What does it look like to celebrate Christmas in Herod’s palace? Well, we might see a taste of that answer next week at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Earlier this year, President Donald Trump controversially took over the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, claiming it had become too “woke” and supportive of LGBTQ performers. He purged the board and quickly installed a son, multiple business partners, and some of his political advisers. The new board fired the Center’s chairman (who was also the Center’s biggest donor ever), replaced the Center’s president with a Trumpian political strategist who pushed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and — most wildly of all — elected Trump as the new chairman. More recently, Trump made himself host of the Kennedy Center Honors that recognize musicians and film stars. During his remarks, he referred to it as “the Trump-Kennedy Center.”
Earlier this year, numerous artists announced they would cancel their upcoming events at the Center because of Trump’s takeover and the censoring of some viewpoints. And a Black Baptist church announced it would move its Christmas show, which it has long performed there.
“We will not take hard-earned Black money and invest it in any way, we will not sit under that authority of a president who is unemploying our own members,” Rev. Howard-John Wesley of Alfred Street Baptist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, told his members to much applause. “We will find another venue, we will find another stage, we will find another theater, and we will go in there and proclaim the love of Jesus Christ and how God died for all the world.”
Affiliated with both the National Baptist Convention USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention (two historically Black denominational bodies), the church traces its history to 1806 as enslaved Black Baptists worshiped under the eye of White Baptists until receiving independence in 1850. And the Christmas program of this 10,000-member congregation is a big deal. Last year’s celebration featured 100 singers in the choir, 60 instrumentalists in the orchestra and band, 30 actors and dancers, and special guest singer Yolanda Adams. This year, they held it in a music center in a Maryland suburb of D.C.
But the Kennedy Center will still feature a large Christmas show. Headlining the Dec. 17 program, which is sponsored by the Museum of the Bible, are Christian artists Charles Billingsley, Matthew West, and TaRanda Greene. While a historic Black Baptist modeled prophetic resistance, three contemporary Christian singers will instead use their songs and the Christmas story to worshipwash Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center and his silencing of Black and LGBTQ voices. All with the sponsorship of a controversial museum funded by Christian Nationalists.
The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. (Tony Quinn/Alamy)
After all of the changes at the Center this year, Billingsley said he was “thrilled” to perform “at the world-famous Kennedy Center.” The acclaimed singer-songwriter is also a teaching pastor at Thomas Road Baptist Church, the congregation founded by the late Jerry Falwell in Lynchburg, Virginia. Earlier this year, he performed at the White House and another Kennedy Center event to sing patriotic religious songs for the Fourth of July.
Ticket sales at the Center have plummeted this year, and now there are allegations of financial mismanagement by the new Trumpian leadership. Last week, it was the site of the fake “peace prize” given to Trump by FIFA, a highly corrupt organization. And that’s where three contemporary Christian artists will sing “peace, peace” when there is no peace.
It’s disappointing to see musicians using Christmas to worshipwash the Trump administration’s dismantling of the Kennedy Center and silencing of Black and LGBTQ artists. But it’s unfortunately not surprising. Even in the original Christmas story, we see religious leaders who prefer to hang out with the ruler.
A religious nationalist who feigned piety for political power, Herod seized control of the Temple to place its leadership under state control. He also had religious leaders ready to serve him in the palace. When the Magi came with news about a newborn king, Herod called in the chief priests and scribes to learn where. Herod then pretended he wanted to worship the baby, which shows that just because a leader claims to follow God doesn’t mean he means it. But the wild part is this: After the Magi announced that the Messiah had been born and headed off to find him, the chief priests and scribes stayed put. Rather than seeking the Messiah, they stayed with Herod.
So this Christmas, as some Christian music stars hang out in the halls of power, may we be wise like Rev. Howard-John Wesley and Alfred Street Baptist Church and go home by another way.
