/p>\n<div class='cc_home' style='float:left; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 0px 0px 1px; width:60px; height:31px; background:url(\"http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com\/comedycentral\/video\/assets\/syndicated-logo-out.png\");'><\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<div style='font:bold 10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; float:left; width:299px; height:31px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-width:1px 1px 0px 0px; overflow:hidden; color:#707070;'>\n<div class='cc_show' style='position:relative; background-color:#e5e5e5;padding-left:3px; height:14px; padding-top:2px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/' target='_blank'>The Colbert Report<\/a><span style='position:absolute; top:2px; right:3px;'>Mon &#8211; Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/span><\/div>\n<div class='cc_title' style='font-size:11px; color:#868686; background-color:#f5f5f5; padding:3px; padding-top:1px; line-height:14px; height:21px; overflow:hidden;'><a href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/211037\/november-23-2008\/a-colbert-christmas--colbert-costello-duet' target='_blank'>A Colbert Christmas: Colbert\/Costello Duet<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><embed style='float:left; clear:left;' src='http:\/\/media.mtvnservices.com\/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:211037' width='360' height='301' type='application\/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'><\/embed><\/p>\n<div class='cc_links' style='float:left; clear:left; width:358px; border:solid 1px #cfcfcf; border-top:0px; font:10px Arial,Helvetica,Verdana,sans-serif; color:#b9b9b9; background-color:#f5f5f5;'>\n<div style='width:177px; float:left; padding-left:3px;'><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/video?keywords=ron+paul+interview'>Ron Paul Interview<\/a><br \/><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/video?keywords=bob+barr+interview'>Bob Barr Interview<\/a><\/div>\n<div style='width:177px; float:left;'><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/video?keywords=green+screen'>Green Screen<\/a><br \/><a target='_blank' href='http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/81003\/january-18-2007\/bill-o-reilly'>Bill O&#8217;Reilly Interview<\/a><\/div>\n<div style='clear:both'><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style='clear:both'><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello offer a new Christmas Carol, hailing &#8220;a redeemer, and a savior, an obese giving toys for good behavior&#8221; and arguing that there are &#8220;much worse things to believe in.&#8221;&#8220;&#8230;Believe in the judgment, believe in jihad, believe in a thousand variations on a dark and spiteful God&#8230;&#8221; The Colbert ReportMon &#8211;&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In&quot; - Steven Waldman<\/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\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In&quot; - Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello offer a new Christmas Carol, hailing &#8220;a redeemer, and a savior, an obese giving toys for good behavior&#8221; and arguing that there are &#8220;much worse things to believe in.&#8221;&#8220;&#8230;Believe in the judgment, believe in jihad, believe in a thousand variations on a dark and spiteful God&#8230;&#8221; The Colbert ReportMon &#8211;&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Steven Waldman\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-30T14:25:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"swaldman\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In\" - Steven Waldman","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\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In\" - Steven Waldman","og_description":"Stephen Colbert and Elvis Costello offer a new Christmas Carol, hailing &#8220;a redeemer, and a savior, an obese giving toys for good behavior&#8221; and arguing that there are &#8220;much worse things to believe in.&#8221;&#8220;&#8230;Believe in the judgment, believe in jihad, believe in a thousand variations on a dark and spiteful God&#8230;&#8221; The Colbert ReportMon &#8211;&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html","og_site_name":"Steven Waldman","article_published_time":"2008-11-30T14:25:48+00:00","author":"swaldman","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html","name":"\"There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In\" - Steven Waldman","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-11-30T14:25:48+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-30T14:25:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/2008\/11\/there-are-much-worse-things-to.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"&#8220;There Are Much Worse Things to Believe In&#8221;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/","name":"Steven Waldman","description":"Author of 'Founding Faith'","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/f14bd19925fcfcd0bd7c74a678fddded","name":"swaldman","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e7f\/e7f50c10d0832a00d2b7690a72d45b5ex96.jpg","caption":"swaldman"},"description":"Steven Waldman is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Beliefnet. He's also the author of the Founding Faith: Politics, Providence, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America, which has been published by Random House. Before co-founding Beliefnet in 1999, Waldman was a political journalist, serving as National Editor of U.S. News & World Report and National Correspondent for Newsweek. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Review, The Atlantic, Slate, and many others.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/author\/swaldman"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/stevenwaldman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}