Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) posted a photo Tuesday night of her family (sans husband) posing with long guns in front of a Christmas tree. The photo, she said, was a show of support for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) amid criticism of the Christmas photo he posted of himself and his family posing with various flavors of military-style semiautomatic (or perhaps fully automatic) rifles.
Some of the negative reaction to Massie's photo was about timing, coming four days after a student with a gun murdered four people and wounded seven others in Michigan. Others accused Massie of sacrilege, noting that Jesus, whose birth is celebrated on Christmas, was not a fan of violence or weapons. (Some people tied the two criticism together.) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) veered toward the latter Wednesday, turning the GOP "war on Christmas" trope on its head.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
How could stock market slides affect you?Today's Big Question Pensions, prices and jobs at risk as Donald Trump's 'Liberation Day' measures take hold
-
What are AI hallucinations?The Explainer Artificial intelligence is known for making things up – and that can cause real damage
-
Marine Le Pen: will her conviction fuel the far-right?Talking Point With National Rally framing their ex-leader as a political martyr, is French court ruling an own goal for democracy?
-
Pope returns to Vatican after long hospital staySpeed Read Pope Francis entered the hospital on Feb. 14 and battled double pneumonia
-
Texas megachurch founder charged with sex crimesSpeed Read Robert Morris, former spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, is accused of sexually abusing a child
-
Pope Francis suffers setback with respiratory episodesSpeed Read The 88-year-old pope continues to battle pneumonia
-
US Christianity's long decline has halted, Pew findsSpeed Read 62% of Americans call themselves Christian, a population that has been 'relatively stable' for the past five years
-
Pope Francis hospitalized with 'complex' illnessSpeed Read The Vatican says their leader has a respiratory infection, raising new concerns about his health
-
The Aga Khan, billionaire spiritual leader, dies at 88Speed Read Prince Karim Al-Hussaini's philanthropy funded hospitals, housing and schools in some of the world's poorest places
-
Biden awards Pope Francis highest US civilian honorSpeed Read President Joe Biden awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction
-
Pope seeks inquiry on if Gaza assault is 'genocide'Speed Read In a book for the Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis considers whether Israel's war in Gaza meets the legal definition of 'genocide'
